“But there is a greater love, which comes from God and is directed to God, which pushes us to love God, to become his friends, and pushes us to love our neighbor as God loves him, with the desire to share the friendship with God. This love, for the sake of Christ, takes us where humanly we would not go: it is love for the poor, for what is not kind, for those who do not love us and are not grateful,” he specified.
In this sense, the Pontiff explained that it is a love “for which no one would love; even by the enemy. This is ‘theological’, that is, it comes from God, it is the work of the Holy Spirit in us.”
Pope Francis urged us to remember that Jesus asks us to love our enemies and assured that, although our human nature makes us spontaneously love what is good and beautiful, “God’s love goes beyond these criteria.”