Do you remember a commercial from several years ago where John Houseman pronounced in his stentorian tones: “They make money the old fashioned way, they earn it.” The idea of earning something is part of our “no free lunch” culture. You earn respect by being respectable. You earn trust by being trustworthy. But the one thing you can’t earn is love. Love has to be freely given. St. John in his epistle reminds us that God’s love is not earned but given. See what love the Father has bestowed on us that we may be called the children of God. Yet so we are. We didn’t do anything to merit God’s love. We can’t do anything to lose God’s love. God loves us completely, unconditionally, forever just as we are. All we can do is respond to God’s love. Just as a parent loves her child simply because she is her child so does God love us. And God’s love has named and claimed us as part of the divine family. As we begin this new year let us recognize our true identity as beloved of God and respond in kind.
