Beloved, if God so loved us, we also must love one another. No one has ever seen God. Yet, if we love one another, God remains in us, and his love is brought to perfection in us. -1Jn 4:11-12
God is good, all the time.
Friends, Saint John continues his teaching about love in today's first reading, urging us to love one another. He writes, "Beloved if God so loved us, we also must love one another. No one has ever seen God. Yet, if we love one another, God remains in us, and his love is brought to perfection in us."
Saint John is asserting that everything that relates to God is love. Without love there is no God as his nature and essence is unlimited love. Saint John’s point is that we also must make love inseparable from our nature no matter how hard it can be, since without it, our journey towards God may become truncated. If we understand this divine dynamism of love, it is essential that we take our love for God and use it in our journey towards heaven, and the way to do this is to bring this love of God into our relationships with others.
Consider our Catholic practice of viaticum (food for the journey), which is administered to a dying person believing that it sustains the soul while on its way to God. The viaticum nourishes the souls from spiritual hunger; it also unites the soul with Christ. Jesus promised, “Whoever eats his Flesh and drinks my Blood remains in me and I in him” (Jn 6: 52).
As Christians, our daily viaticum is love. Only daily doses of love expressed towards others make our nature accords with that of God. The person who loves others is only applying the unmerited love and grace he or she receives daily from God towards others and staying firm on the journey to eternal life.
Prayer blessing: God, light of all nations, give us the joy of lasting peace, and fill our lives with tender and peaceful acts of kindness and love that overcome hurts, anger, jealousy, cynicism, and the like towards others. Amen.