Wednesday after Epiphany 2020 - Do not be afraid to love God

Throughout the octave of Christmas and continuing after the feast of the Epiphany, our daily readings are taken from the first letter of St. John. St. Augustine began a homily on the letter of St. John’s first letter stating that in his first letter, John “said many things, and nearly everything was about charity.”
It if fitting that we read from first John throughout the Christmas season, as we seek to love more deeply the Christ-Child born at Bethlehem.

The word love is used 11 times in our reading this morning. “Beloved, if God so loved us, we also must love one another. No one has ever seen God. Yet, if we love one another, God remains in us, and his love is brought to perfection in us…God is love, and whoever remains in love remains in God and God in him” and so on.

John enjoins Christians to love one another several times throughout his letter—fraternal charity is a mark that we belong to God. Love for others is a sign that we have been transformed—that we have allowed the life of God to transform us and to replace the hatred, bitterness, selfishness, and perversions of the world in us.

As we practice love, love is perfected in us, God’s life is brought to perfection in us. We grow in the virtue of charity as we practice it. The more we love, the more we grow in our capacity to love—love is increased and perfected by its practice.

If your soul were a container, how much love for God and neighbor would it contain? For some of us, our soul is the size of a thimble, little love for God or others. Many Christians, who have practiced love through prayer and self-less charity, their souls have grown to great basins of love. For few, like the saints, their souls have become ponds and lakes of love, seemingly bottomless. The Blessed Mother’s love for God and for her Son and for us has been described as an ocean of love.

The Christmas season aims to help us love more. So let us cast off everything, every selfish habit or pursuit, which keeps us from love.

In the Gospel, Jesus urges his disciples to not be afraid when they see him walking on the sea. He is not a ghost, he is not a figment of their imagination, he is not a myth, he is not just a story we tell to children. He is real. Do not be afraid to believe in him and to love him, do not be afraid to reject all that keeps you from loving him, for the glory of God and salvation of souls.

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That our Holy Father and all the clergy may be filled with courage in preaching the full Gospel, especially in the face of opposition.

That Christians may know the presence and love of God when faced with fear and suffering for the sake of the Gospel.

That those who despair of God’s love for them, might discover the great love that casts out all fear.
For all who have fallen away from the Church, for those in mortal sin, for their conversion and the conversion of all hearts to Christ.

For all the needs of the sick and the suffering, the homebound, those in nursing homes and hospitals, the underemployed and unemployed, immigrants and refugees, victims of natural disaster, war, and terrorism, for all those who grieve the loss of a loved one, and those who will die today, for their comfort, and the consolation of their families.

For all who have died, and for all the poor souls in purgatory, and for X. for whom this Mass is offered.

Incline your merciful ear to our prayers, we ask, O Lord, and listen in kindness to the supplications of those who call on you. Through Christ our Lord