I'm still pondering Christmas things.

Especially the final day of the feast when the Church celebrates Epiphany; the coming of the Magi to worship the child Jesus.

The story itself is fascinating and has always captured me. There are many scriptural references fulfilled and alluded to in their coming and in the gifts they bring. This is the day we celebrate that gentiles too are saved by the coming of Christ. We celebrate that the learned will come to know Him who was worshiped by the scholars of His time.  

In a particular way this year I was caught by the words of the liturgy celebrating this feast. They speak about the feast of Epiphany as a revelation of the "universal love of God."

God loves the world. 
I have been mulling over this wonderful proclamation and wondering, what does it mean to love the world? Many today fear the world, or at least they avoid the world. Being called to be "in the world and not of it" is widely interpreted to mean many things including total avoidance.

But, God loves the world. 
The most popular bible verse of all time says just that "For God so loved the world that He sent His only begotten son, so that whoever believes in Him might not perish but have eternal life. For God sent the Son into the world, not to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through him." John 3:16ff 

Christ comes, into the world, into time, into culture, into the daily lives of human beings, because God loves the world. This isn't some nice idea this is passionate love crashing into humanity.  Where the Master has led, His disciples should follow. I don't want to be afraid to love the world, to enter into it's messy discussions and problems, it's questions, it's many cultures and ways of life. In fact, I want to love the world. And without loving it, I really feel no right to ask it to change, or to enter it. 

I'm still working on what this means, what this looks like and how to put it into practice, but I'm pretty much positive that loving the world starts with being real. Put love into a real life and it does wonderful things, it changes everything; keep love as a nice idea and it grows dust sitting on a shelf. If you love someone you give them the benefit of the doubt, you look for the best in them. If the mission is to love the world we have to start with that, looking for what is good and true and beautiful. 

John Paul II says beautifully in Ad Gentes 12:
In order that they may be able to bear more fruitful witness to Christ, let them be joined to those men by esteem and love; let them acknowledge themselves to be members of the group of men among whom they live; let them share in cultural and social life by the various undertakings and enterprises of human living; let them be familiar with their national and religious traditions; let them gladly and reverently lay bare the seeds of the Word which lie hidden among their fellows. At the same time, however, let them look to the: profound changes which are taking place among nations, and let them exert themselves to keep modern man, intent as he is on the science and technology of today's world from becoming a stranger to things divine; rather, let them awaken in him a yearning for that truth and:charity which God has revealed. Even as Christ Himself searched the hearts of men, and led them to divine light, so also His disciples, profoundly penetrated by the Spirit of Christ, should show the people among whom they live, and should converse with them, that they themselves may learn by sincere and patient dialogue what treasures a generous God has distributed among the nations of the earth. But at the same time, let them try to furbish these treasures, set them free, and bring them under the dominion of God their Savior. (Emphasis added) 

"Let them gladly and reverently lay bare the seeds of the Word which lie hidden among their fellows." This is the work that must be undertaken. 

To love the world means to love your neighbor. To practice the virtue of solidarity. Knowing and loving mankind from East to West. Praying for those who suffer, feeding the poor on your doorstep, whether hungry or simply alone. Love your neighbor, and your neighbor's neighbor.

The universal love of God means that He loves, calls, and saves, even me. I want a more universal love, for those who confuse or annoy or even frighten me.