Shepherd's Voice

The Evangelist St. John says  in his letter, 1Jn. 4:16, " God is love. He who loves abides in God, and God abides in him." This is the purpose of Incarnation. God who is fullness of love comes into the world to teach us to love and by which He could abide in us and we in Him. That is why he is called Emmanuel, means 'God with us'.

Jesus Our Lord and Saviour has given us only one commandment. That is, "Love one another as I have loved you." This comprises all the law and the prophets. This commandment is unique to Jesus.  No one, not even the gods of any religions of the world have ever spoken like this.  That's why the document 'Dominus Jesus' rightly defines and upholds the uniqueness of Jesus Christ.  In India in the name of Inter religious dialogue, some people to please people of other faiths, hold the syncretic statements like All religions are same; All religions lead to the same God; One God and different ways to the same God just like all rivers go and merge into the one sea. We do not compare and condemn other religions. That is not right. We respect the belief of our brothers and sisters belonging to the different faiths.  We accept the universality of God's salvation. But Jesus and his teachings are unique.  This is revealed in hs commandment, "Love one another as I have loved you" That is why Jesus before he suffered, after washing the feet of his disciples said in Jn. 13:34, I give you a New Commandment. It is new. No one has given such a commandment.  No one will ever give. It is always new. It renews everything, the world and every person who lives by this new commandment. That is why Jesus says, Behold I make everything new. He is the only one who can renew you and me and everyone who lives by His only commandment of love. Jesus also owns this commandment of love as His own. It belongs only to Jesus. That is why Jesus says in Jn. 15:12, "This is my commandment that you love one another as I have loved you". So this is 'NEW' commandment and 'MY' commandment (Jesus's own commandment).

We call ourselves Christians. We claim that as Christians we love. Yes, we do love. But do we love as Christ loves. True Christian is the one who loves as Christ loves. In Christ's way of love, there are six characteristics.  In our way of loving someone, when we have these six characteristics,  only then we can call our love as Christ's love or christian love. That is why Jesus in Lk. 6:32-36, says, what great is your love if you love only those who love you. Even the pagans do that. Thus Christian love or Christ's love is a unique love, a qualified love. It has six characteristics which makes it very unique and incomparable.

1. Love as Jesus loves

2. Love everyone with the same intensity.

3. See Jesus in everyone

4. Be the first to love. (Take the first step to    love)

5. Be one with the person you love. Identification

6. Suffer for the person you love. (Sacrifice)

1. Love as Jesus loves.

How did Jesus love. By dying on the cross. In love he took our place and died for our sins to redeem us.  He sys that there is no greater love than this that one lays down his life for others. In our love for others we should be selfless.

2. Love everyone with the same intensity. Humanly speaking it seems to be impossible.  Even a mother having 6 children, she cannot love all the six in the same way. One she may love one more and the other less. We may be able to love everyone but not possible with the same intensity. Some may question that even Jesus in his life time had special love for some  people.  The apostle John was known to be the belove disciple of Jesus. He had special love for Mary Magdalene. He loved the family of Mary, Martha and Lazarus and frequented their home.  All these seems to indicate that Jesus had special love for some. No, that is not true. Jesus love was a total, unconditional, infinite, indivisible and fullness of love. He says, I love you as the Father loves me. From the part of Jesus it is a total love for everyone.  Fullness of love for everyone for both good and the bad, for everyone the same love. The way we respond to that love we experience more or less. Our experience of God's love depends on our response. John , Mary Magdalene, Mary, Martha and Lazarus, responded more and experienced more.

3. See Jesus ( God) in everyone.

We will be able to love everyone with the same intensity only when we are able to see God in everyone.  Every human being is created in the image and likeness of God.  That is the reality of every human being. Jesus could love everyone with the same intensity because he saw in everyone his father's image. The pharisees saw in the women caught in adultery a bundle of adultery.  But Jesus saw in her his Father's image. The pharisees saw in the Leper a bundle of leprosy. But Jesus saw in him his Father's image and healed him. St. Mother Teresa of Calcutta is a beautiful example.  She did not love and serve the poorest of the poor because they are poor but because she saw in everyone Jesus. Her spirituality is a spirituality of Jesus in everyone.  That is why she could love everyone with the same intensity.

4. Be the first to love.

God took the first step to love though we were sinners. Sometimes we argue that I haven't done anything wrong.  I am hundred percent innocent.  The other one is at fault. So let him realize and come back to me asking pardon.  We may think that if I go and reconcile,  he may think that he is not at fault and I am guity and continue to repeat the wrongdoings.  But if we think that I am called to love as Jesus loves and takes the first step to love, then the power of Jesus merciful love transforms him.

5. Be one with the person you love.

Love is not just an act but a relationship.  Love is a communion. Because Jesus loved us and emptied himself,  taking the human form, becoming one like us in everything except sin. Jesus's love is a on-going relationship,  deeper communion and Identification. 

6. Sacrifice for the one you love.

True love is sacrifice. Jesus loved us and sacrificed himself for us.  Unless a grain of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains alone, if it dies, it gives life. There is no true love without sacrifice.

That is the very reason our Holy Father Pope Leo in his first encyclical in line with his predecessor Pope Francis,  comes with a special emphasis to the love for the poor.

The essence of Dilexi Te is the call for Christians to make the love and care of the poor a central and constitutive dimension of their faith, not just as a matter of charity but as an essential part of encountering Christ. The document, an apostolic exhortation by Pope Leo XIV completed from Pope Francis's work, argues that love for God and love for the poor are inseparable, and the poor are teachers of the Gospel who reveal Christ's presence. It urges both individual and structural changes to address poverty and inequality. The document emphasizes that you cannot claim to love God without loving the poor. The poor are not simply a societal problem but are where Christ is encountered. It calls for a Church that is credible through concrete love and action, challenging the faithful to be a "poor Church for the poor".  Dilexi Te calls for more than just personal acts of kindness; it demands that individuals and institutions confront the "structures of sin" that perpetuate poverty and inequality.

Christmas is the feast of this great love of God.  It is the feast of Incarnation.  In Incarnation,  God becomes man in Jesus, to love us by showing us the Way, teaching us the Truth and giving us life and life in abundance. But unfortunately today Christmas is highly commercialized. It is limited to celebration of suppose christmas, expensive and lavishly spending parties, very costly decorations and illuminations of churches and institutions and many other ways of celebrations which takes away the true meaning of the Christmas reality. 

I invite all of you during this Christmas,  in the line of Dilexi Te, to take a little time amidst the busy schedule of Christmas celebrations,  to sit in front of the crib and look at the babe lying in the manger, helpless, powerless,  dependent, representing the millions of poor people around us in the world,  speaking to us through his feeble mouth, ( St. Mathew, ch. 25: 35-40,)"For I was hungry, you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me, Then the righteous will answer him, Lord when did we see you hungry and feed you or thirsty and give you something to drink? When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or see you naked and clothed you,  when did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?. The King will reply, 'Truly I tell you whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me."

When we do not care for Jesus in the poor then Jesus will say, "I came unto my own and my own received me not." Jn. 1:11.

So my dear brothers and sisters let this Christmas be a Christmas with Jesus in the poor. 

Wish you all a gracefilled, joyful and meaningful Christmas.