By: By Sharon Priester

Sixth Sunday of Easter, May 13

Acts of the Apostles 10:25-26,34-35,44-48; Psalm 98:1,2-3,3-4; 1 John 4:7-10; John 15:9-17

How many times have we heard someone say, “I love this pizza” or “I love your new car”? Love is a word used over and over by each of us. Pope Benedict XVI in his encyclical “God is Love” (“Deus Caritas Est”) says, “today the term ‘love’ has become one of the most frequently used and misused of words, a word to which we attach quite different meanings.”

If we say that we love pizza or a car, what does that mean? If we have a pizza, we sometimes don’t finish it so we put in the refrigerator. A week or so later, we discover it, fuzzy and green. So it gets thrown away. Same thing with a car. When a new model car comes out, we get rid of the old car and get the new one. That’s the world we live in today.

The love that is the theme of the readings this weekend is not this kind of love. In the Gospel, Jesus, God’s begotten Son, is expressing his love for his disciples — the same love the Father has for him. As his friends, not his slaves, he is ready to lay down his life for them. He instructs them to follow the commandment, “love one another.” If they follow this commandment, they will remain in his love forever.

He tells them this so that they too can experience the same joy he receives from his Father. This joy is a deep, profound love between the Father and the Son, seeking only good for the beloved, willing to sacrifice anything for the other. Jesus chose the disciples and wants them to go forth, to share this everlasting love, spreading it to all nations. The Gospel is concluded with Jesus pointing out that they did not choose him. Instead, he chose them and called them by name. Now they are to go out to teach as he did, to love as he loved. He reassures them, “Whatever you ask the Father in my name, he may give you.” (John 15:16)

A MOTHER’S LOVE
In the first reading, Peter meets a God-fearing man named Cornelius, who drops to his knees in adoration of Peter. Peter lifts him up saying that he too is a man like Cornelius, not be adored like a god. Peter continues to speak to all of those gathered, telling them God accepts them if they fear him and do what is right. Suddenly, the Holy Spirit descended upon those listening.

Realizing that these people received the Holy Spirit just as all the disciples did at Pentecost, Peter ordered that they be baptized in the name of Christ.

In the second reading, John is sharing with the early Christians Christ’s commandment to “love one another.” Anyone who loves God is begotten by God and knows God, for “God is love.” (1 John 4:8) God loves us so much that he gave us his Son, who died for us so that our sins would be forgiven and we could share life with God forever.

There are many people that exemplify God’s everlasting, profound love. We can see it in their smile, how they greet us, through their words and actions. This weekend, as we celebrate Mothers’ Day, let us remember our own mother who showered us with unconditional love, as well as Mary, the Mother of God, who in love responded, “May it be done to me according to your word.” (Luke 1:38)

Let us lift our prayers of thanksgiving to God and the love that he showered upon us:

“Great and loving God, you not only love us; you are lavish with your gift of love. Open my heart, my mind, my will, and all that I am to this gift you give me so generously. Help me, in turn, to love others with just as lavish a love.” (“Walking in Love: 30 Days with the Encyclical ‘God Is Love’ from Pope Benedict XVI”)

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SHARON PRIESTER is one of six regional directors of religious education working with the diocesan Office of Catechetics. She is a member of Holy Trinity Parish in Bloomington.