I greet you all in the name of the Father, the creator of heaven and earth. He created all things and on the sixth day, out of love and created us. He created us in His own image and likeness. In same consideration of love, He gave Eve to Adam as his help mate and companion, someone whom to love and share love with.
I greet you also in the name of Jesus Christ, God who took on human flesh for no other reason than love. I love you in the name of the Holy Spirit, the Son of life who proceeds from the Father and the Son.
I greet you in the name of the Holy Spirit, the one God, who is love. Scripture says:"God is love, he who lives in love, lives in God and God lives in him" (1 John 4:16). It is an example of the love of God that can tell us the true meaning of love. In our days, people pan off all sorts of emotions and feelings as love.
Unless we strike at the True meaning of love as revealed to us and demonstrated to us by God, we may be following every motion. So at this time when Valentine's Day is still in the air, we need to remind ourselves of what true love means, so that can enter into the joy of heaven.
Thomas Merton, a Cistercian Monk who died in 1968 said: "The beginning of love is the will to let those we love be perfectly themselves, the resolution not to twist them to fit our own image. If in loving them we do not love what they are but only their potential likeness to ourselves, then we only love the reflection of ourselves we find in them."
In the book of Genesis, God tells us that He created us in His own image and likeness, but at the same time He gave us free will to be or not to be like Him in our thoughts, words and actions.
The proof that God loves us is that He died for us with our imperfection and was ready and willing to give whatever it takes to bring us eternal life. He became man and allowed Himself to be used as a sacrifice for our sins, that we may have life and have it abundantly. Dear friends that is love.
Thomas Merton again says: "Our job is to love others without stopping to inquire whether they are worthy. That is not our business. What we are asked to do is love and this love will render both ourselves and our neighbor worthy."
The love of God should be able to help us evaluate the kind of love that we have towards one another. Does our love seek the good of the one loved? Do we love the other only when things are good and going well or do we also love in time of sickness and adversity: for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer? Or do you use people for your own ends and profess love only for what you can get from the other person?
Today, God calls us to love one another in a way that enhances the other's dignity and respect; to love one another as God loves us.
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