The pastoral letter for this year’s Lent issued by Archbishop Paul Cremona, Gozo Bishop Mario Grech and Bishop Charles J. Scicluna zooms in on the precise meaning of love.

As many might know, the term love is both seriously and cruelly used and abused of. The kind of love our bishops are talking of is unpopular although direly needed. Christian love is not a matter of sentiment. It goes beyond physical appearance and natural characteristics a person may have. It embraces all sorts of skin colour, religion, race and gender.

In this matter it is catholic because it is universal. Its inherent nature essentially points to its perfect source: God. Twice in his letter the Apostle John affirms that “God is love” (1 John 4:8. 16). The bishops propose a precise understanding of the practical ramifications following such a bold statement made by the mystic John. Thus, for the Christian, “it does not matter who he or she is, because every person carries the image of God and we love God through the other person, without excluding anyone”.

Genuine Christian love calls us to be forgiving and generous in our love for others. As the bishops emphasise, “whatever happens, one must continue to love”. It is clear then that love is an altruistic decision and action for God to love Him in others. It is self-giving not erotic. It seeks the good of the other for him/herself not for the comfort of one’s own. It accentuates the objective and never the subjective if not in its final self-actualisation with the objective realm. It is fundamentally marked and ordered to service and never to self-gratification!

This type of love earns us the passport for eternal life. Am I going to embark on it? Do I want to simply exist or live in abundance?