Devotional: It is not power, but love that redeems us!

The human race-everyone of us-is the sheep lost in the desert which no longer knows the way. The Son of God will not let this happen; he cannot abandon humanity in so wretched a condition. He leaps to his feet and abandons the glory of heaven, in order to go in search of the sheep and pursue it, all the way to the cross. He takes it upon his shoulders and carries our humanity; he carries us all-he is the good shepherd who lays down his life for the sheep...When the shepherd of all humanity, the living God, himself became a lamb, he stood on the side of the lambs, with those who are downtrodden and killed... It is not power, but love that redeems us! This is God's sign: he himself is love... God, who became a lamb, tells us that the world is saved by the Crucified One, not by those who crucified him. ...Benedict XVI image