by Bishop Thomas Gumbleton
Pax Christi USA Teacher of Peace
In order to give a little bit more context to a reflection on our scripture passages of today, I will share with you one other very short passage from the first letter of St. John, a passage with which we’re all familiar. John tells us, “My dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God, and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God because God is love. The one who lives in love, lives in God and God lives in them.”
I’m sure we are all very familiar with that passage, and we’ve heard that description of God many times: God is love. If you live in love, you live in God. That’s what our scripture lessons are telling us today. Our first lesson from the Book of Wisdom reminds us that we wouldn’t even exist if it were not for God’s love. God is love, and God loves us into existence. God did not make death, the writer tells us, nor does God rejoice in the destruction of the living since God has created everything.
All creatures of the universe are for our good. We don’t think about that often enough. We must remember and become aware of that: We wouldn’t be here now. We wouldn’t exist for one second if God’s love didn’t draw us into being and continue to support us at every second, every instance of our lives. God is love, and that love is poured forth upon us. In the Gospel lesson, we see even more dramatically how God is love because Jesus — we know this now so clearly because it’s 2,000 years later — Jesus died and rose from the dead and lives among us…