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“Beloved, let us love one another, because love is from God; everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, for God is love.” (1 John 4:7-8)
“There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear; for fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not reached perfection in love. We love because he first loved us.” (1 John 18-19)
Commentary
God is love. How easily we say it; how often we hear it. How do we penetrate a phrase that is, in so many ways, a cliché? St. John reaches out to guide us toward a greater understanding of and openness to that love.
John tells us that the origin of all love is in God and that human love is a reflection of God’s love. He assures us that God’s love is a creative force, a love which has called into being all of creation—each one of us! We are invited to receive and to return love.
God’s love is an effective love. It changes us—our way of seeing and our way of responding. Although we cannot see God, we can see the effect of his love within the circumstances of our lives. His love becomes “visible” through an awareness of his caring for us in all those people who have loved us. It becomes visible in the realization of the many times we have been spared the consequences of our sin and foolishness.
Most of all, God’s love becomes visible when we feel the dissipation of our fears and our hearts expanding with love and concern for others. Even if our personal experiences of being loved have sometimes been disappointing, there is within the core of our beings, always alive, always yearning, the Spirit of love, the Spirit of God which continues to create and to hold us in being.
God is love; he has first loved us.
Suggested Approach to Prayer: A Window on God
Daily prayer pattern:
I quiet myself and relax in the presence of God. I declare my dependency on God.
Grace: I ask for an experience of God’s care, goodness, kindness, and faithfulness to me.
Method: My image of God has been formed by experience. My life reflects the image I hold in my heart. The image is not fixed; it is ever growing toward fullness.