5th Sunday of Easter 2022 - What is Love?

Well, in the last five weeks we’ve had Easter Sunday, Divine mercy Sunday, Good Shepherd Sunday, Mother’s Day Sunday, and today, our Gospel reading gives us the chance to perhaps name today, Love Sunday. “Love one another. As I have loved you, so you also should love one another. This is how all will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”

Earlier this afternoon, I was able to celebrate a wedding for a young bride and groom, Eddie and Anna. So, I’d like to reflect on Christian marriage, on this “Love Sunday”, drawing upon it lessons for all us us, whether you are married, single, widowed, a consecrated religious or a priest. 

Leading up to the wedding, I met with this young couple for about 10 months of marriage preparation. So for 10 months, off and on, we discussed many topics concerning healthy, holy, and happy marriage:  the need for open and honest communication, the need for patience, forgiveness, prayer, engagement in the life of the Church, being open to the children God desires to bring into their new family, and what it means that Marriage is one of the Sacraments of the Church instituted by Our Lord to confer grace.

But the reason for all the preparation, meeting with the priest, the pre-cana day, the prayer, all that effort, is because of our hope that the two of them will be able to share a life of happiness and holiness—a marriage filled with grace and love. 

That word, “love” is found all throughout the marriage liturgy. Will you love and honor each other for as long as you both shall live.

But, what is love? That was a question I pose to all of my couples in marriage preparation. What is love? The word is certainly used in a lot of different ways: I love cookie dough ice cream, I love violin music, I love my grandma, I love the Cleveland browns, which is kinda like saying I love suffering and tragedy.  

St. Paul writes about that word “love” in his first epistle to the Corinthians, and many couples choose this passage for their nuptial mass. Love. “Love is patient, love is kind, it bears all thing, endures all things, it is not rude, it is not pompous, it forgives all things.” Paul says. 

What is love? For Paul, and really throughout the Bible and Christian Theology, Love isn’t a just an emotion. Nor is love so mysterious that we can’t say anything about. St. Paul says plenty and so does our Lord.

For Paul, for Christians: Love is an action, it’s a choice, it’s pursuit that requires effort. Love is a choice to be patient when we feel the claws of impatience raking across our souls, love is choosing to be kind when selfishness rears its ugly face, love is enduring and persevering in doing what is right and just when we want to give up, love is being humble when we want to be pompous, love is forgiving when we want to brood over injury.  

In the Gospel, when the Lord Jesus says, “love God with all your heart, mind, soul, and strength” he’s not talking about making sure that we stir up some pious fleeting emotion toward God every once and a while, or for an hour on Saturday evening or Sunday. He’s saying that Christians need to put God at the center of our work, our decisions, how we treat people, our marriages, everything—every conversation, every interaction, our free time, everything.

It was love that led the Lord to the Cross-the choice to serve God for the greater good, out of the deepest, most profound care for good of our souls. The willingness to bear unfathomable suffering for our redemption. There is no greater love than to lay down your life for another. Talk about an action. The Lord shows us precisely what love looks like, when he lays down his life for his on the cross, to save us from hell. Love requires effort, selflessness, often sacrifice. 

And St. Paul goes so far to say that if you are going throughout life without this type of Christ-like love, then you are like a clashing cymbal, in other words, you are just going through life making a bunch of noise—our lives are sadder and emptier without love. 

And I hope that none of you here are just clashing cymbals—jumping from pursuit to pursuit, relationship to relationship without God’s love filling your soul. And if you are, I invite you to consider another way, a timeless way, the way of Christ, the way of true love.

This is the Love the world needs more of…not just fuzzy feelings, but Christians, doing what is best for each other and our neighbor. Setting good Christian example for one another, praying for one another, making sacrifices for one another and the mission of the Church. As the Lord says in the gospel today, this is how all will know that you are my disciple, that you love one another.

Love requires effort:  to pray when we have other things to do, to go to Sunday Mass when we’d rather sleep in, bringing your kids to church when it’s just easier for everyone to stay in their pajamas all day. It takes effort, right? to study the Bible when we could be sitting in front of the TV or playing the newest game on our smartphones, to strive to give up habitual sins when it’s just easier to justify our selfish actions, being honest in business when it’s easier and more profitable to cheat your client, it requires effort, love requires effort, looking past the faults of others to do what’s best for them, as I would do for myself. 

But this is why weddings are so joyful for the Church. It is so joyful for us to see Bride and Groom standing before God’s altar, in front of their family, and friends, and brothers and sisters in Christ, to say, this is the person I choose to lay down my life for, this is the person I hope will love me as Christ loved me.  This is the person I will sacrifice my life for like no other, who I will pray with and pray for like no other, who I will work with hand-in-hand to serve the needs of the poor and the needs of the Church like no other, who intend to work together to become instruments of God’s love in this dark, cruel, cold world. For as Pope Benedict would say, "love is the light, and in the end the only light that can illuminate a world grown dim."

This is how all will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another. Love is a choice. And the more effort we pour into love the more rewarded we will be in, in this life, and the life to come.  May pour our time, talent, and treasure into this choice, to love every minute of every day for the glory of God and salvation of souls.

6th Sunday of Easter 2021 - The Greatest Love Story

 Over the last eight weeks we’ve had Laetare Sunday, Palm Sunday also called Passion Sunday, Easter Sunday, Divine Mercy Sunday, and Good Shepherd Sunday. Last week, we might’ve called “Vine and Branches Sunday”.  This week we could call “Love Sunday”.  For, in just the second reading and the Gospel, the word “love” is used 17 times.

Love is at the heart of the Christian faith.  When I am preparing couples for marriage, I ask them a series of questions about themselves and their relationship.  ’ ‘How did you meet?’ ‘When long have you dated?’ ‘What kind of interests and activities do you share?’ ‘What values or lessons from your parents do you hope to put into practice in your own marriage?’ ‘What do you want to do differently?”

The toughest question perhaps is a true or false question.  ‘True or false,’ I ask. ‘Love is all you need for a happy marriage.’  Is love all you need for a happy marriage?  Some of them think it is a trick question, and they try looking at my face to see what answer I want.  

Is love all we need, as John Lennon, Paul McCartney and George Harrison sang?  The answer really depends on our definition of love.  Sometimes we use the word love to mean a lot of things.  We say, I love ice cream, I love classical music, I love summer, I love bacon, I love the Cleveland browns, which is like saying I love suffering and tragedy; but that goes to show you, the word love has many meanings.

Even many of the great love stories in literature are very confused about the notion of love.  I remember back in high school reading Shakespeare’s “Romeo and Juliet” great love story.  Yet, really…is that love?  A 3 day teenage romance that caused 6 deaths?  Romeo decided that he loved the 13 year old Juliet before even talking to her, and married her two hours later.  Are raging teenage hormones the same as love?  Is this sort of irrational impulsive selfishness the same as love?

Up until 2009, with the release of the movie Avatar, the top grossing movie in the USA was a love story—the movie “Titanic”, raking in over 650 million dollars, world-wide in brought in 2.1 billion dollars.  Dreamy Leonardo DiCaprio played a poor boy named Jack and Kate Winslet played upper-class Rose.  And in this story, Jack and Rose, coming from two different worlds socially, meet and “fall in love.”  And then the romance turns to tragedy as—spoiler alert –on her maiden voyage the ship hits an iceberg in the northern Atlantic and begins to sink.

This movie was really popular all those years ago back in 1997, especially among girls between the ages of 13-18.  They didn’t just go see the movie one or two times, they went to see it 4, 5, 6, 7 times.  

There was a survey done about why these young girls went to see this movie so many times.  And, you may be surprised…It wasn’t because they really liked boats.  And, It wasn’t because they had the hots for Leonardo DiCaprio—after all he was in a number of films before and after Titanic which didn’t make a quarter of the money.  

So what why was Titanic so successful?  In the end, it was a movie about two unlikely people falling in love, and when the chips were down and the ship is sinking, jack is in the freezing water, and making sure that Rose is safe up on the floating plank, and jack begins to slip, and she is calling out his name, and she’s weeping, and every girl in the theater is weeping, her heart is being torn out, because it is a story about a man who sacrifices his life for his beloved.

After Titanic came out in 1997, Carnival cruise lines had records sales, and their stock went through the roof. All these people saw a movie about a sinking ship in the middle of the atlantic, and their first thought was, I have to go on one of those.  No, they wanted the opportunity to meet someone who would love them as Jack loved Rose.  Willing to drown in freezing water so that the love of his life would live.

In many of the great love stories, we detect echoes, of the greatest love story ever told, and it’s not a movie starring meg ryan or tom hanks. Rather it’s the great story starring you and me and Him. “There is no greater love, than for one to lay down his life for his friend.” The Lord Says. Now love one another as I love you.

Deep down, we are not looking for the impulsive romance of Romeo and Juliet. We aren’t looking for the passionate romance of Rose and Jack or Meg and Tom. Rather, we are made to know and recognize and emulate, the love of Jesus Christ.

Many Christians have not truly considered the depths of his love for us. They see a crucifix as religious decoration. But that crucifix is the blue print for a the fulfillment you are longing for. To know that you are loved that much, and to go out and love others that much. That will change your life.

On this mother’s day weekend, we consider those women who were often the first teachers of what authentic Christ-like love looks like—we consider their self-sacrifice, their dying-to-self which enables new life to flourish. And we are so grateful for them and for their love. 

And yet, at the heart of the Christian faith is a love even greater than the love Mothers have for their children.  “In this way the love of God was revealed to us” St. John wrote, “God sent his only Son into the world so that we might have life through him.”  We are loved so immensely by God, that he was willing to leave paradise, become man, and without an ounce of selfishness or impulsivity or irrationality, he died for us that we regain that which was lost by sin. The just one died for the unjust. 

This is not Jack dying for Rose because she’s pretty. Jesus died for us because we’re not. The soul turned away from God in selfishness is an ugly soul. Yet, he died anyway. 

And he then gives us a command: love one another, as I love you. The charity we are to exercise toward others isn’t to be based on their good looks, or their merits, their ability to pay us back. We are to love those who are totally incapable of repaying us. Those who tomorrow might turn around and strike us on the cheek. This is the love Jesus has for us, this is the love we are have for one another…for the glory of God and salvation of souls.

11th Week in OT 2019 - Tuesday - Readiness to love our enemies

We continue to read from Jesus’ great sermon on the mount during these weekdays of Ordinary Time, and we are confronted with one of Jesus’ most counter-cultural teachings this morning: love your enemies.

Why this teaching is counter-cultural should be obvious. The tendency of our fallen nature is to hate our enemies, ostracize and undermine them, defeat them in battle, seek their downfall, annihilate their influence in the world. Fallen nature takes delight in seeing enemies suffer.

But Jesus’ disciples are not to follow the tendencies of fallen nature. Rather, we are to live according to a new way, the way of Christ preached in the Sermon and modeled in his earthly life.

We are to love our enemies, because He loves those who have made themselves enemies of God through sin. He went to the cross for all out of love for all.

If we love our enemies, we can love anyone. And we must. Out of obedience to Christ!

So, how are we to love our enemies? Forgive them, be patient with them, feed them, clothe them, teach them, serve them, hold no grudges toward them, visit them, pray for them, seek what is best for them. Love them even when it feels like they are scourging you at a pillar, even when they are forcing you to march to your crucifixion.

Saint Maximus the Confessor wrote, “Readiness to do good to someone who hates us is a characteristic of perfect love.” Many people in our highly-offendable culture walk around ready to attack those who offend them, to verbally assault those who inconvenience them, they are just looking to unveil someone as their enemy so they can pummel them with their pent up frustrations, to make them into a scapegoat for all of their problems.

But Christians must ready ourselves to do good to all. And by doing so we begin to reflect that perfect love of Jesus Christ. We begin to be perfect, as our heavenly Father is perfect.

May we ready ourselves to do good to all, and pray deeply for our enemies, not simply for their conversion, but for our conversion to love them as Christ loves them, for the glory of God and salvation of souls.

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That the bishops of the Church will act as true prophets through their faithful teaching, their courageous witness, and their self-sacrificing love. We pray to the Lord.

That government leaders around the world may carry out their duties with justice, honesty, and respect for freedom and the dignity of human life.  We pray to the Lord.

For the Church’s missions amongst the poor and unevangelized throughout the world, that the work of Christ may be carried out with truth and love. We pray to the Lord.

For the grace to love the Lord our God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength, to love our neighbors and enemies and those who persecute us, and to share the truth of the Gospel with all.  We pray to the Lord.

For all those who share in the sufferings of Christ—the sick, the sorrowful, and those who are afflicted or burdened in any way.  We pray to the Lord.

For the deceased members of our families, friends, and parish, for the deceased priests and religious of the diocese of Cleveland, for the poor souls in purgatory, and for those who have fought and died for our freedom. We pray to the Lord.

O God, who know that our life in this present age is subject to suffering and need, hear the prayers of those who cry to you and receive the prayers of those who believe in you. Through Christ our Lord.

11th Week of OT 2018 - Tuesday - Love your enemies

Throughout Jesus’ great Sermon on the Mount he teaches us a number of things: how to be holy, how to love our fellow man, how to be in right relationship with God and how to imitate God in your generosity, how to get to heaven.

Today the Lord offers one of his most difficult teachings:   He tells us today that not only are we to love our neighbor, but our enemies as well: those who persecute you, those who sin against you, those who your country is at war with, those who cut you off in traffic, those who may have bullied you a half a century ago in grade school, those who have come into your country illegally. Love them.

Love them, forgive them, be patient with them, feed them, clothe them, teach them, serve them, hold no grudges toward them, visit them, pray for them, seek what is best for them. Love them even when it feels like they are scourging you at a pillar, even when they are forcing you to march to your crucifixion.

Not an easy teaching! We find it hard enough to love someone who is a stranger, who is simply different from us, let alone our enemies. We can think of a million reasons why loving our enemy is a bad idea, but Jesus is saying, “do it!”

Maximus the Confessor expounded upon the “love of one’s enemy” to include those who actively hate you. He said, “Readiness to do good to someone who hates us is a characteristic of perfect love.”

Many people in our highly-offendable culture walk around ready to attack those who offend them, to verbally assault those who inconvenience them, they are just looking to unveil someone as their enemy so they can pummel them with their pent up frustrations, to make them into a scapegoat for all of their problems.

But, we Christians are to be ready to love our enemy. If we look into our heart and don’t find that readiness to love, we’re the one’s that need to change. We’re the ones that need to trust Christ, and obey Christ.

May the Lord bring about that change of heart in each of us, to readily love with Christ-like love, for the glory of God and salvation of souls.

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That the bishops of the Church will act as true prophets through their faithful teaching, their courageous witness, and their self-sacrificing love. We pray to the Lord.

That government leaders around the world may carry out their duties with justice, honesty, and respect for freedom and the dignity of human life.  We pray to the Lord.

For the Church’s missions amongst the poor and unevangelized throughout the world, that the work of Christ may be carried out with truth and love. We pray to the Lord.

For the grace to love the Lord our God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength, to love our neighbors and enemies and those who persecute us, and to share the truth of the Gospel with all.  We pray to the Lord.

For all those who share in the sufferings of Christ—the sick, the sorrowful, and those who are afflicted or burdened in any way.  We pray to the Lord.

For the deceased members of our families, friends, and parish, for the deceased priests and religious of the diocese of Cleveland, for the poor souls in purgatory, and for those who have fought and died for our freedom. We pray to the Lord.

O God, who know that our life in this present age is subject to suffering and need, hear the prayers of those who cry to you and receive the prayers of those who believe in you. Through Christ our Lord.