# Jesus teaches us how to love
*2016-10-29*

> Bill Young reflects on a reading by St. Mother Teresa from the 'Prepare His Way' Advent guide, focusing on the nature of divine love and our call to serve others.

## Preparing for Advent

Good morning. This is Bill Young and welcome to the Prayer N Lunch podcast. Today is Wednesday of the first week of Advent. I recently obtained a booklet from St. David's in Davie, Florida, called 'Prepare His Way: Hope and Healing, Justice and Peace for Advent.' Each day features a different reading from figures such as Pope Francis, St. Mother Teresa, or Cardinal John Henry Newman.

## The Lesson of Love

Today's reflection, written by St. Mother Teresa, is titled 'Jesus Teaches Us How to Love.' It begins with the familiar words of John 3:16: 'God so loved the world that he gave his only son.' Mother Teresa encourages us to love Jesus generously, trustfully, without looking back, and without fear. She tells us to give ourselves fully to Him, noting that He will use us to accomplish great things on the condition that we believe more in His love than in our own weakness.

We are called to trust in Him with blind and absolute confidence because He is Jesus. Sanctity is nothing more than Jesus intimately living in you. When we allow this, His hand will be free to work through us.

## Loving and Serving Others

In our lives, Jesus comes to us as the Bread of Life to be consumed. This is how He loves us. However, Jesus also comes to us in the form of the 'hungry one'—others who hope to be fed with the Bread of Life through our loving hearts and serving hands. By loving and serving, we prove that we were created in the likeness of God. Because God is love, when we love, we are like God.

Let us recall that God's love for each of us is so tender, so great, and so real that Jesus came specifically to teach us how to love. Through works of love, we find the way to peace. This love begins right in our hearts, for we were created to love and to be loved.

## Prayer and Meditation

As we move through our Wednesday, let us meditate on this question: How have I most experienced Jesus intimately living in me and in others?

I also want to offer a prayer for Gatlinburg, Tennessee, where massive fires have caused the destruction of many homes. I have visited that beautiful, wooded area with my son, and it is heartbreaking to hear of the 90-mile-per-hour winds fueling the flames. Please, Lord, keep the people safe and send rain from our Heavenly Father to put out the fires and slow the wind. We also pray for those who were hurt in Ohio.

*We are created in the likeness of God, and we most closely resemble Him when we love and serve others.*