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From: 2 Corinthians 13: 11-13

Epilogue

[11] Finally, brethren, farewell. Mend your ways, heed my appeal, agree
with one another, live in peace, and the God of love and peace will be with
you. [12] Greet one another with a holy kiss. [13] All the saints greet you.

Commentary:

11. In his words of farewell, the Apostle once more shows his great
affection for the faithful of Corinth, exhorting them to practise the
fraternity proper to Christians and thus live in concord and peace (cf. I
Cor 1:10-17). And, St John Chrysostom comments, he tells them what this will
lead to: "Live in peace, and the God of love and peace will be with you, for
God is a God of love and a God of peace, and in these he takes his delight.
It is love that will give you peace and remove every evil from your church"
("Hom. on 2 Cor", 30).

St Paul's call to the faithful to be cheerful is particularly
significant--"gaudete"(rejoice) in the New Vulgate--contains a rnessage he
repeats on other occasions: "Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say,
Rejoice" (Phil 4:4; cf. 3:1). Joy is something very characteristic of
Christians because their awareness of being children of God tells them that
they are in the hands of God, who knows everything and can do everything
(cf. note on 5:10). Therefore, we should never be sad; on the contrary: we
should go out into the world, Monsignor Escrivd says, "to be sowers of peace
and joy through everything we say and do" ("Christ Is Passing By", 168).

12. On the "holy kiss", see the note on 1 Cor 16:20.

"The saints" who send greetings to the Corinthians are the Christians of
Macedonia, from where St Paul is writing. Regarding this description of
Christians, see the note on 1 Cor 1:2.

Source: "The Navarre Bible: Text and Commentaries". Biblical text
taken from the Revised Standard Version and New Vulgate. Commentaries
made by members of the Faculty of Theology of the University of
Navarre, Spain. Published by Four Courts Press, Kill Lane, Blackrock,
Co. Dublin, Ireland.

From: John 3:16-18

The Visit of Nicodemus (Continuation)

(Jesus said to Nicodemus,) [16] "For God so loved the world that He
gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but
have eternal life. [17] For God sent the Son into the world, not to
condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through Him. [18]
He who believes in Him is not condemned; He who does not believe is
condemned already, because He had not believed in the name of the only
Son of God."

Commentary:

16-21. These words, so charged with meaning, summarize how Christ's
death is the supreme sign of God's love for men (cf. the section on
charity in the "Introduction to the Gospel according to John": pp. 31ff
above). "`For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son' for
its salvation. All our religion is a revelation of God's kindness,
mercy and love for us. `God is love' (1 John 4:16), that is, love
poured forth unsparingly. All is summed up in this supreme truth,
which explains and illuminates everything. The story of Jesus must be
seen in this light. `(He) loved me', St. Paul writes. Each of us can
and must repeat it for himself--`He loved me, and gave Himself for me'
(Galatians 2:20)" ([Pope] Paul VI, "Homily on Corpus Christi", 13 June
1976).

Christ's self-surrender is a pressing call to respond to His great love
for us: "If it is true that God has created us, that He has redeemed
us, that He loves us so much that He has given up His only-begotten Son
for us (John 3:16), that He waits for us--every day!--as eagerly as the
father of the prodigal son did (cf. Luke 15:11-32), how can we doubt
that He wants us to respond to Him with all our love? The strange
thing would be not to talk to God, to draw away and forget Him, and
busy ourselves in activities which are closed to the constant
promptings of His grace" ([St] J. Escriva, "Friends of God", 251).

"Man cannot live without love. He remains a being that is
incomprehensible for himself, his life is senseless, if love is not
revealed to him, if he does not encounter love, if he does not
experience it and make it his own, if he does not participate
intimately in it. This [...] is why Christ the Redeemer `fully reveals
man to himself'. If we may use the expression, this is the human
dimension of the mystery of the Redemption. In this dimension man
finds again the greatness, dignity and value that belong to his
humanity. [...] The one who wishes to understand himself thoroughly
[...] must, with his unrest and uncertainty and even his weakness and
sinfulness, with his life and death, draw near to Christ. He must, so
to speak, enter into Him with all his own self, he must `appropriate'
and assimilate the whole of the reality of the Incarnation and
Redemption in order to find himself. If this profound process takes
place within him, he then bears fruit not only of adoration of God but
also of deep wonder at himself.

How precious must man be in the eyes of the Creator, if he `gained so
great a Redeemer', ("Roman Missal, Exultet" at Easter Vigil), and if
God `gave His only Son' in order that man `should not perish but have
eternal life'. [...]

`Increasingly contemplating the whole of Christ's mystery, the Church
knows with all the certainty of faith that the Redemption that took
place through the Cross has definitively restored his dignity to man
and given back meaning to his life in the world, a meaning that was
lost to a considerable extent because of sin. And for that reason, the
Redemption was accomplished in the paschal mystery, leading through the
Cross and death to Resurrection" ([Pope] John Paul II, "Redemptor
Hominis", 10).

Jesus demands that we have faith in Him as a first prerequisite to
sharing in His love. Faith brings us out of darkness into the light,
and sets us on the road to salvation. "He who does not believe is
condemned already" (verse 18).

"The words of Christ are at once words of judgment and grace, of life
and death. For it is only by putting to death that which is old that
we can come to newness of life. Now, although this refers primarily to
people, it is also true of various worldly goods which bear the mark
both of man's sin and the blessing of God. [...] No one is freed from
sin by himself or by his own efforts, no one is raised above himself or
completely delivered from his own weakness, solitude or slavery; all
have need of Christ, who is the model, master, liberator, savior, and
giver of life. Even in the secular history of mankind the Gospel has
acted as a leaven in the interests of liberty and progress, and it
always offers itself as a leaven with regard to brotherhood, unity and
peace" (Vatican II, "Ad Gentes", 8).