Commentary for today

The theological key to love

Dear friends,

Can psychology explain what love really is? Psychology, anthropology, and social sciences can certainly help us understand the conditions and the good effects of love. But none of these sciences can fully explain what love is at its core—because love is a mystery.

To truly understand love, we need to look at it through the lens of theology. Only by looking at God can we begin to see the truth of this mystery, which gives meaning to our lives and is the key to our salvation. Love is something absolute—it goes beyond time and space, beyond all limitations and boundaries.

Today, Jesus gives us a full teaching on love in just a few words. Love is the relationship between God the Father and God the Son—a total self-giving from the Father that makes the Son who He is. The relationship within the Trinity is perfect unity and harmony, and yet it doesn’t erase the difference between the divine persons. Instead, it affirms each person as unique. That’s what love truly is: unity that respects and values differences.

And this love, which is God’s very being, doesn’t stay hidden. God wants to share it, and does so by creating and saving. Creation is an act of love, and salvation in Christ is love multiplied—love that not only creates, but restores and heals what was lost through sin.

To welcome Christ is to welcome God’s love, and to pass it on—by loving others. The command to love is also a mission: to become messengers of this love that we have experienced in Jesus.

If God had to “work hard,” in human terms, to give us His love—as we see on the Cross—then we, too, cannot treat love as just a romantic feeling or easy emotion. We are called to give ourselves generously, even when it’s hard.

Love must especially show itself in moments of conflict, when we are most tempted to act out in anger or division. That’s where love is needed the most.

We see the power of this love in the Council of Jerusalem, where people with different views worked together to preserve unity, without erasing legitimate differences. Their goal was to make sure that the salvation Christ offers—the revelation of God’s love—would reach everyone, without borders or exclusions.

Warm regards,