Love Divine: Meditations for the Advent, Christmas, and New Year SeasonSample

"First Sunday After Christmas: Love Endures"

If we are the recipients of the enduring love of the Son of God, the Love Divine, how shall we respond? 

We should respond in saving faith, first of all, believing in a personal way that when Jesus died on the cross, he did it for us as much as for anyone. Second, we should respond in loving gratitude by explicitly thanking him for the royal humiliation he suffered on our behalf. Finally—and this may be the hardest part—we should respond to the love of Jesus by loving other people the way that he loves. 

What is the situation in life where God is calling you to loving endurance? Some of us suffer at school, where we are mocked for following Christ. Some of us suffer at work, where people have complaining attitudes that are hard for us to bear. Then there are the problems we have in our families—with our parents, our spouses, our children, or in other close relationships.  

There are people who have harmed us, who have wounded us with hurtful words and battered us with painful blows, whether physical or psychological. How can we possibly bear to love them? Only the love of Jesus can empower us to keep on loving the people whom it hurts for us to love. 

People sometimes say, “I know that God will never give me more than I can bear.” Actually, there are times when God does give us more than we think we can bear. Sooner or later, we all suffer unbearable losses, or face insoluble problems, or have to deal with impossible people. But although God may give us more than we can bear, he never gives us more than he can bear. 

We are not alone. We do not have to bear all things or endure all things on our own. The love of the true Love Divine will carry us through. The more we know his love—the love of our suffering, saving King, who was sent to be born and to live among us before he died to save us and rose again to give us life—the more we are able to endure all things for him. 

Do we have the courage to ask God to help us love the people whom it hurts for us to love?