Posted by The WORD in other words (2018) by Fr Patricio de los Reyes SVD – Liceo del Verbo Divino
2nd Sunday of Advent
John Lennon sang that “love is wanting and needing to be loved.” This is human love. It is the opposite of the love and affection of Christ that Paul expressed in the second reading. “How I long for all of you with the affection of Jesus Christ.” This must be what pure love is because the love of Christ is pure and chaste love. Paul claimed he had this kind of love. He loved those he served with affection – the love of Christ.
I am overcome with envy because this continues to be a struggle for me, to long for others with the affection of Christ.
Longing has the element of wanting, of needing, and of attraction. But the case of Paul is a pure and chaste wanting and needing. His attraction is purely to Christ that he saw in people. His longing has no shade of possessiveness, selfishness and of self-gratification. Because it is solely founded and driven by the love and affection of Christ , most pure and chaste.
This kind of affection is hard to find because human love is always selfish, self-centered and self-gratifying. I find this in God and in Christ. It is rarely found in humans unless the human heart is fully open to the transforming love of Christ that has transformed the heart of Saul to become Paul – from being persecutor to protector and defender of Christians.
I must transform what John Lennon sang to become: Loving and longing, wanting and needing to love with Christ’s love.
