LOVE: (Read Deut. 10:17-19a/John 13:34,35).
We’ve arrived at the final stop on this Advent journey, where we’ve explored the many layered characteristics of (Hope, Peace & Joy) a life rooted in Jesus+. Today’s focus is Love, a word which, in the English, conveys varying shades of meaning, depending on its contextual usage. When however, scripture speaks of Love as emanating from God, the reference is not to an emotion but, as David Benner suggests ‘an experience that is transformational.’ In other words, embracing divine Love or Agape, is emptying oneself in order to be filled with God’s fullness. The Incarnation speaks eloquently to such self-emptying, that filled with the fullness of God’s love, the world may by us, experience its tender beauty. This is not easy; embracing Agape means relinquishing fear(s) and resting in the knowledge that nothing, not even death can separate us from God’s Love (cf.Rm. 8:38). So, ‘Come down O Love divine…kindle a flame of sacred love, on the mean altars of our hearts.
Canon “Grace” Jervis
