“May the Lord make you increase and abound in love for one another and for all . . .” That is Paul’s prayer for the church he founded in Thessalonica. It echoes Jesus at the Last Supper with his disciples: “I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another.” (Jn.13:24) And again: “As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you; abide in my love . . . This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.” (Jn.15:9, 12)

The model of Jesus’ self-giving love is impossible for us to follow on our own. It is only as we come to accept God’s transforming grace at work in our lives that we can begin to let go of our self-centeredness and open our heart with compassion for the world around us. Only then can we live in to God’s abounding love that Paul describes elsewhere: Love is patient and kind; not jealous or boastful; not arrogant or rude; does not insist on its own way; is not irritable or resentful; is not pleased by wrongdoing, but rejoices in the truth; bears all things; trusts all things; hopes all things; endures all things; love never ends. (I Cor. 13) The International Standard Version translates that as: “Love believes the best in all and there is no limit to love’s hope.”

During this Advent season, as we prepare ourselves to celebrate Christ’s Incarnation while we anticipate his coming again, we may use that description of abounding love as our examen, to discover where we have missed the mark and amend our ways, trusting God to “give us grace to cast away the works of darkness, and put on the armor of light” so that we may abound in love for each and all.