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eros is part of God's very Heart: the Almighty awaits the "yes" of his creatures as a young
bridegroom that of his bride. Unfortunately, from its very origins, mankind, seduced by the lies of
the Evil One, rejected God's love in the illusion of a self-sufficiency that is impossible (cf. Gn 3: 1-
7). Turning in on himself, Adam withdrew from that source of life who is God himself, and became
the first of "those who through fear of death were subject to lifelong bondage" (Heb 2: 15). God,
however, did not give up. On the contrary, man's "no" was the decisive impulse that moved him to
manifest his love in all of its redeeming strength.
The Cross reveals the fullness of God's love
It is in the mystery of the Cross that the overwhelming power of the Heavenly Father's mercy is
revealed in all of its fullness. In order to win back the love of his creature, he accepted to pay a
very high price: the Blood of his Only Begotten Son. Death, which for the first Adam was an
extreme sign of loneliness and powerlessness, was thus transformed in the supreme act of love
and freedom of the new Adam. One could very well assert, therefore, together with St Maximus
the Confessor, that Christ "died, if one could say so, divinely, because he died freely" (Ambigua,
91, 1056). On the Cross, God's eros for us is made manifest. Eros is indeed, as Pseudo-Dionysius
expresses it, that force which "does not allow the lover to remain in himself but moves him to
become one with the beloved" (De Divinis Nominibus, IV, 13: PG 3, 712). Is there more "mad
eros" (N. Cabasilas, Vita in Cristo, 648) than that which led the Son of God to make himself one
with us even to the point of suffering as his own the consequences of our offences?
"Him whom they have pierced"
Dear brothers and sisters, let us look at Christ pierced on the Cross! He is the unsurpassing
revelation of God's love, a love in which eros and agape, far from being opposed, enlighten each
other. On the Cross, it is God himself who begs the love of his creature: He is thirsty for the love of
every one of us. The Apostle Thomas recognized Jesus as "Lord and God" when he put his hand
into the wound of his side. Not surprisingly, many of the saints found in the Heart of Jesus the
deepest expression of this mystery of love. One could rightly say that the revelation of God's eros
toward man is, in reality, the supreme expression of his agape. In all truth, only the love that unites
the free gift of oneself with the impassioned desire for reciprocity instils a joy which eases the
heaviest of burdens. Jesus said: "When I am lifted up from the earth, I will draw all men to myself"
(Jn 12: 32). The response the Lord ardently desires of us is above all that we welcome his love
and allow ourselves to be drawn to him. Accepting his love, however, is not enough. We need to
respond to such love and devote ourselves to communicating it to others. Christ "draws me to
himself" in order to unite himself to me, so that I learn to love the brothers with his own love.
Blood and water
"They shall look on him whom they have pierced". Let us look with trust at the pierced side of
