Let Us Love One Another

Theme: Let Us Love One Another
Text: I John 4:7-21
Reflections on the text by Dennis Hankins


In one Morning Litany found in St. Augustine’s Prayer Book of the Episcopal Church is found these words: Glorious Holy Trinity, Abyss of Love.

The mutual self-giving affection of the Holy Trinity has touched our world and us in the person of Jesus Christ. God sent his Son into the world so that we might live through him. God is love! And further more, if God has loved us, we ought to love one another.

Perhaps no one has ever quite said yes to carry God’s infinite love into the world like Mary. Yet like Mary we must abandon ourselves to receive the divine embrace. While it is true God loved us through Mary, it is equally true that Mary loved us through God. Sacrificial love is about giving away freely what has been freely given to us. Do you think John, the disciple to whom Jesus gave his Mother, learned some of these truths he writes concerning the love of God, from Mary the Mother of Love Incarnate?

Jesus does not force himself on anyone. Neither should we. Love of the charitable variety is not self-seeking. While Jesus does not barge in where not invited, He does stand at the door and knock. And if anyone hears his voice and opens the door, Jesus will come in to him and eat with him and he with Jesus. Your children need to know you care. But if you don’t knock and you refuse to let them hear your heart, they will never let you into their heart.

Loving one another is not for the faint of heart. When Mary wrapped her newborn son in swaddling clothes, a sword was about to pierce her heart. He who came from the heart of holy love was smuggled into Egypt because evil men sought the young child to kill him. But all of this early drama of Love’s debut highlights the fact that God first loved us and that is why and how we can and ought always to love one another.