Dai­ly Reflec­tion
Decem­ber 13, 2010

‘TIS THE SEA­SON FOR LOVE
Christ­mas time is here again.  Black Fri­day and Cyber Mon­day were suc­cess­ful retail days.  I won­der what Jesus would do or say watch­ing lots of us scur­ry around the Malls.  It is a lov­ing act to give gifts.  The Wise Men gave Jesus gifts.

The chief priests and scribes, in Matthew, couldn’t under­stand Jesus’ words and acts of love.  They were so used to their laws and cus­toms, the lov­ing kind­ness of Jesus was for­eign to them.  They were sim­ply afraid and threat­ened by Jesus’ way of life.

Bal­aam, in Num­bers, sees the effects of God’s love on the peo­ple.  They have come through the desert and are on the plains.  He knows they have received God’s love and are per­se­ver­ing in their faith in the One True God.  Balaam’s author­i­ty comes from God as he says,
               “the utter­ance of one who hears what God says,
               And knows what the Most High knows,
               Of one who sees what the Almighty sees,
               Enrap­tured and with eyes unveiled”

Bal­aam speaks of the effects of God’s love on the com­mu­ni­ty of Israel:
               “they are like gar­dens beside a stream,
               Like cedars plant­ed by the Lord….”

He knows the tri­als and tribu­la­tions the peo­ple have suf­fered.  They have turned their backs on God and been trans­formed sev­er­al times dur­ing their desert sojourn.  Isn’t this a lot like us?  Don’t we have times when we turn away from God?  Don’t we hear the Spir­it speak in our lives and we deeply desire to return to God?

I am read­ing, “Tat­toos on the Heart” by Greg Boyle, S.J., founder of Home­boy Indus­tries in Los Ange­les. Greg tells sto­ries of God’s trans­for­ma­tive love with gang mem­bers in L.A.  One fel­low, Scrap­py, a leader of a gang for 20 years, walked into Greg’s office one day and said:
               “I have spent the last 20 years build­ing a rep­u­ta­tion for myself and
               Now…I regret…that I even have one.”

With that, Scrap­py cries his heart out.  God has touched him and now Scrap­py wants to change his life.  Scrap­py dis­cov­ered a big hole of miss­ing some­one, some­thing (we call God) in his life.  Love turned him around.

We can tell the effects of God’s love by the fruits of one’s life.  Scrap­py was invit­ed to work at Home­boy Indus­tries.  There he would receive the sup­port nec­es­sary to turn his life around.

Chang­ing one’s life to becom­ing more car­ing, kind, peace-filled, work­ing for peace and jus­tice, patience, etc. are all fruits of the Spir­it.  These are the real signs of love.

God invites each of us in this sea­son, no mat­ter which reli­gious group we belong to, to hear God’s invi­ta­tion to reach out and touch some­one with love and kind­ness.  Just as Bal­aam looked across the desert at the Israeli encamp­ment and saw their com­mu­ni­ty of God’s love, look around you.  See God’s love at work.  Be a part of  God’s love as you care for one another.