Reflection
Fr. Robert Crouse
To love one another, in the sense in which the Scripture means it, is to will the eternal good of one another—to will the eternal good of one another, and to act practically in terms of that will. But how can we do it? Our own needs, affections and preferences, our own fears, keep getting in the way of it. So needful of good ourselves, we can hardly see our neighbour's good and will it. But "perfect love," says St. John, "casteth out fear." The basis, the starting point, is God's love for us. "We have known and believed the love that God hath to us." "Herein is our love made perfect." It is our knowledge of God's love for us that enables us to love; that is, to will the good of one another. It is the knowledge that we are loved, however unworthy we may be, at the very heart of our being, which frees us from our own needs and fears. So we must grow in the knowledge of that love.
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