Love – 2nd Sunday of Advent

Advent Reading:

“As human beings, we discover that love can come to us in many ways, but the greatest love – God’s love, comes to us only in Christ. Using His example in response to the suffering and afflicted, there is no exploitation of hurting souls. In Christ, we do not dehumanize people regardless of their circumstances. We see no one person or persons as pitiful or victims, but as someone to love at the very moment of attention. There are many gifts that Christ came to earth to give to us – but this is the one gift that He asks us to give to one another. When we learn to love this way, we learn to see one another differently. How we perceive and view one another is critical to understanding the love that Christ came to give us.

How does He see us? simply through the eyes of love. His love does not look through, look past, look down, look over, or look away. The love Christ came to give looks inside the heart of humankind to reveal His love for them. It is love that goes beyond how others see us and even how we often times see ourselves. This love is the greatest gift He could give us – it is the love of God, that brought Him to us – it is why He comes to us.
Looking closely at Christ, we can discover how His gift for us builds the kind of love and faith needed to see the people we have not seen, hear the people we have not heard, and welcome those we have not included. Yes, it takes faith to see what we cannot see; but, it takes love to see what we do not want to see.”

                                         …Dr. Stephen Isaac (Love Beyond Love)

Scripture Reading:

John 13:33-35
Dear children, I will be with you only a little longer. And as I told the Jewish leaders, you will search for me, but you can’t come where I am going. 34 So now I am giving you a new commandment: Love each other. Just as I have loved you, you should love each other. 35 Your love for one another will prove to the world that you are my disciples.”

John 14:15-21
“If you love me, obey my commandments. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate, who will never leave you. He is the Holy Spirit, who leads into all truth. The world cannot receive him, because it isn’t looking for him and doesn’t recognize him. But you know him, because he lives with you now and later will be in you. No, I will not abandon you as orphans—I will come to you. Soon the world will no longer see me, but you will see me. Since I live, you also will live. When I am raised to life again, you will know that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you. Those who accept my commandments and obey them are the ones who love me. And because they love me, my Father will love them. And I will love them and reveal myself to each of them.”