BY JOY K RAPPAI

My dear brothers and sisters,

I am going to talk about love. I would like to mention that Love is everlasting.

You cannot buy love from anywhere. You have to give love then only will you get it back. Jesus is the model of God's Love. His Incarnation, his life, his ministry, suffering and death are the expressions of his sublime love for His Father and each one of us.

His teaching are all centered on the love of God. God's love has been shown to us by giving his only son to die on the cross for our sins. This shows how much he loves us. The cross is the expression of the Father's unlimited love. The Father's boundless love for the Son is identical with the Son's love for us.

             " As the father has loved me, so have I loved you " ( Jn 15:9 )

Psalms 103 vs. 17 " For those who honor the lord, His love lasts forever, and his goodness endures for all generations "

The Old Testament tells us over and over again of God's faithfulness to man and man's unfaithfulness to God. It is a story of love - the story of our merciful Father's continuous loving forgiveness. The love of God is that he forgives all our sins and heals our sicknesses. Love is against anger. Love is compassion. Love is sacrifice.

In our own personal life to show love to others, sacrificing is necessary. For example, a person gets a good job offer along with a lot of benefits in another country. But if he accepts this job, he cannot take his mother along with him to that country. For this reason, he refused that job offer and stayed in the same place. This clearly shows his love and sacrifice to his mother. Inspite of all the benefits, he does not leave his mother. My message for LOVE is that lot of sacrifice is necessary to show real love. Without sacrifice, there is no real love.

Jesus has shown his love to Lazarus by bringing him back to life. The fact that he wept when he heard the news about Lazarus' death shows how much he loved him. The Lord watches over those who love him. God is their strong protection and firm support. God shelters them from the heat, shades them from the noonday sun, and keeps them from stumbling and falling. God makes them cheerful and puts a sparkle in their eyes. God blesses them with a good life and health.