“Why do you always speak to us about love? Tell us about other
things Jesus taught?” According to Christian legend, this question was posed to
the Beloved Disciple by his disciples. The Beloved Disciple answered, “This is
the central truth that Jesus taught and lived, there is no greater message I
can pass on to you.” The beginning of the First Letter of John echoes this urgency.
Its author can barely contain his excitement and conviction, as if he is
saying: “I have seen with my own eyes, heard with my own ears, and felt with my
very hands someone who touches my deepest longings and elicits purpose and
meaning in my life in a way that surpasses my wildest imaginations. Let me
share it with you …”
Have you experienced or discovered something or someone so life-giving
that you can barely contain it? Like something that’s bursting within, you can’t
wait to share it with others. It happens often when genuine friendships and
relationships draw a person such that he or she cannot keep it for themselves. The
Beloved Disciple is someone who has a special bond and intimacy with Jesus that
he or she can hardly speak about anything else. Today’s feast is about this kind of friendship
with God. It celebrates a friendship that testifies to a personal, heartfelt knowing
of Christ’s love. Two days after Christmas, we are challenged to let this love
take hold of us. And transform us into eyewitnesses.
What goodness touches
you in such a way that you cannot keep it to yourself? Ask God how you might embrace this gift more
fully and share it with others wisely?
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