God sent his beloved son to save us.

God sent his beloved son to save us.
What does Jesus tell us?
"This is my commandment: love one another, just as I have loved you." Today, the notion of love becomes very common. Many, even, understand everything by pleasure, by affection, by affection. It is true that all of this can be found in those who truly love, but love is not that. Love is not a feeling, it is not the same as passion, it does not mean interest in the other person. This way of being creates serious dependencies, in addition to fostering illusions, fantasies, meaningless dreams. In this way of understanding love there are many without a horizon, without meaning. Loving like Jesus requires much more than that.
2. Being God, the Word became flesh. The incarnation is already a profound lesson in love, because it is about emptying the Self, to assume our limited condition, therefore imperfect. Certainly, minus sin, but in everything he became like us, 100% man. He came to meet us, to speak to us as an equal, as one of us, starting from ourselves. It entered our history, to dialogue with us within ourselves, to teach us from our own language. Furthermore, he took on our sins, our sufferings, our pains, he felt the pain of separation with us. He went further, out of love, he gave himself up for all who wanted his destruction, for all who hurt Him with our sins. While being surrendered by religious betrayal (Sanhedrin), betrayal in love (Judas Iscariot) and political betrayal (Pilate), Jesus gave himself exclusively for the salvation of all, loving them to the end. Forgive everyone and give His life for everyone. After being resurrected, he became food for all who became His true disciples, his friends, servants for the salvation of the world.
3. To love is not to have passion, to simply feel something for someone or something. To love is to be able to make yourself a gift for the salvation of another, even if he is shamelessly an enemy. He who loves like Jesus is no one's enemy, does not set himself up against anyone, even if he has open enemies, people who think only of themselves and "love" by instinct. The one and the one who really want to live as true disciples of Christ aim to not seek the love of the other for themselves, even if it is of immeasurable importance for their existence, but to be love for them, even if they have to go through the pain. The disciple is left with the pain, to offer only love. Thus, the disciple becomes a friend of Jesus. In this way, too, it bears the fruits expected by the Lord. And yet, you will achieve everything you ask the Father in the name of Jesus Christ.
4. "It was not you who chose me, but it was I who chose you and appointed you to go and to bear fruit and your fruit to remain." The initiative of choice is divine. We are all called, but chosen only those and those who responded to God with total adherence. God wants us for Him and, because of Him, for the saving mission. The fruits come from the action of divine grace in the lives of those who have been called and chosen by the Lord Himself. No one can self-attribute a divine mission, as it indicates, at the very least, a counterfeiter, a deceiver, a false prophet. God's call goes through the confirmation of His Church in history. The Church, on the rock, is the safe place to walk with firm steps towards God and in the fulfillment of His will, through the experience of love. Only by loving one another as Jesus loved us, will we build a world where the human being can truly be the image and likeness of God, the son of God and truly human.
A strong and loving hug.
Father José Erinaldo