With and Without Love

Gospel: John 5: 31-47

When we live in a world without love where self-interest is the ruling passion, we find ourselves justifying all sorts of cruelties against other human beings.  We come to objectify others and see them as merely transactional entities, their value only dependent on their utility and random feelings we have for them.  We come to categorize and label others, thereby depersonalizing them and making it easier for us to justify these cruelties we inflict on them.

However, in a world where we are filled with the love of God we come to see things in their proper light.  All people are now seen as images and likenesses of God, other Christs, and temples of the Holy Spirit.  We now see everyone as our sister and brother, all part of the same human family, all redeemed by the Lord Jesus, all beloved by God.  We now have compassion and empathy for all people.

The path of love is the path of the Lord Jesus.  He went about healing, liberating, and nourishing others in a life of mercy and good deeds.  There is not a single instance in which he refused anyone who came seeking his help, and whenever anyone sought to exclude others from his love and care, Jesus ignored them and provided for that person in need.  To be a disciple of the Lord Jesus is to live as he did, to love and show mercy to others as he did.