In the days after Christmas we read from the epistles of St. John. They are written 60 or so years after the death of Jesus so there have been two generations of Christians … and as subsequent history keeps repeating there were conflicts in the early church. St. John writes to promote unity among believers. His basic premise is that that a follower of Jesus is someone who loves God and loves their neighbor. Simply saying “I am a Chrsitian” without such love does one no good. Whoever says he is in the light, yet hates his brother, is still in the darkness. Whoever loves his brother remains in the light. It is the love, not having one’s name on the Church book that defines one’s identity. That challenge has reverberated throughout the centuries. Much of European history are accounts of this group of Christians fighting against another group of Christians. In the current environment in our country we have the ambiguous message of deporting Christians seeking asylum while defending Christians in Nigeria. St. John wants us to cut through all of those distinctions and instead judge all that we do in light of the commandment of Jesus that we love one another.
