Love, the Key to Hope

Today’s Gospel story, on this 5th Sunday of Lent, is the raising of Lazarus from the dead. We are reminded, then, to hope when our situation looks bleakest.

True love is embodied in expectancy, an eagerness to love God now as a preparation for God’s Kingdom. Our ultimate hopes are expressed by whom and what and how we now love…. True love is embodied in the act of giving and forgiving, without stint or stipulations, without anxiety or compulsion. The forgiven is not made dependent upon the giver, but upon a free un-coerced love.

– Paul S. Minear, Source: The Kingdom and the Power