The period of Lent is once more upon us. In church and in private reading we hear of Christ’s passion and once more we are reminded of His suffering on our behalf. We know that the period between now and Easter should be dominated by our efforts to get to know Him better by giving up those things in our lives which are of no importance.
He tells us that to love Him is His first commandment and His second is likewise to love our neighbour. His disciple John tells us, and I quote 1 John chapter 4 verse 20, ‘If a man say that I love God and hateth someone else, he is a liar. For her that loveth not his brother or anybody else whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath not seen?’
I once remarked (and it caused some amusement) that it is in fact easier to love someone you don’t know! I now believe that it is true but its truth depends on one’s definition of the word love. True love presupposes that you know the person concerned of your affection and that you are in some way involved with him / her but that involvement can and does sometimes lead to either more love or hatred. The two sometimes are very close.
It is not possible for anyone to love or hate someone he doesn’t know or with whom he has not been involved. The police know only too well that the guilty party to a murder can often be someone who is very close to the victim. Perhaps the answer to this riddle is in the preceding verse 19 of the words of St John, ‘we love Him because He first loved us’. Most of us are aware of the parable of the last judgement, St Matthew chapter 25 verse 31, ‘when the Son of Man shall come……..’ – please read this passage again in your Bible.
I know that on my own I have no hope of passing the test which we all must face one day. Perhaps the best that we can hope for is to know that the only way we can love God is by loving and caring for our neighbour and anyone else who may need our help and leave the rest to His great love and forgiveness towards us.
May God give us strength to do His will. A very happy Easter and may God bless us all.
JB, lay reader