LOVE, JOY, PEACE, GRACE AND LIFE The beautiful themes of Christmas are love, joy, peace, grace and life. It reveals to us that: God is love 1 John 4: 8, 16. It is assured of the joy of the Lord…
The gospel of today presents us with an eternal truth: the love of God and money are two parallel ways. They cannot or will never meet or cross each other. We are either for God or for the world. Hence, it presents us towards the end with some crucial lines of a hard or brunt truth: “No slave can serve two masters; for a slave will either hate the one and love the other, or be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money.”
The abiding presence of God through the Holy Spirit is the most recurring theme of the scriptural readings, as we draw closer to the end of the Eastertide that culminates with the feasts of Ascension and Pentecost. Indeed, the readings this Sunday are all about the abiding love of God through his Spirit of love.
The Christian prophetic message is a the heart of Christianity. These faith convictions cannot be silenced through rejection or prejudice. Hence, as Christians, we are all called and commissioned by God to be prophets. Prophets who speak and live out the truth without fear or favour.
The joy and celebration of Christmas are in the little or insignificant things of our daily human and Christian lives. Where God comes to meet us. It means we all need the grace to be conscious of the little joys, gestures, words, actions and contacts we make with God and others during this holy season. Christmas challenges us to see great things happening in human history and around us in the most insignificant ways.
God is love (1John 4:8). Hence, to love is not only to be religious and spiritual but also to be God-like. Inarguably, love is at the basis of our religious teaching, preaching, doctrines, theology, philosophy, ideology, practices and even rituals and rites. If these are devoid of love then religion is as useless as any human venture.
The feast of Christmas is a celebration of a family. A holy family model of all families that is a shining example to all human families.
Love is all that there is to life and Christian living.Christian religion starts and ends with the love which is the total commitment of life to God. Love is all and not rules or regulations or intellectual discourses.