“Real love is about loving and letting yourself be loved. It’s harder to let yourself be loved than to love. That is why it is so difficult to come to the perfect love of God. We can love Him but we must let ourselves be loved by Him. Real love is being open to the love that comes to you. The love that surprises us. If you only have information you are not surprised.” Pope Francis
"It is harder to let yourself be loved than to love". These were words spoken by Pope Francis recently, on his trip to the Phillipines. I immediately thought of so many women and men I have met in post abortion ministry who struggle with this. Many of us have.
If we allow God to love us, really love us, then we are called out of ourselves. We are called to love ourselves.Who are we not to if God loves us? And yet loving ourselves means forgiving ourselves and opening ourselves to His love means we need to change. We ar e no longer allowed to stay in what we perceive as a comfortable place even if it a place of suffering. Even more importantly,through accepting this love we are called to give our hearts to others! A scary prospect for many who have suffered abortion.
Sadly, many chose to stay stagnant because of this fear. What they may have thought was love led to abortion, or they even believe that by allowing themselves to be loved and loving themselves somehow they are going to forget their children. Happiness and love are not allowed. But that is not God's way.
"Real love is being open to the love that comes to you. The love that surprises us." This love calls us out of ourselves to partake of the bigger picture.
I can clearly remember in my healing it was so hard to allow anyone to do anything for me. I had been abandoned by those I thought loved me, I did not want to need anyone. Somehow I thought this woul d keep me safe. It was terrifying and very difficult for me to allow anyone to help me in any way. As I grew in my healing and my love of God I began to recognize it was as important, even more important for me to learn how to allo w others to help me. To allow them th e opportunity to grow in love by helping me. This in turn humbled me and allowed me to want to help other more and in turn grow in love of others and myself. The selfless love of God not the self centered "love" of abortion.
Holding on to self hate, refusing love because you do not feel worthy are not signs of humility. In fact, it is just the opposite. Humility calls us to see ourselves in truth. Are we sinners? Yes. Do we deserve God's help and mercy? NO. Which make it all the more beautiful and urgse us on to show others this same love and mercy to others
Yes, “Real love is about loving and letting yourself be loved". It is about accepting the forgiveness and mercy of Jesus Christ, not because we deserve it but because we don't!
That is the amazing thing about real love.
