From today’s New Testament reading, from Romans: ‘Owe no one anything, except to love one another; for he who loves his neighbour has fulfilled the law’.

St Augustine commented: ‘Paul shows that the fulfilment of the law is found in love, i.e., in charity. Thus also the Lord says that the whole law and prophets depend on these two precepts, the love of God and neighbour. So he who came to fulfil the law gave love through the Holy Spirit, so that charity might accomplish what fear could not’.

However seriously we may have marred the image of God in us, that image is still there and is still in others. This image is to be reverenced, even in situations where it is not obvious – doing this may change everything, and even if it does not, it can and does open the way for grace to be poured in.

‘We love, because He first loved us’, as St John declared. May we know and serve this love in our lives today, and may God bless you.