The Nature of Love

 Reflection on Today's Readings, Tuesday after Epiphany, January 5th, 2021

Texts: 1John 4:7-10; Ps. 72:1-4.7-8; Matt. 6:34-44

Love is essential to life. Everyone wants to be loved but not everyone wants to love. The fact is that we love to be loved.

St. John, in today's first reading, asks us to love. We are to love because God is love. If God is love, then being born of God means we are born of love. Being born of love makes love our identity, the essence of our existence. Love is the evidence of our being born of God: he who loves is born of God. As the children of God, the words of Therese Lisieux is true about us: "Let us love, since that is what our hearts were made for.” St. John also affirms that it is he who loves that knows God. We cannot claim to know God when we do not love. 

Love is a gift. It is a gift because it comes out of good pleasure, good disposition towards the other; it is an act of good will. Love is not earned but bestowed. Hence, St. John says, "In this is love, not that we loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the expiation for our sins." God's love is such a saving love; love that aims at redeeming us. This means love aims at the good of others; it is not selfish. Love is also a source of gifts; he who loves gives. St. John says, "In this the love of God made manifest among us, that God sent his only-begotten Son into the world, so that we might live through him."

Jesus Christ, in today's gospel reading, exemplifies what love is. He had compassion on the people. Compassion is a function of love. He had compassion on them because they were deprived and as such living a poor life. They were deprived of knowledge and languishing in ignorance. Hence, it is said, "he had compassion on them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd; and he began to teach them many things." Jesus Christ taught them not because they worked for it but because He realized their need. The kind gesture of Jesus Christ is not earned but bestowed, it is out of good will towards them. He also displayed the same good will in feeding them. We are called today to love like Jesus Christ.

God our Father, help us to love You and to love one another. Amen.

Fr. Andrew Olowomuke