We are called to live in love. This means that we are to live in God, for God is Love. It also means that God lives in us. For Christians, there is a double, simultaneous indwelling — God in us and we in Him. This is a mystery in which the Holy Spirit guides us (see Jn 16:13) into "even the deep things of God" (1 Cor 2:10). This double indwelling of the Trinity in us and us in the Trinity is the attainment "to the fullness of God Himself" (Eph 3:19) through grasping "fully, with all the holy ones, the breadth and length and height and depth of Christ's love" (Eph 3:18).

What if you got everything for Christmas but didn't open God's gift of love? Then you wouldn't have Christmas, for God is Love, and Christ is God. "The man without love has known nothing of God" (1 Jn 4:8). Without love, we are without Christ and without Christmas. Therefore, if we don't have love, we are nothing (1 Cor 13:2) and we gain nothing (1 Cor 13:3).

This Christmas, receive, give, and live in love. Being in Trinitarian love is all that matters in Christmas and in life. Be filled with and immersed in the God Who is Love.

Nihil Obstat:  Reverend Robert L. Hagedorn, May 30, 2001

Imprimatur:  †Most Reverend Carl K. Moeddel, Vicar General and Auxiliary Bishop of the Archdiocese of Cincinnati, June 4, 2001