St. Paul found himself in the midst of an awful lot of difficult situations, ones that most of us could not even comprehend. In today’s first reading from Acts 22 and 23, Paul finds himself in front of the Sanhedrin. He makes a comment that riles up the crowd so much that the commander of the troops watching over the affair thought they were going to rip Paul to shreds. So he has him removed. God then tells Paul that he (Paul) must go to Rome.
In our Gospel reading today from John 17, Jesus continues his heartfelt prayer for unity for all who will believe in Him. He ends with this: “I made known to them your name and I will make it known, that the love with which you loved me may be in them and I in them.” Jesus prays that the love that the Father has for the Son would be the same love that is in us. Imagine that!
We love many things. And many other things we say that we “love.” We love our children. We love our faith. We “love” pizza, our car, a vacation spot…you name it. But we also know that our love is highly imperfect. No matter how much we love our children, our spouse, our parents, etc., it will always pale in comparison to the love that the Father has for the Son. Yet this is the kind of love that Jesus wants us to have in our hearts. And the same kind of love that God wants us to share with everyone. While we’ll always fall woefully short, can we improve? Can God’s love truly grow in us? I know it can, but not without concerted prayer and effort. Let’s engage in both more often, that our love may more closely resemble the love of the Father for the Son.
Father, you know how imperfect our love is. Help us to reflect your love for the Son more and more in our lives. Amen.
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