God’s love is like a mother’s, says Pope Francis

He cannot forget us because He cannot be unfaithful to Himself

God loves us like a mother, unable to forget us, and unable to be unfaithful to himself.

Pope Francis said this today during Morning Mass at the Casa Santa Marta.

Drawing from the First Reading from the Book of Genesis, he recalled God’s promise to maintain his covenant with Abraham.

God’s “visceral love,” Francis said, is such that He will never forget. He recalled the blue and purple “forget-me-not” flowers that are offered in Argentina for Mothers’ Day.

God’s love is like the love of a mother. He never forgets us. Never. He is faithful to his covenant. This gives us security.

God’s faithfulness, Pope Francis continued, leads us to joy. Like Abraham our joy stems from being able to rejoice in hope because each of us knows that even if we are not faithful, God is, as illustrated in the episode of the Good Thief:

God cannot disown himself, he cannot disown us, he cannot disown his love, and he cannot disown his people. Because He loves us and this is the faithfulness of God

Francis then reflected on the fact that when we seek the Sacrament of Penance we must not do so as if we were going to the Laundromat to wash away the dirt: “No. We go to Confession to receive the love of this faithful God who always awaits us. Always.”