Feast of St. John the Evangelist: Love Bursting

“Beloved: What was from the beginning, what we have heard, what we have seen with our eyes, what we looked upon and touched with our hands concerns the Word of life … we proclaim now to you…” – 1 Jn 1:1, 3a

I don’t know who is more in love with their newborn, my brother Tho or my good friend Jen. The way they look at their child betrays their deep love. Every time I witness this gaze, I am caught in tenderness. I also catch a glimpse of the way God looks at us, his beloved children.

Have you experienced 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 when genuine friendships and relationships draw a person such that he or she cannot keep it for himself or herself. The Beloved Disciple is someone who has a special bond and intimacy with Jesus that it cannot be contained. Today’s feast is about this kind of relationship 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 incarnate love take hold of us. To let is deepen in tenderness. And transform us into life-giving eyewitnesses. For love becomes more real when it is lived out.

Perhaps our experience this Christmas is bereft of genuine love or lacking life. Maybe we do not feel longing for either. Yet, we can heed the advice of St. Ignatius and beg God for the “desire to desire” greater life or love.

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 generously share it with others?