Pope preaches about God's power and His love

Pope's Morning Homily: God Is All-Powerful But He Can't Sever Himself From Us

At Casa Santa Marta, Francis Reflects on Jesus Weeping Because of His Unfailing Love

    

Rome, October 29, 2015 (ZENIT.org) Staff Reporter              

 

Though God is all-powerful, there is something he can't do and that is to sever himself from us, says Pope Francis.
The Pope made this reflection today during morning Mass at the Casa Santa Marta, reported Vatican Radio.
Drawing from the reading from St. Paul, the Holy Father explained Christian victory, since “if God is for us, who can be against us.”
This gift from God, he continued, is being held by Christians in their own hands and it’s almost as if they could say in a triumphalistic manner, “now we are the champions!”  But the meaning is another: we are the victors not because we are holding this gift in our hands but for another reason.  And that is because “nothing can ever separate us from God’s love which is in Jesus Christ our Lord.”
“It’s not because we are the victors over our enemies, over sin. No! We are so closely bound to God’s love that no person, no power, nothing can ever separate us from this love. Paul saw beyond the gift, he saw more, [he saw] who is giving that gift: it is a gift of re-creation, it’s a gift of regeneration in Jesus Christ. He saw God’s love. A love that cannot be explained.”
Pope Francis noted that we can refuse this gift by preferring our own sin, but that even still, God’s gift is always there for us.
“The gift is God’s love, a God who can’t sever himself from us. That is the impotence of God.  We say: ‘God is all powerful, He can do everything!” Except for one thing: Sever Himself from us!"
Pope Francis took up the Gospel image of Jesus weeping over Jerusalem to further emphasize his point.
"Jesus wept! He wept over Jerusalem and that weeping is all about God’s impotence: his inability to not love (us) and not sever himself from us.”
“It’s impossible for God to not love us!  And this is our safeguard. I can refuse that love, I can refuse just like the Good Thief did, until the end of his life.  But that love was waiting for him there. The most wicked and the most blasphemous person is loved by God with the tenderness of a father.  And just as Paul said, as the Gospel said, as Jesus said: ‘Like a hen with her brood.’  And God the all-powerful, the Creator can do everything: God weeps!  All of God’s love is contained in this weeping by Jesus over Jerusalem and in those tears.  God weeps for me when I move away from him: God weeps for each one of us: God weeps for the evil people who do so many bad things, cause so much harm to mankind… He is waiting, he is not condemning (us) and he is weeping.  Why?  Because he loves (us)!”