Today, we continue our celebration of the Christmas season. Our Christmas celebrations will come to a close this upcoming Sunday with the celebration of the Baptism of our Lord. Today we hear about love in the first letter of John, a letter we have been hearing from in our first reading during a lot of the Christmas season. The topic of love is certainly very appropriate in the Christmas season since the arrival of the Baby Jesus into our world in that manger in Bethlehem is all about love. Love is a word commonly used in the Gospel of John and the Letters of John as well. The love that John is talking about in his writings is not a romantic love, but rather an agape love that cares about the well-being of the other person. This type of love is all about giving of our very selves to the other whom we love. In agape love, we are called to give of ourselves to our brothers and sisters in the same spirit in which God gave himself to us through his son, Jesus Christ. If we forget this concept of self-giving in the way we live out our faith, perhaps we forget about the very essence of what our faith is all about. In his writings, Pope Francis has asked us to love beyond our differences, to reach out to others in a spirit of peace, solidarity, and brotherhood. May we push through some boundaries this year that are keeping us from living out agape love in our lives of faith.
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