Deacon John Writes:

Recently I spoke about ‘Love’ in a homily as it has been the subject of several of the readings at Mass during Eastertide. Love is Christ’s great message to his followers – “As the Father loves me, so I also love you.” Jesus followed that statement with a challenge to all of us: “Love one another, as I have loved you.” In other words: We are to love one another as deeply as God loves His son, and as powerfully as Jesus then loves us. That is how we are to love one another. Christ is asking us to do nothing less than to love the world the way that God does. It is a love that says to each of us: “Whatever happens, I will be there.”

We should always remember this statement of Jesus: “Love one another, as I have loved you.” Despite your differences, love one another. Despite the hurt someone has caused you, love one another. Despite the angers you are nursing or the grudge you can’t let go of…love one another. That is what Christian love is all about – literally loving like Christ.

So – there we have our challenge: – look at the world around us, the people around us — all those we like and those we don’t – those we care for and those we don’t – those we respect and those we don’t — and love them as Jesus said: “Love one another as I have loved you.” This is what we have to do. It is Christ’s great commandment.

Joan Chittister wrote this: “God sends angels into every life to help us understand the present, and to enable us to bear the future. We are one another’s lifeline to God. We are here to hold one another up, and to help one another see the presence of God”.

I leave you with this question to think about: Are we courageous enough – generous enough, selfless enough, sacrificial enough — to not only keep that commandment, but to actually live it?

With my love for you all.