9 January 2020
Thursday after Epiphany
“Whoever loves God must also love his brother.” (1 Jn 4:21)
Again, John gives us another critical principle for discerning the manifestation of God: is what we are recognizing leading us to love our neighbor more? The one who loves God remains in God and God remains in him. And if God remains in the person, that person’s actions will manifest that divine Presence. The heart which truly recognizes God, will adore Him in such as way as to allow the divine love to transform his actions according to the pattern of God’s own actions. God loves us. God loves our neighbors. God loves our enemies. God loves all that He has made. (Wis 11:24) And so, if we truly adore such a God, we must cooperate with His love towards all these persons and not act against His love.
In the Gospel, Jesus gives us a further illumination of such love through the words of the prophet Isaiah. Jesus is the Christ, which is simply the Greek word for the Messiah, which is the Hebrew term for the One anointed with the Holy Spirit. But what is purpose of such anointing? How is the anointed One to be recognized? As Jesus proclaims from Isaiah, the anointing is to “bring glad tidings to the poor.” (Lk 4:18; Is 61:1) Jesus went to His hometown first to proclaim the fulfillment of this prophecy. Perhaps as we adore this revelation of God who has come to bring us glad tidings in our need, we might look first to the persons in our home, our family, our neighborhood who are in need. Let us ask Jesus, who manifests such divine compassion, to stir up within us the graces of our Confirmation, that we may live out the anointing He has shared with us, and bring glad tidings to those whom He calls us to love.