Both the reading and the Gospel today speak to a central claim of Christian life: love of God and love of neighbor are inseparable. It is often tempting to think that as long as we stay spiritually clean and upright with God, we can treat people however we like. Yet this is fundamentally opposed to the teaching of the Church as illustrated in these readings. God loved us before we loved him and created each of us out of love. Each and every one of us is the direct result of an intentional act of love by God. God is so connected with his creation through love that to claim we love him without loving one another makes us liars. When we love others, we love them not out of a vague feeling of niceness or tolerance, but because like us they are made in the image and likeness of God.
During this Christmas season the Church reminds us that God became man in Jesus Christ, and the Incarnation has concrete implications in our lives. Today we can meditate on how to grow in love of our neighbor even as we seem terribly divided and isolated. Perhaps it means a call to forgiveness and reconciliation, a check-in with a person who is lonely, or material assistance for someone struggling financially. Jesus announced that he came “to bring glad tidings to the poor…to proclaim liberty to captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free.”
Rather than telling everyone to simply “love God,” Jesus’s message is an entire life lived perfectly in love for all people through God. We who are baptized into Christ’s body are called to nothing less than this.