God's blessings are around us everywhere as we celebrate the birth of the Infant Savior of Bethlehem! At Christmas, God the Father reveals his extraordinary love to us. Jesus is the Love of God who has personally entered into human history. Our experience of the sorrow and suffering of this world makes us long for God's love, and Jesus is that Love who heals all brokenness and sin.
Our Holy Father, Pope Benedict XVI, has noted that those who encounter the love of Jesus are left surprised and amazed by this encounter, because Jesus' love is unlike anything that we have ever before experienced - a love that is self emptying, self-giving, and not caught up in concern for one's own welfare.
Not only are we left surprised and amazed by the experience of his love, but we are also left with a desire to imitate his love. Those who encounter Jesus discover a love that touches the deepest longing of the human heart. It is a love which the heart has always desired to know and imitate, because it is the only thing which brings fulfillment to the human heart.
Striving to imitate Jesus' self-giving love leads inevitably to a discovery of our true self, just as Jesus promised, "Whoever loses his life will save it."Â (Lk 17:33) "Love so amazing, so divine, demands my soul, my life, my all."Â These are words that we sing during Lent, but they are appropriate also at Christmas.
The Love that is so amazing and so divine, which is revealed to us at Christmas in the Infant Savior, draws out from us a response of love which engages our whole being - our soul, our life and our all.
Christ's grace makes this kind of self-giving love possible for us. When we ask for his grace to live out his love, He will give it to us.
At Christmas, let us allow God to move us once again to greater love in imitation of Christ's love - a love that does not count the cost, a love which goes to the limit of forgiveness, patience and kindness.
In my Christmas Masses I will ask the Lord to send the blessings of his love and mercy to you and to your loved ones. May God grant you a Merry Christmas!
By BISHOP PETER J. JUGIS - Bishop of Charlotte
Stay in touch with HULIQ NEWS on Twitter @HULIQ
Comments
Post new comment