Love – Traditional Tuesday, Advent 2025

This week we light the final candle of Advent, turning our hearts toward Love. In these days of holy anticipation, we are called to slow down and be attentive to how God’s love is made visible in Christ.

In Matthew and Mark, Jesus summarizes the entire law with what we often call the Great Commandment: to love the Lord your God and to love your neighbor as yourself. While John’s Gospel does not record that specific summary, the theme echoes throughout its pages. For John, these two loves are inseparable. To love God is to love neighbor. And to love neighbor is to love God. One cannot be done without the other.

In John 15, Jesus defines love not as sentiment or feeling, but as self-giving action. “As I have loved you,” He says, patiently, humbly, sacrificially. This season we reflected on God’s unexpected way of entering the world. In Christ’s birth, God takes on flesh, steps into our fragility, and begins the journey toward the cross. This is love that chooses vulnerability. Love that heals. Love that restores. Love that costs something.

As we prepare our hearts for Christmas, this call to love must shape how we treat one another: with gentleness, forgiveness, patience, and compassion. When we love as Christ has loved us, we give the world a glimpse of the kingdom of God.