67 The one and only desire of God is that man would believe in His love, accept it and live it. The one who loved us fi rst, expects only our love. This central message of the Scripture was decoded by our Fr. Founder who, fascinated with God’s love, made it a foundation of the spiritual and apostolic life, both for himself and for his newly created religious community to whom he entrusted after Saint Paul: “Do everything with love” (1 Cor 16:14). Love means giving which is a sign of communion, because to love someone is not so much to give him something as to be with him in love. Love lies at the source of the apostolic work of Fr. Stanislaus. He loved people. Having experienced God’s love, he wanted to be for them in love. Each apostolic work has a Christian meaning when it springs from love, when it is a sign of the God who loves, when it reveals His loving and merciful face. But there is also a path of false love. One may serve others, but only to manifest love for oneself, to draw satisfaction and a feeling of superiority. Breaking from the source of God’s love, it is easy to lose one’s selfl essness in meeting people and in serving them. Thus, it is vital to nurture a close relationship with God, to care for the beauty of one’s heart, for spiritual transparency. Beauty and love seem to condition each other. True love may be only beautiful while beauty which enchants may only come from love. The Immaculate Conception constantly reminds us of this. A Marian of the Immaculate Conception is a man who believes in God’s love and who tries to live it in his everyday life, keeping in mind the words of Saint John the Evangelist: “We have to know and to believe in the love God has for us. God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God” (1 Jn 4:16). The example of Father Founder is clear and convinces us that to “abide in love” means to serve others, caring for their salvation, to be anchored in love which endures the drama of death. Only the man fascinated with God’s love may successfully resist the evil of the world, persevere in overcoming the obstacles of life and zealously help the needy. The mystery of the Immaculate Conception serves as an inspiration to care for one’s Christian identity, the essence of which is the love received from God and offered to people. This makes me capable of admitting: I love, therefore I am, which aptly explains the words of St. Gregory of Nyssa: “Our Creator gave us love as the essence of our human face.” It is impossible—the Immaculate Conception tells us—to accept the gift of life without attempting to live with love, since “each one is like his love” (St. Augustine). The path of the spiritual life traced out by the truth of the Immaculate Conception involves just such a fascination with God’s love which helps me to understand myself, my place in the world and which allows me to meet others in such a way that it will be the germ of heaven, being in love.
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