Replies

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).

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: Matthew 11:25-30

Jesus Thanks His Father

[25] At that time Jesus declared, "I thank Thee, Father, Lord of
Heaven and earth, that Thou hast hidden these things from the wise and
understanding and revealed them to babes; [26] yea, Father, for such
was Thy gracious will. [27] All things have been delivered to Me by My
Father; and no one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows
the Father except the Son and any one to whom the Son chooses to reveal
Him. [28] Come to Me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will
give you rest. [29] Take My yoke upon you, and learn from Me; for I am
gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.
[30] For My yoke is easy, and My burden is light."

Commentary:

25-26. The wise and understanding of this world, that is, those who
rely on their own judgment, cannot accept the revelation which Christ
has brought us. Supernatural outlook is always connected with
humility. A humble person, who gives himself little importance, sees;
a person who is full of self-esteem fails to perceive supernatural
things.

27. Here Jesus formally reveals His divinity. Our knowledge of a
person shows our intimacy with Him, according to the principle given by
St. Paul: "For what person knows a man's thoughts except the spirit of
the man which is in him?" (1 Corinthians 2:11). The Son knows the
Father by the same knowledge as that by which the Father knows the
Son. This identity of knowledge implies oneness of nature; that is to
say, Jesus is God just as the Father is God.

28-30. Our Lord calls everyone to come to Him. We all find things
difficult in one way or another. The history of souls bears out the
truth of these words of Jesus. Only the Gospel can fully satisfy the
thirst for truth and justice which sincere people feel. Only our Lord,
our Master--and those to whom He passes on His power--can soothe the
sinner by telling him, "Your sins are forgiven" (Matthew 9:2). In this
connection Pope Paul VI teaches: "Jesus says now and always, `Come to
Me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.' His
attitude towards us is one of invitation, knowledge and compassion;
indeed, it is one of offering, promise, friendship, goodness, remedy of
our ailments; He is our comforter; indeed, our nourishment, our bread,
giving us energy and life" ("Homily on Corpus Christi", 13 June 1974).

"Come to Me": the Master is addressing the crowds who are following
Him, "harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd" (Matthew
9:36). The Pharisees weighed them down with an endless series of petty
regulations (cf. Acts 15:10), yet they brought no peace to their
souls. Jesus tells these people, and us, about the kind of burden He
imposes: "Any other burden oppresses and crushes you, but Christ's
actually takes weight off you. Any other burden weighs down, but
Christ's gives you wings. If you take a bird's wings away, you might
seem to be taking weight off it, but the more weight you take off, the
more you tie it down to the earth. There it is on the ground, and you
wanted to relieve it of a weight; give it back the weight of its wings
and you will see how it flies" (St. Augustine, "Sermon" 126).

"All you who go about tormented, afflicted and burdened with the burden
of your cares and desires, go forth from them, come to Me and I will
refresh you and you shall find for your souls the rest which your
desires take from you" (St. John of the Cross, "Ascent of Mount
Carmel", Book 1, Chapter 7, 4).