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Tag: Love never goes wrong

  • Because Love is of God

    Because Love is of God

    January 5, 2021 – Tuesday after Epiphany, Memorial of St. John Neumann, CSsR

    Click here for the readings (https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/010521.cfm)

    John who is believed to be the author of the 2 Letters of John and the Gospel of John is known to be Jesus’ beloved disciple. Among all the disciples of Jesus, it was only John who died out of old age and missed martyrdom. John who had grown old revealed to us now his consciousness and deep faith in Jesus who loved him so much.

    This is the reason why we have the 1st letter of John talking about one thing, love, not just any ordinary love but the Love who is God. Throughout the life of John, the very reason that drew him to follow the Lord was the love of God for him.

    John reminded us how this love of God works in our Christian life. In his first letter, he proclaimed, “to love one another, because love is of God.” When we have God in us, it moves us to love. John realized how the love of God was revealed to us. This love is revealed through the birth of God’s only-begotten Son, Jesus.

    From Jesus, who is the Father’s concrete expression of love and the face of God’s love, life is gifted to us. John truly felt the weight of this love through his life. It was because of this love that made him to stand strong even in the midst of confusion at the arrest of Jesus. John remained fearless even when Jesus was persecuted. He followed Jesus on his way to Golgotha. John was also present at the foot of the cross of Jesus with Mary and witnessed the death of his Lord. John was also the first to believe in Jesus’ resurrection upon seeing the empty tomb despite his confusion and fears.

    It was this love that made John confident and affirmed. The love that he truly believed is life in itself. He believed that God first loved him and because God is faithful. God will always love him even if everyone and everything goes wrong.

    It is the same love that God tells us today. God wants that we too will have the fullness of our life. Fullness of life means being in love and remaining in love. In other words, fullness of life also means being in God and remaining in God in all the days of our life.

    It should be this the same love that would hopefully lead us to see the light and joy even in the midst of suffering and pain in life, even in the midst of rejection and betrayal of people who are close to us. This love should also inspire us to respond in love, to express our love to God, to ourselves, and to others even to those who have hurt us and people we do not like.

    This is what Jesus also showed us in today’s Gospel. Seeing the vast crowd of people who were in pain and suffering, hungry and abandoned, Jesus was moved with pity. Jesus did not only looked at them but he also responded in love. With this, Jesus allowed his disciples to join him in that response of love by giving what they had. The five loaves and two fish as their food were given out of generosity so that others may be satisfied and be filled. This, indeed, is love.

    Again, John reminds us, “love!” Because it is of God, and we will never go wrong. Loving the way God loves can be painful, but, God’s love heals and comfort, empowers and liberates us. May we enjoy and cherish that love in us today. Hinaut pa.

  • True love never goes wrong

    True love never goes wrong

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    September 7, 2020 – Monday of the 23rd Week in Ordinary Time

    Click here for the readings (https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/090720.cfm)

    Homily

    True love could never go wrong. The Lord could never inflict any bad thing on anybody. Jesus only desires our wellbeing, our healing, and our freedom. The presence of Jesus among us is the concrete expression of God’s tremendous and empowering love. Perhaps, it is our way of loving that could go wrong because ours is filled with selfishness and of too much self-importance to the point that our way of loving becomes corrupted and vicious.

    This is how St Paul reminded the people in his first letter to the Corinthians. A man living with his father’s wife was no love at all and not something that one should be proud of. Paul called it immorality. Paul also called such action an “old yeast,” a yeast of malice and wickedness.

    This malice and wickedness were the intentions felt by Jesus among the scribes and Pharisees while he was teaching in a synagogue. In this event, Jesus graced the people with his presence by teaching them and to perform in a concrete way how love desires the wellbeing, the healing and the freedom of a person.

    However, the scribes and the Pharisees were more concerned on how to accuse Jesus of something and then put him to death. One could not claim that these people were without love. They must have loved also, yet, their way of loving was filled with selfishness. They became corrupt and vicious. They felt threatened by the presence of Jesus who only desired goodness.

    This tells us too that a corrupt and vicious person will always be threatened by the goodness and kindness, sincerity and truthfulness of others. They felt threatened by the presence of Jesus because the very person of the Lord, his way of life, teachings and works mirrored their incapacities, their corruption, their self-absorption, their malice and wickedness. Through the very person of Jesus, they were confronted and called to be healed and to be renewed.

    Yet, these people could not because they were trapped in that kind of life. They could not because it was too much for them. Thus, with evil intent they have been looking for something to accuse Jesus and bring him to death.

    However, the Lord cannot be stopped from doing good, from giving life and bringing healing to us. The Lord willfully healed the man on a Sabbath day to tell us how ridiculous “a law made by man” can be. Hence, the question of Jesus, “Is it lawful to do good on the sabbath rather than to do evil, to save life rather than to destroy it?”

    This question was directed to those who were with evil intent and those who were seeking to destroy life. Certainly, this is no love at all.

    Today, the Lord also calls us to examine our way of loving and to learn the way the Lord loves. Loving in the way of the Lord would never go wrong. May our way of loving then, be motivated with the desire to bring goodness, healing and freedom. Hinaut pa.

    Jom Baring, CSsR

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