Sharing the gift of love on Christmas

Christmas is the most joyous season of the year - not only for Christians, but even for those outside the faith - because it is a time when love and generosity bind humanity together through compassion, forgiveness, and reconciliation across the world.

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It is a season when the celebration of our Messiah's birth should rise above the hardships and suffering that weigh upon us throughout the year. At its heart, the message of Christmas, as proclaimed in the Gospel, is a message of love - God's boundless and profound love for mankind.

This divine love, revealed in the birth of Christ, continues to move and inspire believers who place their hope in the promise of salvation through Jesus. As the Holy Bible proclaims: "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life" (John 3:16).

But how does one attain eternal life? Jesus Himself gave us the answer when He said: "Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind." This is the first and greatest commandment. "And the second is like it: 'Love your neighbor as yourself'" (Matthew 22:37-39).