20250109 LOVING OUR FELLOWMEN INCLUSIVELY
First reading | 1 John 4:19-5:4 |
Anyone who loves God must also love his brother
We are to love,
because God loved us first.
Anyone who says, ‘I love God’,
and hates his brother,
is a liar,
since a man who does not love the brother that he can see
cannot love God, whom he has never seen.
So this is the commandment that he has given us,
that anyone who loves God must also love his brother.
Whoever believes that Jesus is the Christ
has been begotten by God;
and whoever loves the Father that begot him
loves the child whom he begets.
We can be sure that we love God’s children
if we love God himself and do what he has commanded us;
this is what loving God is –
keeping his commandments;
and his commandments are not difficult,
because anyone who has been begotten by God
has already overcome the world;
this is the victory over the world –
our faith.
Responsorial Psalm |
Psalm 71(72):1-2,14-15,17 |
All nations shall fall prostrate before you, O Lord.
O God, give your judgement to the king,
to a king’s son your justice,
that he may judge your people in justice
and your poor in right judgement.
All nations shall fall prostrate before you, O Lord.
From oppression he will rescue their lives,
to him their blood is dear.
(Long may he live,
may the gold of Sheba be given him.)
They shall pray for him without ceasing
and bless him all the day.
All nations shall fall prostrate before you, O Lord.
May his name be blessed for ever
and endure like the sun.
Every tribe shall be blessed in him,
all nations bless his name.
All nations shall fall prostrate before you, O Lord.
Gospel Acclamation | Lk7:16 |
Alleluia, alleluia!
A great prophet has appeared among us;
God has visited his people.
Alleluia!
Or: | Lk4:17 |
Alleluia, alleluia!
The Lord has sent me to bring the good news to the poor,
to proclaim liberty to captives.
Alleluia!
Or: | Mt4:16 |
Alleluia, alleluia!
The people that lived in darkness
has seen a great light;
on those who dwell in the land and shadow of death
a light has dawned.
Alleluia!
Or: | cf.Mt4:23 |
Alleluia, alleluia!
Jesus proclaimed the Good News of the kingdom
and cured all kinds of diseases among the people.
Alleluia!
Or: | cf.1Tim3:16 |
Alleluia, alleluia!
Glory to you, O Christ,
proclaimed to the pagans;
glory to you, O Christ,
believed in by the world.
Alleluia!
Gospel | Luke 4:14-22 |
'This text is being fulfilled today, even as you listen'
Jesus, with the power of the Spirit in him, returned to Galilee; and his reputation spread throughout the countryside. He taught in their synagogues and everyone praised him.
He came to Nazara, where he had been brought up, and went into the synagogue on the sabbath day as he usually did. He stood up to read and they handed him the scroll of the prophet Isaiah. Unrolling the scroll he found the place where it is written:
The spirit of the Lord has been given to me,
for he has anointed me.
He has sent me to bring the good news to the poor,
to proclaim liberty to captives
and to the blind new sight,
to set the downtrodden free,
to proclaim the Lord’s year of favour.
He then rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the assistant and sat down. And all eyes in the synagogue were fixed on him. Then he began to speak to them, ‘This text is being fulfilled today even as you listen.’ And he won the approval of all, and they were astonished by the gracious words that came from his lips.
09 January 2025, Thursday After Epiphany
LOVING OUR FELLOWMEN INCLUSIVELY
SCRIPTURE READINGS: [1 JOHN 4:19-5:4; PSALM 72:1-2,14-15,17; LUKE 4:14-22]
What is true love for someone? In the first place, when we love someone, we seek to please the person. We put the interests of our loved ones before ourselves. We will do all we can to supply their needs and to care for them. We want them to be well and provided for. We will help the person to carry his or her burdens whenever we can. That person is always in our minds and even as we are absorbed in the mundane affairs of daily life, we would be thinking of the person consciously or unconsciously how that person is doing.
But then such love can also turn out to be a possessive love. We love a person not so much for himself or herself but for ourselves. We are afraid to lose that person. We need the person’s attention as much as we give to that person. This kind of possessive love is seen by our jealousy when he or she shows love to others. Deep in our hearts, we want him or her to focus on ourselves only. There must not be other competitors around us. We must always be the first in his or her life. Not only the first, but the only one as well. So we feel insecure when that person showers love on others and give them attention. We want to control the person’s life and dictate who he or she can love. Some are even jealous when the object of their love gives more attention to God. God could also be seen as his or her competitor. So they would try to dissuade their friend from spending too much time with God in prayer or in service.
But true love means not just loving the person whom we are attracted or attached to. It also means sharing in his or her love for others, including his or her personal interests. Even if we are not personally interested, we will support the person’s endeavour, interests and those whom he or she cares about. In other words, loving someone means to also love whoever and whatever he or she loves. We must be happy for him or for her, like John the Baptist who declared that he is “the friend of the bridegroom, who stands and hears him, rejoices greatly at the bridegroom’s voice. For this reason, my joy has been fulfilled. He must increase, but I must decrease.” (Jn 3:29f) His only desire was to see God happy. He did not seek to possess Christ for himself, or to have all his attention. He did not try to control Jesus – who He should like and save, or what He should be doing. He trusted in the Lord’s judgment completely. He was happy to see many people go to Jesus and receive His love and healing grace. He was not jealous that the Lord also loved others. He was contented to simply be His voice and his friend.
Similarly, in our love for God, the concrete sign that we love God for Himself and not ourselves, is in how we love our brothers and sisters. St John wrote, “So this is the commandment that he has given to us, that anyone who loves God must also love his brother.” This means that we are called to love our fellowmen since they are all created in His image and likeness. God loves us all, saints and sinners. He wants us to share in His life and love. This is what the Lord taught His disciples. In His sermon on the mount, He commanded His disciples to love not just sinners but even their enemies. He said, “Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be children of your Father in heaven; for he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the righteous and on the unrighteous.” (Mt 5:44f) Because God loves us all, we must love all those whom God loves as well, especially the lost sheep. “I tell you, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance.” (Lk 15:7)
But before we can do that, we need to know that God loves us. Otherwise, we remain insecure, grasping for things and people to satisfy our needs. The God we love cannot be in the abstract but a God we can see. St John wrote, “We are to love, then, because God loved us first.” However, not all of us have encountered the love of God deeply. This is why most of us have nominal faith in Him. After going through some catechesis and hearing some testimonies about the Catholic Faith, we seek baptism. But if our encounter with the Lord is shallow or merely cerebral, our love for God and our fellowmen would be compromised because at most we will respond not with a divine love but with a humanitarian love, that is, identifying with them in their pains and sufferings. Certainly, humanitarian services are praiseworthy but even then, it is dependent on our identification with our suffering brothers and sisters. So even if we support humanitarian aid, we are selective.
However, for those who have a deeper encounter with God, their love for others is inclusive, without conditions. It is rooted in the principle that we love all because God loves us all. This love is in a special way made visible to us in Christ. St John wrote, “Whoever believes that Jesus is the Christ has been begotten by God; and whoever loves the father that begot him loves the child whom he begets.” If we claim that we know God’s love but do not love our brothers, then, as St John says, we are “a liar, since a man who does not love the brother that he can see cannot love God, whom he has never seen.” For us to love inclusively, we must put on the heart and mind of God.
This explains why the strength to love inclusively is rooted in the love of the Father for us through His Son, Jesus, and in the Holy Spirit. It is through Jesus who is God’s only begotten Son that we come to know His Father. Jesus is our revealer of the heart and mind of God our Father. To love Jesus whom we can see is what enables us to love all. St John writes, “Whoever believes that Jesus is the Christ has been begotten by God.” Faith in Jesus leads to baptism and baptism makes us sons and daughters of God in Christ. In Jesus, we know God and we recover our identity as God’s children. It is this faith that empowers us to love like Christ. St John says, “We can be sure that we love God’s children if we love God himself and do what he has commanded us; this is what loving God is – keeping his commandments; and his commandments are not difficult, because anyone who has been begotten by God has already overcome the world; this is the victory over the world – our faith.”
His mission becomes ours. We who are filled with the Holy Spirit like Jesus after our baptism, will accept the mission given to us. The Lord took the scroll and reading from the text of Isaiah said, “The Spirit of the Lord has been given to me, for he has anointed me. He has sent me to bring the good news to the poor, to proclaim liberty to captives and to the blind new sight, to set the downtrodden free, to proclaim the Lord’s year of favour.” This was His mission. He came to re-establish the reign of God. In Him, God reigns already. Indeed, “This text is being fulfilled today even as you listen.” We too are called to follow Jesus in proclaiming and sharing the Good News of God’s love and mercy to all who have no hope and direction in life.
Knowing God in Christ also helps us to overcome all trials in life, as St Paul wrote, “If God is for us, who is against us? He who did not withhold his own Son, but gave him up for all of us, will he not with him also give us everything else? Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will hardship, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril. No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Rom 8:31f, 37-39)
This explains why in celebrating the Feast of Epiphany, we are celebrating the manifestation of God in Jesus, human and divine. Jesus in His divinity empowers us by showing the face of His Father to us. But Jesus in His humanity went through all that we go through. The letter to the Hebrews says, “For the one who sanctifies and those who are sanctified all have one Father. For this reason Jesus is not ashamed to call them brothers and sisters.” (Heb 2:11) “Therefore he had to become like his brothers and sisters in every respect, so that he might be a merciful and faithful high priest in the service of God, to make a sacrifice of atonement for the sins of the people. Because he himself was tested by what he suffered, he is able to help those who are being tested.” (Heb 2:17f)
Written by His Eminence, Cardinal William SC Goh, Roman Catholic Archbishop of Singapore © All Rights Reserved.
