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.

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.

5th Week of Easter 2018 - Friday - "Love one another"

Love is a deeply misunderstood word these days. Sometimes it’s reduced to denote a great delight one takes in a particular object or activity: “I just love ice cream and baseball”, “I just love your new shoes”.

When Jesus says today, “love one another”, he’s not saying, have the same attitude towards each other as you have towards your favorite food, shoes, or sport. This love is conditional, fleeting, and fickle.

When he teaches us to “love one another as I love you” he’s really outlining the beginning and end the Christian life.  We are created by God out of Love and we are created by God For love.  Love is the reason we exist, and it is our purpose.  I am supposed to love everyone and everything God loves.

Because we are called to love those whom God loves, this means that I am to love even the person whom I do not like or even know.  My love needs to extend to every corner of the earth, because that’s how far God’s love extends.  It needs to extend into every jail cell, into every hospital ward, across the political aisle, and even into the life of the hardened sinner, because God’s love is there, too.

When I begin my day and structure my day in terms of loving those whom God loves, something changes. I begin to look on others not simply with my eyes and my feelings, but from the perspective of Jesus Christ.  Going beyond exterior appearances, we begin to see in others that same desire to be loved as we have in ourselves.

Love is definitely a word that our enemy, the devil, wishes to distort and water-down.  He says, only love what you like, only love what you are familiar with, only love when it is convenient for you, love only those who will love you back.

But, in Jesus Christ, we see love’s true face. His love embraces self-sacrifice for the good of the other. His is not just for me, it’s for everyone. And it extends to even those who reject Him, patiently inviting them out of their hardness. Authentic love is larger than my limitations and experiences. In Christ, we encounter a love that is infinite.

Jesus gives us the command to love.  We pray, that today we will be faithful to that limitless love, for the glory of God and salvation of souls.
 
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For ever deeper faithfulness in following the commandments of Christ and for the grace to love those who are difficult to love. We pray to the Lord.

For lasting peace throughout the world: that Christ, the Prince of Peace will put an end to all enmity and division, and unify the peoples of the world.

That those chosen to represent us in government will use their authority to protect the dignity of human life and the welfare of the most vulnerable.

For those experiencing any kind of hardship or sorrow, isolation or illness: that the Lord may grant his gift of peace to those most in need of it.

For all souls who await the resurrection, for all our departed loved ones and all of the souls in purgatory, and for N. for whom this Mass is offered. 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.