A Friend Who Clarifies Love
by Fr. David M. Knight
Friday, January 5, 2024
Memorial of St. John Newmann, Bishop
Lectionary No. 208
1 John 3:11-21; Psalm 100; John 1:43-51
"The way we came to know love was that he laid down his life for us." 1John 3:16
Didn’t we first come to know love through our parents’ love for us? And through friendships? Or marriage?
John says it was through Jesus, who “laid down his life for us.”
There are different kinds and levels of love. Jesus says we don’t know what love really is until we know the love he has for us. “No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends” (John 15:13).
Since Jesus did that for me, he must have the “greatest love” for me. As a friend.
I must be loved. By Jesus. As a friend. One can’t help asking, “Why?”
And why so much that Jesus would die for me? What does that say about him? About me? About love?
“God is love” (1John 4:8, 16). To love is God’s Being.
Does Jesus’s death reveal the mystery of Being itself?
I am loved. Is that the mystery of my being? Hint: By “grace” we are what Jesus is—sharing in his own divine life. God “sees and loves in us what he sees and loves in Jesus” (Sunday Preface VII).
A “mystery” is “a truth that invites endless exploration.”
Friendship is interaction. Interact with Jesus and he will endlessly clarify for you the mystery of your being—and of love.
ACTION: Write down three reasons why Jesus loves you.
PRAYER: “Lord, be with me. Let me be with you.”
Reflections brought to you by the Immersed in Christ Ministry
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