LOVING THE DEAD INTO LIFE
“Beloved, let us love one another because love is of God.” –1 John 4:7
Jesus loves us as God the Father loves Him (Jn 15:9). Jesus reveals the Father’s love so that we will accept that love and make love the very atmosphere in which we live (Jn 15:10). Then, after first being loved (1 Jn 4:19), we can love one another (Jn 15:17) even as Christ has loved us (Jn 15:12) and lay down our lives in love even for our enemies (Rm 5:8; 1 Jn 3:16).
“Love, then, consists in this: not that we have loved God but that He has loved us and has sent His Son as an Offering for our sins” (1 Jn 4:10). We can live the miracle of crucified, unconditional love because we have received love, given by the Father, revealed by Jesus, and poured out in our hearts through the Holy Spirit (Rm 5:5). Many people are love-bankrupt. They are trying to give what they don’t have. We don’t need more love from God. His love is perfect and infinite. What we need is a greater awareness of being loved by our Father. Then we will have love enough to love even a whole culture of death and thereby transform it into a civilization of love and life.
PRAYER: Father God, Who is Love, give me the grace to accept Your love which never fails (1 Cor 13:8).
PROMISE: “The Holy Spirit descended upon all who were listening to Peter’s message.” –Acts 10:44
PRAISE: Praise the risen Jesus, Who baptizes us in the Holy Spirit! (Mk 1:8)
Grant, almighty God, that we may celebrate with heartfelt devotion these days of joy, which we keep in honor of the risen Lord, and that what we relieve in remembrance we may always hold to in what we do. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.
