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From: Deuteronomy 7:6-11

[6] "For you are a people holy to the LORD your God; the LORD your God has
chosen you to be a people for his own possession, out of all the peoples
that are on the face of the earth.

God's Election of Israel

[7] "It was not because you were more in number than any other people that
the LORD set his love upon you and chose you, for you were the fewest of all
peoples; [8] but it is because the LORD loves you, and is keeping the oath
which he swore to your fathers, that the LORD has brought you out with a
mighty hand, and redeemed you from the house of bondage, from the hand of
Pharaoh king of Egypt. [9] Know therefore that the LORD your God is God, the
faithful God who keeps covenant and steadfast love with those who love him
and keep his commandments, to a thousand generations, and requites to their
face those who hate him, by destroying them; he will not be slack with him
who hates him, he will requite him to his face. ''You shall therefore be
careful to do the commandment, and the statutes, and the ordinances, which I
command you this day."

Commentary:

7:6-16. It is fair to say that Deuteronomy 7:6-7 is the classic passage in
Old Testament revelation on God's special election of Israel. That election,
and the love which it evidences, are themes basic to this book; it keeps on
stressing them (cf., e.g., 4:20, 34; 9:5). God makes his choice first--quite
independently of the qualities or merits of the people or of individuals.
The only reason for his choice is pure love and (in the case of the
Israelites) the promises he made to their ancestors (cf. the note on Ex
1:8-14). Consciousness of this election, awareness that Israel is God's
special possession, runs right through Holy Scripture. The New Testament
upholds this privilege that belongs to Israel: John 1:11 ("He came to his
own home") must be interpreted in the first instance as meaning that the
Word comes specially to his people Israel; in the second instance he comes
to all mankind. Romans 9:4-5 carries the same message: "They are Israelites,
and to them belong the sonship, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the
law, the worship, and the promise, and of their race, according to the
flesh, is the Christ [...]."

Verses 7-8 give the theological explanation of this election: God's pure
love, his predilection, is totally unmerited by Israel; this means that God
is sovereignly free to choose whomever he wishes for the mission he has in
mind; and no one has any right to be chosen specially by God.

What happens in the collectivity of the people of Israel also applies when
God singles out individuals for special assignments. In the New Testament,
it says apropos of the apostles, that "he called to him those whom he
desired" (Mt 3:13); and the case of St Paul is particularly apposite: Jesus
called hin though he "had blasphemed and persecuted and insulted him
[Christ]" (1 Tim 1:13).

"Vocation comes first," [St] BI. Josemaria Escriva reminds us. "God loves us
before we even know how to go toward him, and he places in us the love with
which we can respond to his call. God's fatherly goodness comes out to meet
us. Our Lord is not only just. He is much more: he is merciful. He does not
wait for us to go to him. He takes the initiative, with the unmistakable
signs of paternal affection" ("Christ Is Passing By", 33).

7:10. This verse touches on something very important as regards human
behavior: God rewards those who do good and punishes those who do evil.
Everyday experience does not always seem to bear this out: evil people enjoy
success whereas good people are mistreated and despised. Men have always
asked themselves how God's justice can be compatible with these facts.

The prophet Jeremiah will ask the Lord: "Why does the way of the wicked
prosper? Why do all who are treacherous thrive?" (Jer 12:1). Many psalms
echo the same idea (cf Ps 37; 38; 29; 49; 73; 92). But the place where the
matter is dealt with most dramatically is the book of Job. The Wisdom books
of the Old Testament do a lot to provide an answer to this question, but it
will not be until the fullness of Revelations in the New Testament that it
is fully solved. Throughout the New Testament reward or punishment is not
depicted as a mathematical calculation, to produce instant recompense in
this life; rather, the way a person behaves in this life decides his or her
fate in the next life. If the wicked are successful in this life, that is
something very short-lived; whereas the joy of the righteous will reach its
fullness in eternal beatitude. Prior to that, the righteous often suffer
contradiction, pain and sorrow: it purifies their lives and gives an
increase of divine grace.

Source: "The Navarre Bible: Text and Commentaries". Biblical text
taken from the Revised Standard Version and New Vulgate. Commentaries
made by members of the Faculty of Theology of the University of
Navarre, Spain. Published by Four Courts Press, Kill Lane, Blackrock,
Co. Dublin, Ireland.

From: 1 John 4:7-16

God is Love. Brotherly Love, the Mark of Christians

[7] Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God, and he who
loves is born of God and knows God. [8] He who does not love does not
know God; for God is love. [9] In this the love of God was made
manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that
we might live through him. [10] In this is love, not that we loved God
but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the expiation for our
sins.

[11] Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.
[12] No man has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in
us and his love is perfected in us.

[13] By this we know that we abide in him and he in us, because he has
given us of his own Spirit. [14] And we have seen and testify that the
Father has sent his Son as the Savior of the world. [15] Whoever
confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in
God. [16] So we know and believe the love God has for us. God is love,
and he who abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him.

Commentary:

7-21. St John now expands on the second aspect of the divine
commandment (cf. 1 Jn 3:23)--brotherly love. The argument is along
these lines: God is love and it was he who loved us to begin with (vv.
7-10); brotherly love is the response which God's love calls for (vv.
11 16); when our love is perfect, we feel no fear (vv. 17-18);
brotherly love is an expression of love of God (vv. 19-21).

This is not tiresome repetition of the ideas already discussed (2:7-11;
3:11-18): contrary to the false teaching which is beginning to be
spread, charity is the sure mark, the way to recognize the genuine
disciple.

St Jerome hands down a tradition concerning the last years of St John's
life: when he was already a very old man, he used always say the same
thing to the faithful: "My children, love one another!" On one
occasion, he was asked why he insisted on this: "to which he replied
with these words worthy of John: 'Because it is the Lord's
commandment, and if you keep just this commandment, it will suffice"'
("Comm. in Gal.", III, 6, 10).

7. The divine attributes, God's perfections, which he has to the
highest degree, are the cause of our virtues: for example, because God
is holy, we have been given a capacity to be holy. Similarly, because
God is love, we can love. True love, true charity, comes from God.

8. "God is love": without being strictly speaking a definition (in 1:5
he says "God is light"), this statement reveals to us one of the most
consoling attributes of God: "Even if nothing more were to be said in
praise of love in all the pages of this epistle", St Augustine
explains, "even if nothing more were to be said in all the pages of
Sacred Scripture, and all we heard from the mouth of the Holy Spirit
were that 'God is love', there would be nothing else we would need to
look for" ("In Epist. Ioann. Ad Parthos", 7, 5).

God's love for men was revealed in Creation and in the preternatural
and supernatural gifts he gave man prior to sin; after man's sin, God's
love is to be seen, above all, in forgiveness and redemption (as St
John goes on to say: v. 9), for the work of salvation is the product
of God's mercy: "It is precisely because sin exists in the world, which
'God so loved . . . that he gave his only Son' (Jn 3:16), that God, who
'is love' (1 Jn 4:8), "cannot reveal himself other than as mercy". This
corresponds not only to the most profound truth of that love which God
is, but also to the whole interior truth of man and of the world which
is man's temporary homeland" (John Paul II, "Dives In Misericordia",
13).

9. God has revealed his love to men by sending his own Son; that is, it
is not only Christ's teachings which speak to us of God's love, but,
above all, his presence among us: Christ himself is the fullness of
revelation of God (cf. Jn 1:18; Heb 1:1) and of his love for men. "The
source of all grace is God's love for us, and he has revealed this not
just in words but also in deeds. It was divine love which led the
second Person of the most holy Trinity, the Word, the Son of God the
Father, to take on our flesh, our human condition, everything except
sin. And the Word, the Word of God, is the Word from which Love
proceeds (cf. "Summa Theologiae", I, q. 43, a. 5, quoting St Augustine,
"De Trinitate", IX, 10).

"Love is revealed to us in the incarnation, the redemptive journey
which Jesus Christ made on our earth, culminating in the supreme
sacrifice of the cross. And on the cross it showed itself through a new
sign: 'One of the soldiers pierced his side with a spear, and at once
there came out blood and water' (Jn 19:34). This water and blood of
Jesus speaks to us of a self-sacrifice brought to the last extreme: 'It
is finished' (Jn 19:30)--everything is achieved, for the sake of love"
([St] J. Escriva, "Christ Is Passing By", 162).

"Among us": it is difficult to convey in English everything the Greek
contains. The Greek expression means that the love of God was shown to
those who witnessed our Lord's life (the Apostles) and to all other
Christians, whose participate in this apostolic witness (cf. note on 1
Jn 1:1-3; this idea is repeated in vv. 14 and 16). But it also means
"within us", inside us, in our hearts, insofar as we partake of God's
own life by means of sanctifying grace: every Christian is a witness to
the fact that Christ has come so that men "may have life, and have it
abundantly" (Jn 10:10).

10. Given that love is an attribute of God (v. 8), men have a capacity
to love insofar as they share in God's qualities. So, the initiative
always lies with God.

When explaining in what love consists. St John points to its highest
form of expression: "he sent (his Son) to be the expiation of our sins"
(cf. 2:2). Similar turns of phrase occur throughout the letter: the
Son of God manifested himself "to destroy the works of the devil"
(3:8); "he laid down his life for us" (3:16). All these statements show
that: 1) Christ's death is a SACRIFICE in the strict sense of the word,
the most sublime act of recognition of God's sovereignty; 2) it is an
atoning sacrifice, because it obtains God's pardon for the sins of men;
3) it is the supreme act of God's love, so much so that St John
actually says, "in this is love."

What is amazing, St Alphonsus teaches, "is that he could have saved us
without suffering or dying and yet he chose a life of toil and
humiliation, and a bitter and ignominious death, even death on a cross,
something reserved for the very worst offenders. And why was it that,
when he could have redeemed us without suffering, he chose to embrace
death on the Cross? To show us how much he loved us" ("The Love of
Jesus Christ", chap. 1).

11-12. The Apostle underlines here the theological basis of brotherly
love: the love which God has shown us by the incarnation and redemptive
death of his Son, places us in his debt: we have to respond in kind; so
we "ought" to love our neighbor with the kind of gratitude and
disinterest that God showed by taking the initiative in loving us.

Moreover, by loving one another we are in communion with God. The
deepest desire of the human heart, which is to see and to possess God,
cannot be satisfied in this life, because "no man has ever seen God"
(v. 12); our neighbor, on the other hand, we do see. So, in this life,
the way to be in communion with God is by brotherly love. "Love of God
is the first thing in the order of commands", St Augustine explains,
"and love of neighbor is the first thing in the order of practice
[...]. You, who do not yet see God, will, by loving your neighbor,
merit to see him. Love of neighbor cleanses our eyes to see God, as
John clearly says, If you do not love your neighbor, whom you see, how
can you love God, whom you do not see (cf. 1 Jn 4:20)" ("In Ioann.
Evang.", 17, 8).

13. Having the gift of the Holy Spirit is the sure sign of being in
communion with God. Since the Holy Spirit is the love of the Father and
of the Son, his presence in the soul in grace is necessarily something
dynamic, that is, it moves the person to keep all the commandments (cf.
3:24), particularly that of brotherly love. This interior impulse shows
that the third Person of the Blessed Trinity is at work within us; it
is a sign of union with God.

The Holy Spirit's action on the soul is a marvelous and deep mystery.
"This breathing of the Holy Spirit in the soul," says St John of the
Cross, "whereby God transforms it into himself, is so sublime and
delicate and profound a delight to it that it cannot be described by
mortal tongue, nor can human understanding, as such, attain to any
conception of it" ("Spiritual Canticle", stanza 39).

14-15. Once more (cf. v. 1:4) St John vividly reminds his readers that
he and the other Apostles have seen with their own eyes the Son of God,
made man out of love for us. They were eyewitnesses of his redemptive
life and death. And in the Son, sent by the Father as Savior of the
world, the unfathomable mystery of God is revealed--that his very being
is Love.

"It is 'God, who is rich in mercy' (Eph 2:4) whom Jesus Christ has
revealed to us as Father: it is his very Son who, in himself, has
manifested him and made him known to us (cf. Jn 1:18; Heb 1:1f)" (John
Paul II, "Dives In Misericordia", 1).

16. "Knowing" and "believing" are not theoretical knowledge but
intimate, experienced attachment (cf. notes on 2:3-6; 4:1-6; Jn 6:69;
17:8). Therefore when St John says that they knew and believed "the
love God has for us" he is not referring to an abstract truth but to
the historical fact of the incarnation and death of Christ (v. 14), the
supreme manifestation of the Father's love.

"He who abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him": St Thomas
Aquinas explains "that in some way the loved one is to be found in the
lover. And so, he who loves God in some way possesses him, as St John
says (1 Jn 4:16) [...]. Also, it is a property of love that the lover
becomes transformed into the loved one; so, if we love vile and
perishable things, we become vile and perishable, like those who
'became detestable like the things they loved" (Hos 9:10). Whereas, if
we love God, we are made divine, for the Apostle says, 'He who is
united to the Lord becomes one spirit with him' (1 Cor 6:17)" ("In Duo
Praecepta", prol., 3).