The scripture readings for today's reflection can be found at Friday of the Fifth Week of Easter | USCCB
Being a follower of Jesus Christ can be challenging at
times. In our gospel for today Jesus is reminding us that we need to love one
another. Coming to church and loving God is the easy thing to do. It is a good
and important thing to do in our relationship with God. But Jesus is calling us
to something more in our relationship with God. Loving only God here in church
is just not good enough. We have to take this love of God that we experience in
church and bring it to everyone we meet throughout the day. Everyone, without
exception! We have to love everyone in our family, even those in our family
that are most irritating. We are to love the neighbors that we encounter as we
enter or leave our apartment buildings, even that neighbor that we may not
really like and would rather avoid. And we are to love those people we may
encounter on line at the supermarket or store that may be taking a little longer
to check out than we’d like. We are to love EVERYONE, without exception. Very
often it’s not really easy to love those people that God has placed in our
lives, whether they’re family or just people we encounter as we go about our
business during the day. But it’s what Jesus is calling us to do.
In order for us to have the love of others that Jesus
commands, we must first love God with our whole mind, heart and soul. Developing
a good, holy, and healthy relationship with God is a valuable way to work towards
love of one another. We can grow ever closer to God by the daily reading of
scripture. Taking about 15 minutes per day to go over the scripture readings
from Mass is a good way to be able to hear with our spiritual ears what God is
trying to say to us. By being open to God in Scripture helps us to grow closer
to Him. Next would be the frequent use of the Sacrament of Confession to see
where we may be falling short in our relationship with God and with one another.
The Sacrament of Confession is a valuable tool to help us become less selfish
and to grow more in our love of God and neighbor. Further, the frequent
reception of Holy Communion is that spiritual food that helps us to grow in the
love of God and love of neighbor.
Once we have all these in place, we would be ready to
love others as Jesus commands us in today’s gospel. Mother Teresa of Calcutta
once said, “It’s not about how much you do, but how much love you put into what
you do that counts” and “Spread love everywhere you go. Let no one ever come to
you without leaving happier.” By doing what Mother Teresa suggests, we then can
do what Jesus says, “This I command you: love one another.”
There really is a close connection between the two greatest commandments of loving God with our whole heart, soul, mind & strength & loving our neighbors as ourselves. And JESUS calls us to go even further when he says "Love one another as I have loved you". JESUS' love goes beyond loving as we would love ourselves into loving SACRIFICIALLY by putting the needs of the other above our own needs, even being willing to die for others. For human beings, this seems impossible. It is only with the LORD living inside us & our allowing Him to love others through us. We can only do this with the love, grace & strength that comes from God living within us. This is the sacrificial love we see in one spouse caring for the other spouse who is very ill, parents caring for their children, and adult children caring for a sick and aging parent. When we are called to love sacrificially it is then we can ask the LORD to love that person through us & this enables us to do things for our loved ones in the LORD'S strength & not merely our own. In these moments we experience the reality of the words of St. Paul, "It is not I who lives but CHRIST Who lives within me."
ReplyDeleteSometimes it is one or more very special people in our lives who are good representatives of God Who help us to love God. In one of his letters St. John writes that we cannot say we love the God we cannot see if we do not love the people that we can see. It is easier sometimes to get caught up in the prayers & music at Mass than to pray alone to a God we cannot see. If we have good parents we learn to know and love God from our parents, who teach us about God & who demonstrate the love of God & show us what God is like. When, for example, we experience the unconditional love of our mothers we get a picture of our God Who loves us unconditionally & learn to love God in return.
On this Mother's Day weekend let us thank God for mothers--as I thank God for mine who is now in heaven--who opened their hearts so that God could use them to demonstrate His sacrificial and unconditional love through them and who, by word & example, taught us to love God & love others.