Reflection for January 8
Jesus commands that whoever loves God must love His children.
As I reflect upon this reading, I struggle with my capacity to love fellow citizens in these times of turmoil and disunity. I confess that all I have are questions.
How do I reflect love to those I perceive as having hateful ideas?
How can I be true to myself while being open to seeing the humanity of others?
How do I avoid closing my heart off to those I do not understand?
How do I pivot away from hostility when I know love can’t exist where these feelings fester?
How do I come to believe that common ground, anchored in love, is possible?
What is the path to finding mutuality?
How do I offer grace, as an act of love, to myself and others?
Are all these questions, and the dialogue that they create, the means to crafting a loving solution to our country’s current painful rift between families, friends, institutions, and leaders?
Jesus, can you intervene to help us find the selfless and sacrificial brotherly love, agape, needed to transform every heart and our nation?
Marilynn Cruz-Aponte