Who loves passes from death to life

During a very difficult period in their development John writes to the Christian communities he founded. Heresies and false doctrines concerning matters of faith and morality have started to spread. Christians are living in a pagan environment which is difficult and hostile towards the spirit of the Gospel.

To help them the Apostle points out a radical solution: to love one's neighbour, to live the law of love they have received from the beginning, the law which he sees as being a summary of all the other commandments.

If they do this, they will know what 'life' is; more and more they will grow in union with God and experience that God is Love. Through this experience they will be confirmed in the faith and will be capable of facing every assault, especially in times of crisis.

We know the Apostle refers to an awareness which comes from experience. It's like saying: we have experienced it, we have touched it with our own hands. This is what the Christians evangelised by John experienced at the beginning of their conversion. When you live God's commandments, particularly the commandment of love for your neighbour, you enter the very life of God.

But do present-day Christians have this experience? Of course they know that God's commandments have a practical aim. Jesus continually insists that it is not enough to listen to the Word of God; it must be lived (Mt. 5:19) (Mt. 7:21) (Mt. 7:26).

Instead, what most people are not so sure of, either because they don't know it or because they have a purely theoretical knowledge without having experienced it, is the marvellous aspect of Christian life which the Apostle stresses here, namely, that when we live the commandment of love, God takes possession of us. An unmistakable sign of this is that life, peace and joy he gives us to enjoy already here on earth. Then everything becomes filled with light, everything becomes harmonious. Faith and life are no longer separated. Faith becomes the driving force which pervades all our actions and binds them together.

This Word of Life tells us that love for our neighbour is the royal road which leads us to God. Since we are his children, there is nothing closer to his heart than love for our brothers and sisters. We can give him no greater joy than when we love our brothers and sisters.

Because brotherly love leads us to union with God, it is an unending source of interior light, it is the fount of life, of spiritual fruitfulness and of continual renewal. It prevents the 'gangrene', 'sclerosis' or 'paralysis' which can form in the Christian community. In short, brotherly love makes us pass from death to life. Instead, when charity is missing, everything decays and dies. And this explains certain symptoms which are so widespread in today's world: a lack of enthusiasm and ideals, mediocrity, boredom, a desire to escape, the loss of values, etc.

The 'brothers' John is speaking of here are above all the members of the communities we belong to. If it is true that we must love everyone, it is also true that we must begin by loving those with whom we live so that we can then extend this love to all humanity. So we must begin with our families, the people we work with, the parishioners in our parish, the religious organisations and communities to which we belong. Love for our brothers and sisters wouldn't be real and according to the right order if it didn't start here. We are called to build the family of the children of God wherever we are.

This Word of Life opens up immense horizons. It inspires us in the divine adventure of Christian love which leads us along unforeseen paths. Above all, it reminds us that love of our neighbour is the answer to give to a world in which theories of struggle, of survival of the fittest, the shrewd and the unscrupulous, are proclaimed, and in which everything seems to be paralysed by materialism and selfishness. This is the medicine that can heal the world. Living the law of love invigorates not only our lives but affects everything around us. It's like a wave of divine warmth which radiates and spreads, penetrating human relations, melting personal and group relationships and gradually transforming society.

Let's make a decision. We all have brothers and sisters to love in the name of Jesus. We always have them. Let's be faithful to this love and help many others to do the same. We will discover within our soul what union with God means. Our faith will be renewed and our doubts will fade, boredom will no longer exist. Life will be full: very, very full.