The lesson for today in my Benedictine Daily Prayer book begins this way: “For this is the message you have heard from the beginning, that we should love one another” (1John:3:11). It’s a wonderful message for Christmas, and yet far from the reality around us. I once walked into a crowded store shortly before Christmas to find toys scattered ankle deep over the floor. People were ramming their carts into others to get past. A man in the check-out lane was cursing a blue streak. A frazzled clerk asked me, “Father, what is the matter with these people?” I knew. The madness of  buying stuff had driven out the celebration of love.

So often love is banished from life, even from the Christian life. The loving unity of John’s church was shattered by people who denied that Christ had come in the flesh. The loving peace of Christmas was destroyed on December 29, 1170, by four knights who murdered Archbishop Thomas Becket in his cathedral.

“Where is love?” sings Oliver in the musical by that name. It’s a question Christians should answer with conviction. Here is love. Here is love in the gift of Jesus. Here is love in the community of the faith celebrating his incarnation.

I commend this tender poem by Christina Georgina Rossetti to you for your Christmas meditation:

Read 1 John 3:11-18, and remember: God loves YOU unconditionally.

Wayne

Today’s Reading: https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1+John+3%3A11-18&version=NRSV