Thursday after Epiphany
January 7, 2021
Daily reading from the USCCB: 1 John 4:19-5:4
John gives his readers still further instructions about loving, and about our relationship with God.
First of all, we are to consider our love for God a love that is generated by God’s prior love for us. This love for God necessarily involves our love for neighbor. It doesn’t make any sense to say that we love God whom we cannot even see, if we do not love our neighbor who is visible and near to us. God commands us to love our neighbor as a necessary and logical consequence of our love for him. The two are inseparable.
God’s commandments are not burdensome. They are directives for loving–loving that enables us to face with confidence every challenge that we face in the world.
