20190109
PERFECTING
IMPERFECT LOVE
09 JANUARY,
2019, Wednesday after the Epiphany
Readings at Mass
Liturgical Colour: White.
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First reading
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1 John 4:11-18 ©
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As long as we love one another God's
love will be complete in us
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My dear people,
since God has loved us so much,
we too should love one another.
No one has ever seen God;
but as long as we love one another
God will live in us
and his love will be complete in us.
We can know that we are living in him
and he is living in us
because he lets us share his Spirit.
We ourselves saw and we testify
that the Father sent his Son
as saviour of the world.
If anyone acknowledges that Jesus is the
Son of God,
God lives in him, and he in God.
We ourselves have known and put our faith
in
God’s love towards ourselves.
God is love
and anyone who lives in love lives in God,
and God lives in him.
Love will come to its perfection in us
when we can face the day of Judgement
without fear;
because even in this world
we have become as he is.
In love there can be no fear,
but fear is driven out by perfect love:
because to fear is to expect punishment,
and anyone who is afraid is still
imperfect in love.
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Responsorial Psalm
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Psalm 71(72):1-2,10-13 ©
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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.
The kings of Tarshish and the sea coasts
shall pay him tribute.
The kings of Sheba and Seba
shall bring him gifts.
Before him all kings shall fall prostrate,
all nations shall serve him.
All nations shall fall
prostrate before you, O Lord.
For he shall save the poor when they cry
and the needy who are
helpless.
He will have pity on the weak
and save the lives of the
poor.
All nations shall fall
prostrate before you, O Lord.
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Gospel Acclamation
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Lk4:17
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Alleluia, alleluia!
The Lord has sent me to bring the good
news to the poor,
to proclaim liberty to captives.
Alleluia!
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Or:
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cf.1Tim3:16
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Alleluia, alleluia!
Glory to you, O Christ,
proclaimed to the pagans;
glory to you, O Christ,
believed in by the world.
Alleluia!
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Or:
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Mt4:16
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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!
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Or:
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cf.Mt4:23
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Alleluia, alleluia!
Jesus proclaimed the Good News of the
kingdom
and cured all kinds of diseases among the
people.
Alleluia!
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Or:
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Lk7:16
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Alleluia, alleluia!
A great prophet has appeared among us;
God has visited his people.
Alleluia!
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Gospel
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Mark 6:45-52 ©
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His disciples saw him walking on the
lake
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After the five thousand had eaten and were
filled, Jesus made his disciples get into the boat and go on ahead to
Bethsaida, while he himself sent the crowd away. After saying goodbye to them
he went off into the hills to pray. When evening came, the boat was far out on
the lake, and he was alone on the land. He could see they were worn out with
rowing, for the wind was against them; and about the fourth watch of the night
he came towards them, walking on the lake. He was going to pass them by, but
when they saw him walking on the lake they thought it was a ghost and cried
out; for they had all seen him and were terrified. But he at once spoke to
them, and said, ‘Courage! It is I! Do not be afraid.’ Then he got into the boat
with them, and the wind dropped. They were utterly and completely dumbfounded,
because they had not seen what the miracle of the loaves meant; their minds
were closed.
PERFECTING
IMPERFECT LOVE
SCRIPTURE READINGS: [ 1 JN 4:11-18; MK 6:45-52 ]
We all know the two
great commandments that Jesus gave us. Jesus said, “The first is, ‘Hear, O
Israel: the Lord our God, the Lord is one; you shall love the Lord your God
with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with
all your strength.’ The second is this, ‘You shall love your neighbor as
yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.” (Mk 12:29-31) St John in the first
reiterates this when he wrote, “No one has ever seen God; but as long as we
love one another God will live in us and his love will be complete in us.”
But the truth is that
our love of God is imperfect. How many of us can say that we love God with all our
heart, with all our mind and with every ounce of our strength? How many of us
can say that God is the center of our lives, that everything we do is always in
reference to Him and He is above everything and everyone else? The
reality is that we have our daily preoccupations, our anxieties and
responsibilities. At times, we are too distracted even to pay attention
to what we are praying because of preoccupation with our problems, the
temptations of the world, or we are too tired even to pray.
So too, our love for our
neighour is imperfect. Whilst
we all enjoy loving those who love us and appreciate our love, it is quite
different loving those who are difficult to love, those who are demanding,
those who are always opposing us, those who do not value us or even see us as
their allies. Even loving our loved ones can be quite tiring because we
are often taken for granted and some can be very demanding of our time and
attention. This is why we get impatient, annoyed and angry with them even
though we love them. We feel burnt out and unable to find the strength to
continue loving them cheerfully or joyfully. Soon, it becomes an
obligation that we carry out with resentment, anger and bitterness.
Finally, our love for
ourselves is equally imperfect.
Many of us cannot accept our imperfections, especially our failure to love God
and our neighbour perfectly. We feel guilty that we often break His
commandments and allow our human frailties to take control over us. We
choose the sensual world of pleasure as an escape from the demands of
life. And when we do that, we feel sad that we are not perfect in love.
We cannot forgive ourselves for our selfishness, impatience with others, for
allowing our anger and emotional outbursts to take the better of
us. We feel worthless and useless. We think we do not deserve
the love of God. We feel hypocritical at the same time, ashamed of
ourselves.
Indeed, if we feel this
way, then we are like the apostles and disciples of Jesus. Their love for the Lord too, was
imperfect. They had ulterior motives for following Jesus: some for
security, some for healing, some for material gains, like Judas. Others,
like James and John, were hoping for power, wealth and glory. Others had
political motives. They were ignorant of Jesus. As Mark remarked,
“They were utterly and completely dumbfounded, because they had not seen what
the miracle of the loaves meant; their minds were closed.”
What is it that we have
failed to understand? Namely this: that we cannot love perfectly. We need to acknowledge that we are sinners
and incapable of perfect love. We need to accept our own brokenness and
limitations in loving God and our brothers and sisters perfectly.
This is the first stage to perfecting our love for God and for others. Unless
we accept our finite and imperfect love, we live in denial and this will lead
us to self-hatred.
Acknowledgement and
acceptance of our sinful condition is the doorway to accepting the love of
God. We
must accept the love of God for us, a love that is unconditional. We
might not be worthy of His love but we are not worthless in His eyes. The
incarnation of our Lord was to reveal to us this immense love of God for us, a
love that is unconditional, total, without reservation. Indeed, God not
only loves the world and gave us His only begotten Son but He gave us the life
of His Son in His passion and death. “He who did not withhold his own
Son, but gave him up for all of us.” (Rom 8:32) This is what St John
urges us to put our faith in. “We ourselves saw and we testify that the
Father sent his Son as saviour of the world. If anyone acknowledges that Jesus
is the Son of God, God lives in him, and he in God. We ourselves have
known and put our faith in God’s love towards ourselves.” It is this
conviction of God’s love for us, not in spite but because we are sinners, that
should really cause us to be dumbfounded and amazed!
Once we know that we are
loved, not because we are perfect in love but in our imperfections, then we no
longer have to worry about not loving God enough or be guilty when we fail Him
in love. St John
wrote, “Love will come to its perfection in us when we can face the day of
Judgement without fear; because even in this world we have become as he is. In
love there can be no fear, but fear is driven out by perfect love: because to
fear is to expect punishment, and anyone who is afraid still is imperfect in
love.” Fear is what causes us to lack love and acceptance of our sinful
nature. We feel the need to prove and to show that we are perfect because
we are often motivated by pride and egoism rather than love of God and
neighbour.
When we believe that God
loves us with all our imperfections, then we can start loving ourselves.
Loving ourselves
authentically does not mean that we just continue with our sinful life.
Rather, we are now motivated to love ourselves even more authentically by
allowing God’s love to shape and mould us. In truth, we want to
love, not because we fear that we will be rejected by God but because we also
want to share in God’s love and life that He has given to us. Loving
ourselves and our neighbour is the way to share in His life. This is what
John wrote, “No one has ever seen God; but as long as we love one another God
will live in us and his love will be complete in us. We can know that we are
living in him and he is living in us because he lets us share his Spirit.”
When we learn to love
ourselves the way God loves us, then we too can accept the imperfect love of
our neigbours. Our
model of love is that of our Lord. St John said, “My dear people, since
God has loved us so much, we too should love one another.” So even when
our neighbours are imperfect in loving us or in responding to our love, we will
continue to love them just the same, because that is how God loves us. He
does not demand that we are good before He loves us. Nay, “God proves his
love for us in that while we still were sinners Christ died for us.” (Rom 5:8) We too are now inspired to love
the same way that the Lord has shown us how to love. In this way, we do
not get angry or disillusioned or retaliate when those whom we love are
ungrateful or take our love for granted. We continue to give them
whatever love we can give, even if that love is also imperfect and
limited. We should be thankful that we are able to love at all.
In the final analysis,
the strength to love like the Lord comes from our intimacy with Him. In the gospel, Jesus shows us the
finest example of how love of God and love of neigbour go together. The
Lord Jesus, after sending the crowd away, tired out after a long day of
preaching and ministering, and needing spiritual recharge, “went off into the
hills to pray.” He was in deep intimacy with His Father. But being
with the Father did not mean that He was away from His Church, symbolized by
the boat the disciples were in. They, like the Church, were buffeted by
the storms of life. And we read that the Lord “could see they were worn
out with rowing, for the wind was against them.” He walked towards them
and assured them of His presence, “‘Courage! It is I! Do not be afraid.’
Then he got into the boat with them, and the wind dropped.” So we take
heart that the Lord, even at prayer, is also with us.
Hence, we too must
follow Jesus in the way of love, namely the love of God precedes the love of
men. There
is no dichotomy between intimacy with Christ and intimacy with the Church.
The more we pray and spend time with the Lord, the more we will fall in love
with His Church. If we lack love for the Church, it is because we lack
love for Christ. When we make time for the Lord in prayer, we will
become more active in loving our neighbours out of the love that we have
received from Him. And the more we love our neighbours, the more we
encounter God’s presence and love in and through them in our service. So
together, the love of God, the love of neighbour and love of self make that
triangle of love. In this way, our imperfect love is perfected through
His grace.
Written
by The Most Rev William Goh, Roman Catholic Archbishop of Singapore © All
Rights Reserved
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