Those Who Love Know God
January 8, 2013
Tuesday After Epiphany
By Beth
DeCristofaro
Beloved, let us love one another, because
love is of God; everyone who loves is begotten by God and knows God. Whoever is without love does not know God,
for God is love. …In
this is love: not that we have loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son
as expiation for our sins. (1 John
4:7, 10)
When Jesus saw the vast crowd, his
heart was moved with pity for them, for they were like sheep without a
shepherd; and he began to teach them many things. (Matthew 6:34)
Piety
O my God, I love you
above all things, with my whole heart and soul, because you are all-good and
worthy of all love. I love my neighbor as myself for the love of you. I forgive
all who have injured me, and I ask pardon of all whom I have injured.
Study
Jesus was moved with pity and acted with love
for the crowds following him. He didn’t
ask if they had paid their temple tax, ritually cleaned themselves, honored
their father, or even if they had thought ahead and brought a lunch for
themselves and their families. Jesus
just plain loved them. Jesus taught them what their souls needed in
order to come to know the Father. Jesus
fed them what their bodies needed in order to be healthy. Old, young, female, male, sinners all He
loved them. Really seems pretty simple
doesn’t it? Love each other.
Oh, wait a minute there is a big problem. Love everyone? What about thugs, right wingers, radical
leftists, drug lords, rapists, pedophiles and the like? We have the recent story of Nancy Lanza,
murdered mother of a murderer. In many
memorial services and vigils, Nancy was not remembered. 26 victims of Adam’s rampage were listed not
27. There are many who hold her at least
in part responsible for the deaths because she was the owner of the guns which
Adam used to kill. But in actuality
Nancy did nothing illegal. It is very
difficult for us to separate the sinner from the sin. Jesus just loves.
The footnotes to John’s Epistle say that God’s free gift to
us of the Son is reveals God’s love in which we share life with God and are
redeemed from sin. “The love we have for one another must be of the
same sort: authentic, merciful; this unique Christian love is our proof that we
know God and can “see” the invisible God.”[i] Perhaps this is a lens through which we can
view Nancy and other sinners we read about or meet. Perhaps “seeing the invisible God” is a lens
through which we can look at ourselves in the mirror.
Action
In what way do we withhold love acting in
judgment rather than mercy? Loving
another does not imply blanket condoning of sin. The next time you find yourself passing
judgment pause and ask for the grace to see God Invisible in her/his face
.
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