Vatican Radio

Joined with the faithful in St. Peter’s Square, in Rome, on Sunday, Pope  Benedict XVI prayed the Angelus. On the occasion, the Holy Father explained the Gospel passage of Mark 12:28-34 proposing to us in a new way a reflection on the teaching of Jesus: The Love of God and Neighbor, Loves that are Inseperable.
“Love for God and love for neighbor are inseperable and are in reciprocal relationships. Jesus did not invent one or the other, but revealed that they are founded in the one commandment and are done not only with word, but overall with testimony: The Person of Jesus Himself and all his mystery are incarnated to unity of love for God and neighbor, as the two parts of the Cross, vertical and horizontal.”

But before being a commandment, Benedict XVI recalled that love is a gift, a reality that God makes us know and experience. This in order that the love can germinate inside of us like a seed and develop in our life.

The Pope stressed also that if the love of God creates profound rooted in a person, then his is capable of loving also the one that does not merit it, as is the love of God for us. He takes the example of father and mother that always love their children and not only when they merit it.

The other aspect stressed by the Pope was the fact that with God one learns to always want the good and never the bad. One learns also to look at another not only with the eyes of a human person but also with the eyes of God.

“The look that comes from the heart and not from the superficiality, goes beyond appearances and captures the deepest elements of the other, of being hears and a free attention in a word: of love.”

Finally, through the intercession of the Virgin Mary, Benedict XVI prayed, “In order that each Christian may know to show his faith in the one and true God with a clear testimony of love for the neighbor.”

translated from Portuguese