Pope Leo XIV concluded his General Audience of December 31, 2025 “by remembering the words with which Saint Paul VI, at the end of the Jubilee of 1975, described its fundamental message”:

It is contained, he said, in one word: “love”. And he added, “God is Love! This is the ineffable revelation with which the Jubilee, through its teaching, its indulgence, its forgiveness and finally its peace, full of tears and joy, has sought to fill our spirit today and our lives tomorrow: God is Love! God loves me! God awaited me, and I have found him! God is mercy! God is forgiveness! God is salvation! God, yes, God is life!” (General Audience, 17 December 1975). May these thoughts accompany us in the passage from the old to the new year, and then always, in our lives.

I put the title of this post in the original Italian because it is too easy for native English speakers to ignore the profound propositional truth and Truth in the statement “God is Love,” especially when punctuated with an exclamation mark. It is an unfortunate reality, but a reality nonetheless, that “God is Love!” is more likely to come across as a vacuous exhortation or indifferent platitude evacuated of substantive content than “the ineffable revelation with whcih the Jubilee, through its teaching, its indulgence, its forgiveness an finally its peace, full of tears and joy has sought to fill our spirit today and our lives tomorrow.” For all that, is it true! And the splendor of truth shines forth in this Christmas season. Che Dio, Che è Amore, sia con voi nel prossimo anno solare.