Thursday after Epiphany
“Beloved, we love God because he first loved us.” These words from the first reading remind us that all we have is from God, even our ability to desire and love our Heavenly Father. We are created in the image and likeness of God and therefore are created in the image of His eternal Love. St. Augustine described the trinity with the Father as Lover, the Son the Loved and the Holy Spirit as the embodiment of that communion of Love; this is the divine image in which we were created. God first loves us, and we return that love by the grace of desire that he puts into our hearts. But we are warned that we cannot love God and hate our brothers and sisters. If we do we are a liar, to God, the World, and ourselves. Jesus, knowing that we needed strength to live out the divine image of love in which we were created, sent the Holy Spirit, who is the embodiment of divine love, to be with us and give us courage to love all.
We are called to love as Christ loved, who gave up his life for our salvation. We are called to lay down our lives in small and great ways for love of our brothers and sisters. We can do this by loving those whom we find hard to love by giving to and caring for the poor, the neglected and the elderly, and by praying for those who persecute us or hate us. By loving those we can see with the love put into our hearts by God, we will grow more and more in love with our God the Father and our beloved Jesus, in the communion of the Holy Spirit.
Reflection by Br. Placid Dale, OSB
Posted in Articles for Christmas, Daily Reflections