“The compassion of man is for his neighbor, but the compassion of the Lord is for all living beings” (Sir 18:13).
The bountiful heart of our Father has in mind all people of all times. He excludes no one from His love; only man himself can reject it and turn away from it. Our human love, on the other hand, is limited and often directed only to our neighbor.
But how can we enlarge our hearts and learn to love like our Father, since Jesus exhorted us to be perfect like our Father in heaven (cf. Mt 6:48)?
Do we really want to love as God loves?
To do so, we must cultivate an intimate relationship with the Holy Spirit, so that the shadows in our lives are dispelled and He finds fewer and fewer obstacles to work in us. Then His love will melt the hardness of our hearts, as we implore Him in the Pentecost Sequence: “Make flexible that which is rigid, warm that which is cold”.
In this way we awaken more and more to love and it begins to flood our heart. Then the heart inflamed with love will go out with our Heavenly Father in search of the lost sheep. It will be able to speak passionately of God’s compassionate love, desiring that all people experience the Father’s mercy.
But it will not stop at speaking of mercy, rather this mercy, which embraces all people, will enter into this heart, for He who is the love between the Father and the Son will have conformed our hearts to the Heart of God.
The Father’s Heart now beats in us and has set our hearts on fire with His love, and now our love can also embrace all human beings!