Empty handed in front of God to be ready to receive His goodness

We might think that Jesus’ words are thoroughly unreasonable. But after looking at the history of the Church, and even human history in general, pope Benedict was convinced that the Sermon on the Mount “is the real high road of life; it is only on the way of love, whose paths are described in the Sermon on the Mount, that the richness of life and the greatness of man’s calling are opened up.”

“Doctor of Divine Love”

The 20-year-old Francis found peace in the radical and liberating love of God: “‘loving him without asking anything in return and trusting in divine love; no longer asking what will God do with me: I simply love him, independently of all that he gives me or does not give me. Thus, I find peace’ and the question of predestination – which was being discussed at that time – was resolved, because he no longer sought what he might receive from God; he simply loved God and abandoned himself to his goodness. And this was to be the secret of his life which would shine out in his main work: the The Treatise on the Love of God.”