Thursday after Epiphany
Reflecting on today’s readings, I found myself especially focused on the passage from today’s first reading found in 1 John 4: 19-5:4, “…for whoever does not love a brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen.” And I ask myself, why does it seem to be more difficult to love our “brothers and sisters,” other people with whom we share our planet, than it is to love God? I think the answer, at least in part, is that we imagine God as we prefer, rather than as God truly is. Don’t we sometimes deceive ourselves and believe that God is what we want God to be; whereas we can’t as easily change our perception of someone we encounter face to face and are uncomfortable with or disagree with or are afraid of?
Even when Jesus was walking on the earth, many found it difficult to accept and love him as the Son of God. I think it’s easy to believe that if I lived at the time of Jesus I would most certainly have been one of his followers. But, I wonder, is that true? There were many who believed they were in right relationship with God and followed their religious guidelines and missed that Jesus was the Messiah. Was it because he did not look or act the way they expected the Son of God to look and act? Or expect him to come from Nazareth? So, I ask myself, what is my image of God that may be causing me to miss seeing, hearing, knowing God in the here and now?
In today’s gospel reading from Luke (4: 14-22), we hear of how Jesus returned to his hometown of Nazareth where, in the synagogue, he read the passage from the prophet Isaiah, saying that the passage was fulfilled in their hearing it. This referred to Jesus’ ministry of liberating the poor and oppressed as written in Isaiah. Initially, those who heard Jesus speak were amazed by him and had only good things to say, but we know that quickly changed. And very few followed him all the way to the cross.
Today’s first reading also tells us that if we say “I love God,” but hate our brother (or sister), we are a liar! For “Whoever loves God must also love his brother.” The writer tells us that this is the commandment we have from God! But the passage also says that God’s commandments are “not burdensome.” So, how is it that we can love one another, even those who we don’t like, disagree with, are angry at, or are afraid of? I believe it is through Jesus Christ. We can overcome our limitations and love one another because God first loved us.
The challenge, I think, is to stay close to Jesus, to be grounded in God’s truth through prayer, regular Scripture reading, receiving the sacraments, and being part of a community of believers, so that we do not so easily deceive ourselves and create God in our own preferred image, one that we find less challenging than our brother, sister, spouse, co-worker or neighbor.
I know I need to be reminded that it is in loving those we would rather not love (even if just for the moment), that we are loving Jesus, himself, who came to liberate the poor and oppressed by humbling himself and being born as a poor infant in a stable. When we see those in greatest need, we see Jesus. When we love our brothers and sisters, especially those we are tempted to hate or ignore, we love God.
- Eileen Miller