Whoever Loves God must also Love His Brother/Sister

Today's Mass Readings

As we continue to celebrate God made visible in this season of Christmas and Epiphany, today’s readings present us again with the theme of love. The first letter from John is an exemplar of this. Jesus is God’s perfect gift of love to the world, and this has implications for all who would call themselves follower of Jesus. John notes, “we love God because he first loved us,” and, indeed, the whole of the Old and New Testament is in some way or another an account of God’s love affair with his people. Meanwhile, in the Gospel we hear the story of Jesus in Galilee announcing that the prophet Isaiah is fulfilled in him. This also has to do with love made visible: God with us has come to bring glad tidings to the poor, set captives free, help the blind see, and proclaim a year acceptable to the Lord. Truly this is God among us, God made visible to us. In his ministry Jesus constantly witnessed to love, even to the point of death on a cross.

As is evident, the love of Jesus is much more profound than what our culture identifies as “love.” It goes beyond mushy feelings of attachment to dedicated sacrifice, willingness to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. It is precisely this love to which John exhorts all Christians, and, in living this life of love, the commandments do not seem to be burdensome but in some sense we could say they come naturally. The actions of love to others flow from a life lived in the love of Jesus. In this time of reflecting on God’s love made visible, let us pray that our own lives also make God’s love visible to others. Jesus is God’s perfect gift of love to us.

Let us love God and each other; this is the best gift we can give in return!