Many people are familiar with the famous phrase of St. John the Evangelist: God is love. We see this in today’s first reading from 1 John 4. In the Gospel reading from Mark 6, we see love in action, as Jesus feeds the multitude. The Scripture tells us, “His heart was moved with pity for them.”
We all have our own sense of what love is. The word itself has been misused and abused so much down through the ages that many today probably have a warped idea of what it means. So what can we glean from St. John’s words that God is love? We see more more in this reading. “In this way the love of God was revealed to us: God sent his only-begotten Son into the world so that we might have life through him.”
God the Father offered his Son as a sacrifice for you. So love entails sacrifice. It isn’t just some fluffy feeling that comes and goes on whims or with hormones. Love is a total self-giving, always with the best for its intended at heart. So, acting out of love is not always easy, fun, convenient or pleasant. You think it was easy, fun, convenient or pleasant for the Father to offer up his only Son? Nope. But he made that hard choice because of his great love for you, and to show us what love truly means.
Father, may we do the hard work of love, dying to self and always doing what is best for the other. Amen.
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