So, \u201cWhoever does not love a brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen.\u201d\u00a0 Wow! That\u2019s a very significant insight from St. John.\u00a0 And he is not just talking about our blood brothers either.\u00a0 Because we are all the brotherhood of man.<\/p>\n
Look at it this way; God made all of us.\u00a0 And God doesn\u2019t make junk.\u00a0 So all of us are God\u2019s people, and all of those he made are loved.\u00a0 Why would God consciously make someone he didn\u2019t love?\u00a0 And God has shown us that his creation is varied- black, brown, yellow, white;\u00a0 unborn; Children; Men; Women; Homosexuals; rich; poor; talented; handicapped;\u00a0 athletic; and crippled.\u00a0 Whoever has been conceived by natural processes to be born into this world; God loves\u00a0 We are all God\u2019s children and so each of us is fashioned by God with our own unique talents, gifts, and limitations with the same love.\u00a0 It\u2019s just that our perspectives don\u2019t necessarily see it that way.<\/p>\n
We can\u2019t really love God if we don\u2019t love all the people that God loves because our rationale for following God\u2019s command to love has to match God\u2019s own concept of love.\u00a0 We can\u2019t reject anyone that God loves; that\u2019s not the love of God.<\/p>\n
In the Gospel, Jesus tells us what God\u2019s plan is for him.\u00a0 First, he reads the prophecy of Isaiah on the Messiah\u2019s coming:\u00a0 \u201cThe Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring glad tidings to the poor.\u00a0 He has sent me to proclaim liberty to captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, and to proclaim a year acceptable to the Lord.\u201d\u00a0 Then, he declares boldly that this prophecy has been fulfilled today by him; making it clear that he is the Messiah, the one who will accomplish all that was promised in the prophecy.<\/p>\n
God loves the poor, the captives, the blind, and the oppressed, just as much as the well off, those already free, the physically able, and those with the upper hand; and it is clear from this Gospel that his first priority is those the world considers as disadvantaged!<\/p>\n
We have just embarked on the year of Mercy as announced by Pope Francis.\u00a0 What does that mean for you and I?\u00a0 Well, these readings should awaken a sense of duty within\u00a0 us to internalize what mercy means in our own lives, t live the love of Christ for all of his creation.\u00a0 It doesn\u2019t just mean dropping a few extra bucks in the collection basket for the poor.\u00a0 It doesn\u2019t just mean adding an extra intention to our daily prayers.\u00a0 It should mean something more than that.\u00a0 It should mean that we have mercy on the poor, captive, and suffering in our own lives.<\/p>\n
Who are the poor and captive and suffering in our lives?\u00a0 They are those in our families with imperfections and limitations;\u00a0 those who are captive to their own blindness and who resist God\u2019s love. And it includes those who take advantage of our better nature in society- the homeless, those in disastrous relationships, those who are bullies and those who have turned their backs on God.<\/p>\n
Why?\u00a0 Because that\u2019s what we hope God will do for each and every one of us when we recognize our own weaknesses; and because we are the only window that these people may have to the love of God.\u00a0 Our limitations should teach each of us to be humble in the face of our God; but our talents are to be shared for the good of all our brothers; and a talent all of us can develop is true Christian love whereby we continue to love even those who give us the worst time.<\/p>\n
Our first reading ends with this quote:\u00a0 \u201cFor whoever is begotten by God conquers the world.\u201d\u00a0 We don\u2019t conquer the world by rising above the worldly in a worldly way.\u00a0 Rather, we conquer the world by echoing God\u2019s love through our faith in God and by loving with our own loving spirit, no matter how difficult the people in our lives are and what they throw at us.<\/p>\n
So, think of someone in your life who needs mercy; and with the love of Christ, be merciful to them.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Thursday After Epiphany 1 Jn 4: 19- 5:4; Lk 4: 14-33 Dc. Larry Brockman So, \u201cWhoever does not love a brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen.\u201d\u00a0 Wow! That\u2019s a very significant insight from St. John.\u00a0 And he is not just talking about our blood brothers either.\u00a0 Because we […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[5],"tags":[385],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/812"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=812"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/812\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":813,"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/812\/revisions\/813"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=812"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=812"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=812"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}