Liturgical Colour : White

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today as we all listened to the words of the Scriptures, we are all reminded again during the remaining time of this joyful season of Christmas that we truly are celebrating the love of God manifested in this world through the coming of His Son, Our Lord Jesus Christ, the Saviour of all mankind and the whole world, by Whose arrival, presence and ministry, in all that He has done in our midst, in His teachings and outreach, all of us have seen and witnessed, experienced and learnt about what God truly wants from each and every one of us. And we are also reminded on how God is truly faithful and ever committed to the Covenant which He had made with us and all the promises He had given us.

In our first reading today, from the continuation of the Epistle of St. John the Apostle, we heard the exhortation from St. John to all the faithful reminding all of them to love one another, to show love to everyone without exception, and to show care and concern for each other, following the example and the teachings which the Lord Himself has shown to us by His words and actions amongst us. The Lord’s commandments and all of His Law, all of them are truly about love, on how we ought to love God with all of our strength and might, and then how we should love in the same manner as well to our fellow brothers and sisters around us, all those who need our love, care and attention.

It is also important that we all should embrace God’s love wholeheartedly and be appreciative and thankful that God has shown us all so much love, even when we have often disobeyed Him and disregarded His Law and commandments. Our loving God and Father has often been patient in loving us and caring for us, and because He has taught us all how to love and to show His love in our actions, words and deeds, therefore, it is important that we are truly filled with love in everything that we do, or else, we cannot truly call ourselves as God’s children or people. St. John himself said it plainly that if we do not show love to our brothers and sisters, then we are not truly loving God, and we are in fact ‘liars’ in our proclamation of love for God.

St. John made it clear that all those who love the Father, also loves the Son, and vice versa, and in order to be able to truly love God as we should, then we must be truly loving in all things, and we cannot be full of hatred or lacking in love towards anyone. If we ourselves are not showing love towards our fellow brothers and sisters, then how can we truly be genuinely loving towards God as well? And God Who loves everyone certainly will not find our lack of love and even hatred against our fellow brethren as something that is favourable. As Christians it is imperative that we follow the examples of Christ our Lord Himself, loving everyone around us generously and sincerely, to the best of our abilities. Indeed, this is something easier said than done, but we should at least make the effort to do so.

In our Gospel passage today from the Gospel according to St. Luke the Evangelist, we heard of the moment when the Lord Jesus, early in His ministry returned to His hometown of Nazareth, and when He went to the local synagogue, at the appointed time, He proclaimed what the prophets like Isaiah and the ones before him had prophesied about the coming of the Messiah or the Saviour from God. And as Jesus proclaimed those words of the Scriptures, He proclaimed the fulfilment of everything that had been prophesied, how everything had indeed come true as it was meant to be, and everything that He had done, His teachings and great Wisdom, all the miracles and signs He had performed, all were the evidence that He was the Messiah that had been promised.

Yet, many of those people in Nazareth failed to recognise this and they refused to believe in Him, and instead they preferred to be swayed by their own prejudices and biases against the Lord just because they thought that they knew better about Him, that they knew about His family and His background, being merely the supposed Son of the town carpenter, from a lowly background and origin, unlike what many of the people of that time expected, that the Saviour would come as a great, mighty and conquering King, as the One to restore the Kingdom of Israel and lead the people of God to triumph and victory against their enemies. But the Lord Jesus revealed to them that God’s plan is far greater than their limited desires for worldly glory and liberation, for the Lord desired for no less than the salvation of the whole entire world, and the healing of those who have been hurt and afflicted by sin.

That is why, as Christians, all of us are challenged to be the ones to show the love of God as revealed to us through His Son to those whom we encounter in our lives in each and every interactions we have with them. We should show this through even the smallest parts of our lives, we can be the ones to show the love of God to everyone around us, in how we love our neighbours, all those whom we encounter in life, in our willingness to forgive those who have hurt us and to pray for them and their conversion of heart, among other things. This is why as we still continue to celebrate this joyful Christmas season, we are constantly being reminded to be always putting Christ, the manifestation of God’s love, at the centre of our lives.

Let us all therefore truly become worthy children and followers of the Lord, to be truly worthy to call God our ‘Father’ because we are truly like Him in all things, especially in how we love generously from our hearts and continue to do so just as how the Lord Himself has loved us all so generously. Let us all no longer be idle in our lives, in not realising that our every actions can be very important in showing the love of God to all the people, and let us all be proactive from now on in being evangelising and missionary in all of our actions, words and deeds, in our every interactions with our fellow brethren, even in the smallest things, now and always. Amen.