(Please read the Scripture passage before reading the homily.)
I suppose none of you ever had a fight with a brother or sister and shouted out that you hated that sibling. To say that to a sibling would be to mean that for your parents as well: how can a person love the parents and hate one of their children?
Jesus gave us the command to love one another. John commented on this, that not to obey the command is to be a liar, a person without truth. John has a further comment, that not to love is to walk in the darkness.
Perhaps a person can get by without loving during the night when it is dark outside, not in the light of day. For us Christians, the darkness is passing away and we can no longer use darkness as an excuse for bad behavior. For us, we are children of the light, not of the darkness, so our actions must be full of light.
I normally walk for an hour each day, usually before sunrise. I know the trail because I have walked it in the light before. I do not walk through the woods if I think the trail may be slippery or have fallen trees on the paths. So, even when I walk before sunrise, I walk in the light of previous knowledge. I would not venture to walk an unknown trail without some light. I have to translate this into action in my daily interactions with God and people.
To walk in hatred or in non-love means to walk in darkness. It is to walk blindly. It is to live dangerously and risk getting off the trail or tripping over debris and getting seriously injured. On the other hand, whoever loves brother or sister, a blood relative or a fellow human, is in God’s life and knows the way to God’s glory.
Those who do not love their neighbor, do not love God. They walk in ignorance and they walk blindfolded. They do not know where they are going. How can they get to where they should be? They must switch their lives around and love the God they cannot see by loving the people that they can see.