Our Scripture readings for this reflection can be found at Fifth Sunday of Easter | USCCB
In our gospel for today we hear the Lord share with us what appears to be a very simple request: "As I have loved you, so you also should love one another." This request of Jesus seems very clear: LOVE ONE ANOTHER! But how often do we really do that in our relationship with one another? We may find it easy to go to church and to fulfill our church obligations each week. We attend Mass, we pray our rosary or other devotions. We say that we love God and do what appears to be the right thing to fulfill our obligations with God. But yet, what about loving those in your family that may get on your nerves, and you really don't want anything to do with? Or with those co-workers and neighbors that always seem to be pressing our buttons and getting on our nerves? We are called to love them as well. But do we?
Further, it's so easy to point our fingers at those we know that may not be living their lives in a way we feel they should. We are quick to judge their lives and their motives rather than to try to understand them and love them as Jesus is asking us to do.
Living out our lives as Christians requires not only complete love of God, but complete love of those that God has placed in our lives. With each person we encounter in our lives, let us, like the Glen Campbell song from years ago says, "Try a little kindness" and then attempt to love them as our Lord asks. It'll be then we can live up to that saying, "They'll know we are Christians by our love."
From Arlene Muller:
ReplyDeleteOn the surface it can seem fairly easy to be kind to others. We can do good deeds to help people out & we can tame our tongues not to say, write or post anything nasty, to say, write or post kind & positive things, & to treat everyone with respect & civility.
The harder part is to deal with our thoughts & feelings & to strike a balance between being faithful to truth about what is right & wrong without compromise while avoiding being critical, judgmental & self-righteous. Personally I confess I find it difficult not to view myself as superior to people who do things that are obviously immoral, harmful & destructive, like criminals, people with addictions, & politicians who go out of their way to enable abortion, especially those who call themselves Catholic. I can acknowledge "there but for the grace of GOD go I", but even then there can be still be a trace of self-righteousness in that acknowledgment.
When we remember the sacrificial love of JESUS CHRIST, Whose great love for us extended even to death & not only death but an extremely miserable death on the Cross, it gives a new meaning & dimension to His words, "LOVE ONE ANOTHER AS I HAVE LOVED YOU"! Loving as JESUS loves us goes beyond acts of kindness, although these are very important & a very good start. It means loving others sacrificially, which is what the Greek word "agape" means. Whenever we go out of our way to put the needs of others ahead of our own & help others at some cost to our own comfort & needs we are beginning to love one another as the LORD has loved us. Probably the best examples of this can be seen in the sacrifices good parents make in caring for their children, the sacrifices of one spouse taking care of his/her spouse who is ill, forgiveness within the contexts of marriage, parent-child relationships & friendship, & the sacrifices of adult children caring for sick elderly parents. In these examples it is JESUS & His Holy Spirit working within us to love others beyond our fleshly human capacity.