Message from Fr. Chris

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

In the Second reading this weekend, St. John says, “let us love not in word or speech but in deed and truth.” What does this mean? First and foremost, we cannot just talk about being loving or good people. To use a modern term, we cannot virtue signal saying how much we should love one another and then fail to treat others as Christ or even as we would want to be treated.

The next question is, “what does it mean to love?” Love is an act of the will not a feeling. Basically, all of our moral acts come down to loving or not. Love is an act of the will for the good of the other. It is not something that you just talk about, it is not something you feel. It is something that is true, that is right or wrong on its own despite how we feel. That is what St. John is saying. You have to do it and there needs to be proof, and what you do must be in line with the will of God, the truth.

Look at the first reading. St. Paul converted, but the Christian community does not believe, they are skeptical of his conversion. An interesting side note, the origin of God parents was not just to share the faith with the catechumen, but also to ensure that the catechumen indeed desired to follow Christ and not do harm to the Christian community. This is what the early community thought of St. Paul. They thought he had converted in order to kill more Christians.

How do they know he is loving in deed and not just talking about being a Christian? He proclaims the faith boldly, which means he is not just trying to get along and not rock the boat. He is proclaiming the truth of the resurrected Christ to the Hellenists, who were Jews that only spoke Greek. Think how bold this is that Saul, now Paul, is preaching to people who were just like him wanting to get rid of the Christians. He does so for their good, to lead them to belief in Jesus, as St. John says, “his commandment is this: we should believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and love one another just as he commanded us.” St. Paul is loving the Hellenists by proclaiming the truth of the resurrection to them as well as his own conversion. He puts both faith and love into action.

How do we live this love? There is only one way, Jesus says, “Whoever remains in me and I in him will bear much fruit, because without me you can do nothing.” The only way we can truly love one another is to remain in Christ, to remain in his love, and in him, and He loves in and through us. We cannot forget our utter dependency upon Jesus. When he says without me you can do nothing, he means it. He does not say apart from me you can do this or that with some success. No he says you can do nothing. If we want to be true disciple and not just phonies calling it in or pretending to look like loving people, we must remain in him. Only as we remain in him can we truly love in deed and in truth. When we remain in him, He is the one loving in and through us, our lives bear the fruit of his love. When we remain in him, more people are drawn to his love because we love in deed and in truth, because we live as authentic Christians.

Peace,
Fr. Chris