The power of tenderness
Monday, October 20, 2025
*Noris Capin
If any feeling brings beauty and meaning to human existence, it is undoubtedly love. Tenderness is the most peaceful, complete and unbreakable expression of love. That emotion—born from the depths of our being, that thrill that stirs the heartstrings—is the bond that unites human beings. Respect, recognition and affection—expressed in a hug, a subtle gesture or a knowing glance—are the keys to experiencing the divine fragrance of love.
Thanks to tenderness, emotional relationships develop roots of connection, rapport and consideration between two people. Without tenderness, it is very difficult for a relationship to flourish and reach sublimity, enveloped in sacrifice and self-denial.
However, tenderness is the secret that allows every person to aspire to feel the delicacy of their devotion. We observe this in our children, who live and feel our tenderness from the cradle, through the very quality that enriches and allows human beings to flourish in their full essence.
Tenderness is not a docile feeling, but rather an energetic, dynamic and courageous one. Why do I say this? Is it not part of the feeling that ennobles and dignifies a person from dawn to dusk, without omitting the pains that weigh upon their unique essence? When I speak of tenderness, am I lost in puritanism, believing it to be the gentle cadence that moves mountains and separates people from the absence of affection? And it is, indeed. Tenderness goes deeper and rises higher because of its virtue of being unconditional in the presence of God.
Those who do not feel love for other human beings or for the simple things in life are dead. Its uplifting power raises the downcast, lifts them from the foundations of their being, and fills them with an unfathomable song that takes root in the heart and guards it.
People reject despotic behavior, so when they enter a relationship of a tyrannical or offensive nature, tenderness quietly slips away and is lost—just as love is lost—until, in the end, it is destroyed.
I want to insist on the complete opposition between tenderness and brutality. I invite you to reflect on the meaning of these two behaviors, which do not walk side by side, but separately—distant from one another, removed from the purest affection and the clear will of the human heart.
Abuse goes hand in hand neither with tenderness nor with injustice, nor with one person attacking another. It does not allow for a physical or emotional relationship; rather, it rejects them, demolishes them and lynches them on the highest stake of life. The offense of abuse cannot be defined as faithful to God's teachings, but rather as a transgression against human beings, created in the image of God.
Tenderness unravels and perishes in a deep hollow from which it is difficult to escape, but not impossible to emerge, within a relationship devoid of meaning. Abuse is an unforgivable act.
But tenderness, alas, expands is lived and is perfected when we learn that only love is just, honorable and perfect when it is true. By abiding in tenderness, everything is amplified and nothing is small, but rather colossal and astonishingly wonderful. Tenderness is the vault where the light of life dwells, through love, forever and ever.
