7. Jesus Loves
Sin is the force that breaks down relationships, but love is the power that bonds persons together. For this reason, God is identified as love because God is a trinity of persons bound together in an eternal community of love. As God’s son, Jesus’ human love is the incarnation of his divine love for the Father and the Holy Spirit. God desires that we imitate God’s way of loving by being persons who fulfill Jesus’ guidelines for life in God’s kingdom community bound together by acts of self-giving and self-sacrificing love.
Jesus not only invites us into the community of love, but also offers us the clearest example of what self-giving love requires. The bond of love exists when persons commit themselves to one another and to the community that their bond of relationship creates. Jesus’ commitments to God, to others and to his mission never falter even in the face of opposition, outright hostility and threats of death. Jesus’ way of loving reminds us most clearly that God’s love excludes no one and God’s kingdom is open for all to enter.
For more on Jesus’ love, see CCC, #478, 604–609, 1822–29.
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