A01 50 - Gift of life

The Lord loved us with a total love, without reserve, without conditions, up to the total gift of life: "No one has a greater love than this: to give life for one’s friends" (Jn 15:13).   The pelican that feeds its young with the blood that flows from its breast is the image of the fatherly love, of the self-denial with which children love each other. For this reason, Christian iconography has made it the allegory of the supreme sacrifice of Christ, ascended on the cross and pierced at the side from which blood and water gushed out, a source of life for men.