Love One Another
Sixth Sunday of Easter
“This is my commandment: love one another as I love you.” John 15:12
In the Gospel for the Sixth Sunday of Easter we are met with an extraordinary challenge: Jesus commands us to “love one another as I love you” (John 15:12). The letter from John echoes this command. Of course, we are to love those in our family, those we work with, those we like. But the scriptures make clear that we are also to love those we never notice, those we purposely avoid, and even those we are tempted to despise. In this Sunday’s selection from the Acts of the Apostles Peter shows us how far God’s love extends, and how far our love should extend in response. Peter realizes that God no longer “shows partiality” to the Jews, sharing divine love exclusively with them. Christ has revealed that God’s love extends to all people, and so should ours.
Love and Service, Two of the Foundations on Which the Church is Based, According to the Pope
Pope Francis said that the foundation of the Church is found in service and love and invited to let oneself always be loved by God. In the homily of the Mass that he presided at the chapel of the Casa Santa Marta, Pope Francisco commented on the Gospel of the Feast Day and indicated that from the Eucharist and from this gesture of service “the two commandments that will make the Church grow if we are faithful.” The Pope then recalled that without “love without limits” the “Church does not go forward, the Church does not breathe.” “Without love it does not grow, it becomes an empty institution, of appearance, of gestures without fecundity. Go to his body. Jesus says how we have to love, until the end.”
The Pontiff recalled the words of Jesus in which he affirms, “A servant is not greater than his master, nor is an ambassador greater than the one who has sent him. The awareness that He is greater than all of us, and we are servants, and we can not go beyond, Jesus. He is the Lord, not us. This is the testament of the Lord. If you feed and drink, and tell us. Love yourself like that. Wash your feet and tell us: serve like that, but stay tuned, a
servant is never more than the one who sends him, his master. They are strong words and gestures: it is the foundation of the Church. If we go ahead with these three things, we will never make a mistake.”
Pope Francis then invited “let the gaze of Jesus enter me. We will feel so many things: we will feel love, we will feel perhaps nothing, we will block ourselves there, and we will feel a shame. But always let the gaze of Jesus come. The same look with which He looked at the last supper, that afternoon at his disciples. Lord, you know me, you, know it all. “
Source: ACI Prensa
Readings for the Week
Monday: Acts 16:11-15; Ps 149:1b-6a, 9b; Jn 15:26 — 16:4a
Tuesday: Acts 16:22-34; Ps 138:1-3, 7c-8; Jn 16:5-11
Wednesday: Acts 17:15, 22 — 18:1; Ps 148:1-2, 11-14; Jn 16:12-15
Thursday: Acts 1:1-11; Ps 47:2-3, 6-9; Eph 1:17-23 or Eph 4:1-13 [1-7, 11-13]; Mk 16:15-20 (for Ascension); otherwise Acts 18:1-8; Ps 98:1-4; Jn 16:16-20
Friday: Acts 18:9-18; Ps 47:2-7; Jn 16:20-23
Saturday: Acts 18:23-28; Ps 47:2-3, 8-10; Jn 16:23b-28
Sunday: Acts 1:15-17, 20a, 20c-26; Ps 103:1-2, 11-12, 19-20; 1 Jn 4:11-16; Jn 17:11b-19;
or, for Ascension, Acts 1:1-11; Ps 47:2-3, 6-9; Eph 1:17- 23 or Eph 4:1-13 [1-7, 11-13]; Mk 16:15-20
Saints & Special Observances
Sunday: Sixth Sunday of Easter
Thursday: The Ascension of the Lord (unless transferred to Sunday) or St. Damien de Veuster
Saturday: Ss. Nereus and Achilleus; St. Pancras