Immersed in Christ: Sunday, August 1, 2021

Living Our Forgiveness

Jesus showed his love by expressing it in physical words and actions, culminating in the most passion- ate physical expression of love ever given in the his- tory of the world, his self-oblation on the cross. John says, “The way we came to know love was that he laid down his life for us.” And so, to love each other as he loved us, “we ought to lay down our lives for one another”(1 John 3:16). How do we do this?

We smile at people. Without being explicit about it, we treat them as brothers and sisters in Christ. We have no “purely professional” or functional encounters: in every interaction we make it clear that we see, respect, and acknowledge every person’s humanity, every person’s feelings, every person’s value and dignity as equal to our own, even as divine. To show love is to affirm relationship, whether explicitly or implicitly. It is not enough to love in our hearts, or to think loving thoughts. To communicate the love of God to others we have to express it. That is what God did by becoming flesh in Jesus Christ.