“Beloved, let us love one another, because love is from G_d; everyone who loves is born of G_d and knows G_d.” Our family tree grows in a vineyard where the branches of other plants reach out and blend with our branches; their roots mingle with our roots in a magical, loving, symbiotic relationship. At some point in most personal lives, there comes a time when love for another or others, becomes a compelling force essentially driving life. We say things like, “I could not live without you,” “I could not imagine my life without you,” “You are my life,” or “I did not know I could love, as much as I love you.”

These phrases often come from epiphany experiences, after births of children, in moments of sheer joy, and in moments of near tragedy. Love joins souls into an organic unity, which makes us view others as an integral part of ourselves. “Abide in me as I abide in you. Just as the branch cannot bear fruit by itself unless it abides in the vine, neither can you unless you abide in me. I am the vine, you are the branches.”

As branches, we are dependent on the vine. What flows through the vine gives life to the branches and to the fruit produced by the branches. Branches detached from the life-giving flow are either dead or dying. In the first letter of John we learn what is flowing from the vine to us and our fruit: Love, love and more love. G_d’s unending love is flowing to us with the expectation, that we will extend that love through us to others. The love we receive is returned to G_d, in our loving of others. St. John goes on to say that loving G_d is not truthfully shown, when you do not love others.

Allow yourself to display the fruits of the spirit, to become love, spreading joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Love becomes our life blood, but we cannot contain all the love that is flowing into us, and therefore to live, this love must be shared. Of course, the life flow is often stronger here than there, from this person or towards that person, from spouse to spouse, from parent to child, but the stranger also deserves a display of our love, as does any person whom it would be easy ignore, to reject, or to hate. A loveless faith is not a living one. Therefore, love one another as if your life depended on it, because it does.

Pax,
jbt