May 6, 2018

Bulletin  6th Sunday of Easter B Acts 10: 25-26, 34-35, 44-48; 1 John 4: 7-10; John 15: 9-17 I have a friend from my New York days who would categorize the people close to him. He would say: this is the person I grew up with, this is the person I was in school with, this was my play buddy, this is my friend, this is my close friend, this is my best friend, then I think the highest classification was, this is my very special friend. We all have friends, and we have some sort of ‘hierarchy in classifying them.’ Some we would go on vacation with, some we would invite to dinner, some we call when we need someone special, some are friends for life. Some when we or they move away, we lose track of and seldom see again. - Today Jesus is classifying each one of us. “As the Father loves Me so I love you…” - He tells us that we have responsibilities, “Remain in my love. If you keep My commandments, you will remain in My love…” - He then elevates this to a higher level, “This is My Commandment: love one another as I love you.” - Then He inserts Himself in the syllogism, “No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.” - He then gives a specific, permanent message,”You are My Friends if you do what I command you.” - SO WE CONCLUDE….You are the Father’s friend, I am the Father’s friend. You are Jesus’ friend, I am Jesus’ friend, You are the Holy Spirit’s friend, I am the Holy Spirit’s friend. This is NOT a DEBATABLE ISSUE! The devil certainly doesn’t want us to hear this. He places doubt in each of our minds. He distracts us from our desire for Heaven. And Jesus is telling us today this FACT: We are God’s friends. And God does not lie. Jesus never lied. The Spirit is gracing us each moment to proceed on the path to Heaven. So What Am I Doing With This ? I go to the readings to find direction on the journey to Heaven. Peter had received an apparition telling him, “There are three men here looking for you…accompany them without hesitation, because I have sent them.” Peter asked the men why they came to see him. They answered,’Cornelius, a centurion, an upright and Godfearing man, respected by the whole Jewish nation, was directed by a holy angel to summon you to his house and to hear what you have to say.” Peter went and “…Cornelius was expecting them and had called together his relatives and close friends. When Peter entered, Cornelius met him and falling at his feet, paid him homage. Peter, however, raised him up, saying, ‘Get up. I myself am also a human being.” Now the earliest Christian communities were made up almost exclusively of Jews who had accepted Jesus. So many of them continued to go to the synagogue services on the Sabbath and then gather on Sunday for ‘the breaking of the bread’. They continue to observe Jewish laws and custom while celebrating the Eucharist in their homes. ( Acts 2:46). They still felt a great deal of antagonism toward the Gentiles but it was becoming obvious now that God had chosen the Gentiles too. Peter ‘put this all together’ after the vision and being summoned to Cornelius’ house. St. Luke, the author of Acts was a convert from paganism. He realized the importance of opening up of this new church community to the whole world. And he tells of the coming of the Spirit on Cornelius and this assembly and Peter baptized them. Peter says, “In truth, I see that God shows no partiality. Rather in every nation whoever fears Him and acts uprightly is acceptable to Him.” As we hear God’s commands today to remain in His love by keeping His command to ‘love one another’, we can see that all are included. We are directed to view each person as God’s friend, just as God views us. This is a ‘goal commandment’, we work on this each day, trying to be Jesus’ love to those we meet and spread this out to all by our good works and our prayers. This is a call from God, this is God’s command. John in the second reading is echoing his famous passage found in 3:16 of his Gospel, “For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son, so that everyone who believes in Him might not perish but might have eternal life.” In todays passage he clarifies this by saying, “God sent His only Son into the world so that we might have life through Him. In this is love: not that we have loved God, but He loved us and sent His Son as expiation for our sins.” So I reflect on how I am responding to those in my life? Am I working on being ‘love’ each day? Am I caught up too often with the ‘world, the flesh and the devil?’ Jesus laid down His life for me. Jesus laid His life down for each and every person everywhere, of all times. God just loves each and everyone all the time, because God is love. How am I doing on loving everyone? Living the Word has a wonderful summation of today’s message from the Lord. Is it easy to love as Jesus did? “This sounds simple, but asks much of us. If I’m most honest, I must admit that I do show partiality, especially when someone has ‘done me dirt,’ as my Aunt Sophia would say. It’s hard enough to love the people I like. It’s harder to love those I don’t like or who hurt me. But giving in to our understandable partialities can blind us to the surprising presence of God’s Holy Spirit where we least expect it. Peter invited his hearers to overcome their partialities: ‘Can anyone withhold the water for baptizing these people, who have received the Holy Spirit even as we have?’ It would have been hard to answer yes. Pope Francis often calls us beyond our partialities and to soften our rigidity. Preaching on February 6, 2017, he said: ‘Instead of opening their heart to the gift, [The Pharisees]…sought refuge in the rigidity of the Commandments, which they had multiplied up to five hundred or more. They did not know how to receive the gift— and the gift is only received with freedom—and these rigid characters were afraid of the freedom that God gives us: they were afraid of love.’ Loving like Jesus will free us to find the Spirit where we least expect. By living His command to love, we receive the gift of God’s unconditional love. We become more loving and less partial ourselves.” So I reflect on: • Whom do I find it difficult to love? Have I ever asked myself why? Am I holding some grudge against them? Can I pray for them? This is the first step to loving. • When has God’s unconditional love for me softened my heart and freed me to love? • I take time to reflect on my deep friendships and pray about Jesus words, ‘I have called you friends’. And what about those I have refused to love? • I reflect on the experiences when God’s love has liberated me to build bridges to others. What did Jesus teach me? How hard was it for me to listen to Him? Sacred Space 2018 states: “Joy is not an obvious emotion to associate with keeping God’s commandments! Yet, by keeping the greatest of all the commandments, we will give and receive that love that the Jesuit, Teilhard de Chardin, described as ‘the most universal, the most tremendous and the most mystical of cosmic forces. Love is the primal and universal psychic energy. Love is a sacred reserve of energy; it is like the blood of spiritual evolution.’ With Teilhard, I pray ‘Glorious Christ, You whose divine influence is active at the very heart of matter, and at the dazzling center where the innumerable fibers of the multiple meet; You whose power is as implacable as the world and as warm as life…You whose hands imprison the stars; You are the first and the last, the living and the dead and the risen again; it is to You to whom our being cries out a desire as vast as the universe: in truth You are our Lord and our God! Amen.”