Another year has gone by and another year is before us. As we get older we feel the rapidness of life and its brevity. We become more contemplative about life’s mysteries, particularly its purpose and its end. We tremble at our personal finality on earth, but our faith in God strengthen us to trust in the hereafter.
As we rejoice and struggle with the unfolding of one’s life, do we regret the decisions we have made and the works that we have accomplished? Are we content with one’s wealth, career, marriage, and family relationship?
And one big question that we may ask ourselves is: Do we regret that we have intensely loved someone or some people in our lives?
I hope the answer is no. We can never regret loving the people that God has put in our life’s journey. It’s because the fundamental purpose of life is to love.
Loving deeply makes us more human. It may bring us some heartaches and pains, it may challenge us to sacrifice one’s needs and desires, but it brings us joy and fulfillment and defines our true human existence.
As we celebrate the Feast of the Holy Family this Sunday, we marvel at God’s intense love for humanity, The birth of the Messiah in a human family testifies to God’s profound love for us. God chose to send His only Son into the world to save us from the perils of sin and darkness.
God’s innermost joy is that we live a life of love patterned after the ministry of Jesus. In the Gospel, Jesus showed us the way to love others in many concrete ways.
Let this new year inspire us more to love generously and to care deeply. Let our family relationships and friendships continue to manifest the kind of love that God has shown us through his Son, Jesus.
I end with the following quote from the First Letter of John (4:7-8; 11-12):
“Beloved, let us love another, because love is of God; everyone who loves is begotten by God and knows God. Whoever is without love does not know God, for God is love…Beloved, if God so loved us, we must also love another. No one has ever seen God. Yet, if we love one another, God remains in us, and his love is brought to perfection in us.”
Have a Happy and Blessed New Year filled with the graces of love!
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From a Filipino immigrant family, Reverend Rodel G. Balagtas was ordained to the priesthood from St. John’s Seminary in 1991. He served as Associate Pastor at St. Augustine, Culver City (1991-1993); St. Martha, Valinda (1993-1999); and St. Joseph the Worker, Canoga Park (1999-2001). In 2001, he served as Administrator Pro Tem of St. John Neumann in Santa Maria, CA, until his appointment as pastor of ImmAaculate Heart of Mary, Los Angeles, in 2002, which lasted 12 years. His term as Associate Director of Pastoral Field Education at St. John’s Seminary began in July 2014.
