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Put on Love This Christmas
December 26, 2014
Put on, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, heartfelt compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience, bearing with one another and forgiving one another, if one has a grievance against another; as the Lord has forgiven you, so must you also do. And above all these put on love, that is, the bond of perfection.
Colossians 3.12-14
How appropriate the Word as we reflect this Sunday on family; Joseph, Mary and Jesus, the Holy Family. This week’s Second Reading from Saint Paul’s letter to the Colossians is like a recipe for harmony and happiness in the family. He goes on to speak of letting the peace of
Christ control your hearts and that all we do we are to do in the name of the Lord.
So is this doable for your family? Members of our family may agree this would be hard for their brother, their sister, their Mother or Father to achieve. But how doable is it for YOU?! That is the one person you are first responsible for – how can you live these words? Think about how that would influence the way our families live together if all would put on kindness and gentleness and patience and if we could truly forgive one another, at times without the person who may have hurt us even asking for our forgiveness.
We are called to “put on love” and what better time of year to work on that than during the Christmas season?
While so many of us look forward to the holidays, many also dread them for they will be in the presence of family who they may not be on the best terms with. Read the words of Colossians again and ask God to assist you in putting on Christ, in putting on love this Christmas. It may not be easy, for even though we love one another as family, we often also hurt one another deeply. Let Christ be your guide and your armor – depend on Him to be
with you in your efforts.
Then, having applied these words to our immediate family, let us apply them to our world-wide family; the family of the people of God. How amazing our world would be if we could act with “heartfelt compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience, bearing with one another and forgiving one another . . .”! Indeed our world would be a better place and we would “sing psalms, hymns and spiritual songs with gratitude in y[our] hearts to God.”
Let us put on Love this Christmas and beyond!
What a great way to begin a New Year!
Deb Rudolph