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Friday of the Thirty-second Week in Ordinary Time
2 John 4–9
Saint John writes to a community he calls “the chosen lady.”
It is a beautiful image for the Church.
The Church is chosen by God, loved by God, and sent by God.
But Saint John is worried.
Some believers are walking in truth.
Others are being deceived.
So he reminds them of two things that can never be separated:
truth and love.
Christian life needs both.
Truth without love can become hard, cold, and proud.
Love without truth can become weak, confused, and empty.
Saint John says:
Walk in truth.
And then he says:
Love one another.
For Christians, truth is not only an idea.
Truth has a face.
Truth has a name.
Jesus says:
“I am the way, and the truth, and the life.”
Before Pilate, Jesus said that He came to bear witness to the truth.
But Pilate asked:
“What is truth?”
That question is still with us.
Many people today do not deny truth openly.
They simply treat it as something unimportant.
What matters is usefulness.
What matters is success.
What matters is power.
What matters is what I feel.
What matters is what I want.
But Jesus shows us that truth begins with God.
Truth means giving God the first place.
Truth means allowing His will to judge my desires, my choices, and my life.
In Saint John’s time, some deceivers denied that Jesus Christ had come in the flesh.
This was not a small mistake.
If the Word did not become flesh, then God did not truly enter our human life.
If Jesus did not truly take flesh, then He did not truly die for our sins.
If He did not truly die, then He did not truly rise.
And if He did not rise, we are still in our sins.
That is why Saint John speaks strongly.
The Incarnation matters.
The Cross matters.
The Resurrection matters.
Christian faith stands or falls with Jesus Christ, true God and true man.
But truth is not enough if it does not become love.
Jesus gave us a new commandment:
“Love one another as I have loved you.”
This is not vague kindness.
It is not simply being pleasant.
It is the love of Christ.
Love that comes near.
Love that serves.
Love that forgives.
Love that gives itself.
Love that goes to the Cross.
Pope Benedict XVI used the phrase Caritas in Veritate — love in truth.
That is Christian life.
The world does not need Christians who speak the truth with hatred.
And it does not need Christians who avoid the truth in the name of love.
It needs disciples who hold fast to Christ and love as Christ loved.
So today we can ask:
Am I walking in truth?
Do I let Christ correct my life?
Do I love others with more than words?
Biblical Reflections on the Gospel of Mark
Year of Mark - Get it from Amazon
Scripture Attribution
New Revised Standard Version Bible: Catholic Edition,
copyright © 1989, 1993
the Division of Christian Education of the National Council
of the Churches of
Christ in the United States of America.
Used by permission. All rights reserved.
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