With human love people as a rule love because they are loved. That kind of love may be beautiful, but one is loving something of oneself in the other person. There is always something egoistic about human love. We love when self-interest motivates us to love.
Divine love, instead, is gratuitous. It loves first.[…]

(Source: Cercando le cose di lassù, Roma, 1992, p. 53 – Ed Città Nuova)