First John Day Eight

The main idea of this information is that the message of the Gospel is to love one another. It emphasizes the importance of showing love through our actions, rather than just words. It also highlights that Jesus laid down his life for us as an act of love, and encourages us to do the same for others. The information emphasizes the need to love and care for vulnerable individuals in society. It concludes by reminding us to turn to the Word of God and ask for the Father's help in living out this message of love and life. Good morning, friends. What a joy to share the Gospel. As we continue to relish the graces of this Christmas season, we do so by prayerfully pondering together the mystery of the Incarnation, that radiant center of the Gospel, and doing so in the light of St. John's First Letter. Let's pause for a moment, preparing ourselves to encounter the Word living and present to us. If you will, take a deep breath slowly in, and slowly out. Come, Lord Jesus, allow Your Holy Spirit to bring Your Word to life in me. May I hear Your voice, Good Shepherd. We enter the Word by reading together from the First Letter of John, chapter 3, verses 11 through 21. For this is the message you have heard from the beginning. We should love one another. Unlike Cain, who belonged to the evil one and slaughtered his brother. Why did he slaughter him? Because his own works were evil, and those of his brother righteous. Do not be amazed, then, brothers, if the world hates you. We know that we have passed from death to life because we love our brothers. Whoever does not love remains in death. Everyone who hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life remaining in him. The way we came to know love was that he laid down his life for us. So we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers. If someone who has worldly means sees a brother in need and refuses him compassion, how can the love of God remain in him? Children, let us love not in word or speech, but in deed and truth. Now this is how we shall know that we belong to the truth and reassure our hearts before Him, in whatever our hearts condemn. For God is greater than our hearts and knows everything. Beloved, if our hearts do not condemn us, we have confidence in God. Now in the third chapter of this short five-chapter letter, all crystallizes before us. The message we have heard from the beginning, this one whom we have seen, touched, and heard, in whom we have communion with God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. This message is to love one another. In the beginning, hatred, indeed murder, was introduced into the human economy. You may notice it is an awful force, this murderous impulse in the human family, to our day. God made the journey from transcendence and eternity into imminence and creation to reintroduce the primacy of love and of life. This love and life is made visible. The beloved disciple sets our gaze upon Him who laid down His life for us. This is to say that he casts our hearts and minds in sharp focus on the act of love in which Jesus gave Himself to the Father for us. When we look upon Jesus, what we see, touch, and hear is this gift of love when He laid down His life for us. My friends, love and life, they crystallize in Jesus, and now in the love Christians show to one another. This is why we Christians always choose life in love. The life of the vulnerable, the immigrant far from home, the fragile unborn baby, the defenseless man trapped by his poverty and cycles of drug addiction, all those incarcerated men most in our society are only too happy to have out of sight and out of mind, troublesome homeless struggling with mental illness, and that lonely old person living next door. We should love one another. This is where Jesus is, today made visible, seen, heard, and touched. Wherever there is authentic love, people come to recognize that Jesus is alive and present in the midst of our world. Indeed, this is the message we have heard from the beginning. Once again, friends, we turn to the Word of God. As we listen, let's ask the Father to make living for us this Word of love and life. Let the Word incline our spirits now to the contemplation of this love and life made visible in the cross of Christ our Lord. Once again, we read the first letter of John, chapter 3, verses 11 through 21. For this is the message you have heard from the beginning. We should love one another. Unlike Cain, who belonged to the evil one and slaughtered his brother. Why did he slaughter him? Because his own works were evil and those of his brother righteous. Do not be amazed, then, brothers, if the world hates you. We know that we have passed from death to life because we love our brothers. Whoever does not love remains in death. Everyone who hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life remaining in him. The way we came to know love was that he laid down his life for us. So we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers. If someone who has worldly means sees a brother in need and refuses him compassion, how can the love of God remain in him? Children, let us love not in word or speech, but in deed and truth. Now this is how we shall know that we belong to the truth and reassure our hearts before him, in whatever our hearts condemn. For God is greater than our hearts and knows everything. Beloved, if our hearts do not condemn us, we have confidence in God. Pray with me, my friends. Living Lord Jesus, allow the anointing within me, the Holy Spirit, to fix my gaze upon you in that act where you gave your life in obedience to the Father for love of me. Make this reality, this love, the energy, the motivation, the beginning and the end of my life. Teach me to love those you place in my life. And friends, it is a joy to share the gospel with you. The Lord is with you. And with your spirit. Amen. Amen.