Cycle A - Year 1:  

21 May 2017: Sixth Sunday of Easter 

(Liturgical Color: White)

Gospel:Please Read John 14:15-21

To love our Lord!

Can love really move mountains? But first, what does this sentence mean?

It means that, as long as you have love you can get through anything and past any obstacle. Also, once you're in love, nothing can stand in your way. Because love is so strong.

On the sixth Sunday of Easter we hear Jesus speak about love.... and the power of

unconditional love for those who believe in Him and choose to follow in our Lord's footsteps. This discourse to His disciples is part of His farewell to them as our Lord was about to undertake His passion on Calvary.

Jesus challenges His disciples in this Gospel passage: "If you love me, you will keep my commandments". That is very clear as it can be.

To all of us who profess to truly love Jesus, we must obey His commandments and teachings because they enable us to make the love of God real in our lives.

One of the most spiritually destructive ideas that has infected the world today is the fallacy of claiming to love Jesus Christ while at the same time ignoring, and even rejecting, the commandments and teachings of His Church. It is like "double-talk".

In our human experience, the real test and testimony of our love for a person lies in our acceptance of what that person we love holds dear. In other words, authentic love means cherishing and honoring what the person we love cherishes and honors. That is what our Lord is telling us today: "If you love me, you will keep my commandments" through the teachings of His Church.

Jesus Himself showed us that His victory over death was through the way of the Cross for the love of us. There is no other way for us, too, if we want to follow our Lord. That is why following Jesus is a real challenge indeed. But if we love Jesus, nothing can stand in our way to follow His commandments.

The second point in our reflection is our Lord's promise that He will not leave us orphans but will ask the Father to give us "another Advocate to be with us always."

As we approach Pentecost, Jesus prepares His apostles for the coming of the Holy Spirit, through whom the Church will be built and the nations converted.

The Person of the Holy Spirit is with us to empower us to love and to fulfill God's law and commandments. The Holy Spirit comes and remains with us in order to engender within us a filial trust in the Lord and so the certainty of being loved by Him in return.

With the Holy Spirit within us, we are then filled with the light of truth so that we can embrace and live the Gospel freedom that comes to us through the blessing of the Lord's commandments: the freedom to love, the freedom to choose what is good in every situation, even when doing so is difficult and challenging. 

In sum, let us then listen to the final words of our Lord Jesus Christ in today's Gospel: "Whoever has my commandments and observes them is the one who loves me. And whoever loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and reveal myself to him."

At every Eucharistic celebration, the Holy Spirit is truly with us. Let us open our hearts to the inspiration of the Holy Spirit so that we can truly love our Lord Jesus Christ and follow all His commandments, through the official teachings of the Church.

A blessed Sunday to us all. And thank you for a moment with God.

Ad Jesum per Mariam!