There are those who even come to doubt that love is possible. But if emotional delusions or lack of affection can cause us to think that love is an impossible dream, should we then become resigned? No!

Love is possible… love that is true, faithful, and strong; a love that generates peace and joy, a love that binds people together and allows them to feel free in respect for one another….

There is only one source of love, and that is God. St. John makes this clear when he declares that God is love (1 Jn 4:8, 16). He was not simply saying that God loves us, but that the very being of God is love.

Here we find ourselves before the most dazzling revelation of the source of love, the mystery of the Trinity: in God, one and triune, there is an everlasting exchange of love between the persons of the Father and the Son, and this love is not an energy or a sentiment. It is a person—the Holy Spirit.

How is the God-Love revealed to us? Even though the signs of divine love are already clearly present in creation, the full revelation of the intimate mystery of God came to us through the Incarnation when God himself became man….

And the manifestation of divine love is total and perfect in the Cross where, we are told by St. Paul, God proves his love for us in that while we were still sinners Christ died for us (Rom 5:80).

Therefore, each on of us can truly say: Christ loved me and gave himself up for me (cf. Eph 5:2).

Redeemed by his Blood, no human life is useless or of little value, because each of us is loved personally by him with a passionate and faithful love, a love without limits….

Christ is the Lamb of God who takes upon himself the sins of the world and eradicates hatred from the heart of humankind. This is the true revolution that he brings about: love….

Christ cried out from the Cross: I am thirsty (Jn 18:28). This shows us his burning thirst to love and to be loved by each one of us. It is only by coming to perceive the depth and intensity of such a mystery that we can realize the need and urgency to love him as he has loved us.

This also entails the commitment to even give our lives, if necessary, for our brothers and sisters. God had already said in the old Testament: You shall love your neighbor as yourself (Lev 19:18), but the innovation introduced by Christ is the fact that to love as he loves us means loving everyone without distinction, even our enemies to the end (cf. Jn 13:1)….

Each of us, my dear friends, has been given the possibility of reaching this level of love, but only by having recourse to the indispensable support of divine grace.

Only the Lord’s help will allow us to keep away from resignation when faced with the enormity of the task to be undertaken. It instills in us the courage to accomplish that which is humanly inconceivable.

Above all, the Eucharist is the great school of love. When we participate regularly and with devotion in holy Mass, when we spend a sustained time of adoration in the presence of Jesus in the Eucharist, it is easier to understand the length, breadth, height, and depth of his love that goes beyond all knowledge (cf. Eph. 3:17-18).

By sharing the Eucharistic Bread with our brothers and sisters of the Church community, we feel compelled to render the love of Christ into generous service towards our brothers and sisters….

— Excerpted from the Message for the 22nd World Youth Day: Palm Sunday, April 1, 2007.