what is your experience of God? tuesday after epiphany 2015

Today we continue to reflect on our first reading, again from the first letter of John.  It is in this letter that John made this beautiful and most profound assertion – something that we need to carry with us wherever we are, whatever we do and in whatever situation we find ourselves in.  And what is this assertion - God is love.  In his commentary on this particular passage, St Augustine said, Even if nothing more were to be said in all the pages of Sacred Scripture, and all we heard from the mouth of the Holy Spirit were that ‘God is love’, there would be nothing else we would need to look for.” God is love, ang Dios gugma, siling ni San Agustin, kon wala na may ginhambal pa ang Espiritu Santo nahanungod sa Dios magluwas sini, in fact kon wala na may nasulat sa biblia magluwas sini, nga ang Dios gugma – tuman na ini, wala na kita sing dapat pa pangitaon.   To know that God is love is enough, to believe in your heart that God is love, that is enough.  Ang iban pa nga mabasahan naton sa biblia are just commentaries, mga assertion, mga emphasis na lang ina because the bottom line of all these is the divine revelation that God is love.

And so let us ask ourselves who is God for me?  How do I look at God?

In John’s letter, his logic goes this way – since God is love, all those who love are begotten by God and knows God.  In effect you are capable of loving, you can love because you are begotten by God and you know God. 

Love is an attribute of God, it is the characteristic of God.  Since we are made in the image and likeness of God we share in these attributes.  God is holy.  It is an attribute of God and so we too can become holy.  God is love, it is an attribute of God and therefore we too are capable of loving.  This is why John asserts that those begotten of God can love. 

If you notice, John also stated the negative saying “those without love does not know God.”  He did not say you are not begotten by God if you do not love.  He only said that those who do not love do not know God.  In other words John acknowledges that even if you are not a loving person, the capacity to love is still there in you, because the fact is we are all begotten of God.  Even if one is full of hate for this and that person, you can love, you can still love because you are begotten of God, you share in the attributes of God.

As we end Christmas this week it is good to acknowledge what we are capable of because we are begotten of God.  We can love because we have a semblance, a similarity with God, and God is love.  It is just a matter of knowing who God is for you.  That is why I asked in the middle of this reflection who is God for you?  How have you come to know God in your life?  Is he also for you a God who is love?  Love always empowers us - Is God an affirming presence in your life?  Or is he fear, or anger, or vengeance?  In Jesus God’s love is expressed as mercy – Is you experience of God, mercy?