St. John challenges how we can love God the Father if we cannot love our brothers or sisters. And he makes an interesting remark, "for those who do not love a brother or sister whom they have seen, cannot love God whom they have not seen." Well, don't we have a hard time to love our brothers and sisters because we have seen them too much? The more we know someone, the harder we find it to love the person dearly. Often, we are deeply disappointed and frustrated at our beloved ones. Do you think couples are separated or divorced because they haven't seen each other? But does St John think it is much easier to love someone if we see them often? Isn't it true that we are willing to send support for the poor and needy we have never seen or met? We love more easily saints we have never met. But when they were alive, not all people around them loved them. Many saints had to endure hatred and envy of their religious confreres and superiors. When we read St. Paul's letters, we find even St. Paul didn't find favours from all his coworkers.

This is the challenge of love. Some might say ignorance is bliss. But ignorance doesn't bring true love. When you're enthusiastic about someone without much knowledge of the person, it is called infatuation. Only when we know but embrace all shortcomings, it is called love. Does God love us because he has no idea about us? No. He truly loves us because he still gives good things even if we are evil and sinful. Would you love God even if he still gives good things to those you hate? If we cannot love our enemies, we will have a very hard time loving God because God also gives our foes good things. It is what St John means when he teaches us to love all, before we love God. Love means embracing someone while knowing their weaknesses and faults. To love God means to imitate him. God loves all by giving them all good things while he knows everyone to their cores. He knows all our sins, but he still loves us. Then, if we want to love God, we should first embrace our brothers and sisters. And this is a painful job. Jesus had to let himself nailed on the cross to arrive at this love.