6th Sunday of Easter 2024 - Love one another

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.  In John’s first epistle he gave us that description of God that sets Christianity apart from any other religion; he said,  “God is love”, and in the nine short verses of the Gospel Jesus uses the word commandment five times and the word “love” nine times: “This is my commandment: love one another as I love you.” Love…it’s not just for poets, song writers, and romantics. The practice of love is a commandment from our God. 

The truth that the One God of the universe is love in his very being is not found in Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, Zoroastrianism, or any of the pagan religions in all of human history. The practice of love and the worship of God who IS love in his essence and being sets Christians apart. In fact, in the Quran, there are more verses about the type of people God does not love, than those who he does. Islam separates humanity into the loved and the not loved, where Christians believe that God is love, and loves all people, dying for all, desiring the salvation of all.

Saint John, the patron of our diocese and author of our second reading today, was certainly devoted to the love of God.  He was called the beloved disciple of the Lord, and laid his head on the heart of Jesus at the last supper. 

Ancient Christian tradition tells us that after Mary’s Assumption, Saint John lived on the island of Patmos, a small Greek island in the Aegean Sea, until he died of old age, around the age of 100.  And there on Patmos, as you might imagine, being the last of the twelve apostles, people would flock to him.  I may have shared this before how Sunday after Sunday, the people would literally carry the Apostle John down from his mountain abode to come celebrate the Eucharist with them.

And the story goes that Sunday after Sunday, Saint John would offer the same simple message. He would say “my little children, God loves you.  Now you love Him and love one another.”  Sunday after Sunday, the same simple message: “my little children, God loves you.  Now you love Him and love one another.”  Sunday after Sunday after Sunday.

Finally, someone asked him: “holy apostle, why do you keep repeating the same message, over and over again?”  To which Saint John replied: “I keep repeating it over and over again because the Master repeated it over and over again”.

God loves you, now you live him and love one another.  It’s the essence of the entire Gospel, isn’t it?  God is love.  

Almost 20 years ago, already, all the way back in in 2005, Pope Benedict surprised much of the world, with his first encyclical. Prior to his election, Pope Benedict was the head of the congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith under Pope John Paul II. And in many instances, the future Pope Benedict was tasked with cracking down on some doctrinal matters. And so the world thought that the tone of his pontificate would follow in that manner. But no, his first encyclical, was called “God is love”. Deus Caritas est. God is love. If you haven’t read it, you should.  You won’t be disappointed.

As you might imagine, the Holy Father drew upon scripture passages like our second reading and gospel for this 6th Sunday of easter. And Benedict goes on to explain how since God is love, when we engage in charity, we aren’t just fulfilling an ethical duty, but we are participating in the life of God. 

“Love one another as I love you”. "In His death on the Cross,” Pope Benedict writes “Christ expressed love in its most radical form. By loving as He loved, which involves self-sacrifice, we live out His commandment of love and thus dwell in Him and He in us."

Love isn’t just about having nice feelings about people. Love is not a feeling. It is an action, of doing what is best for another person. And love reaches its highest expression, its truest form, when it costs us something. Sacrificial love shows that we really believe something to be so good that it is worth sacrificing ourselves for, even dying for. 

And, that type of love, we are to show towards all—with God-like love, Christ-like love. “Love your neighbor as yourself.” Pope Benedict writes, “Love of neighbor…consists in the very fact that, in God and with God, I love even the person whom I do not like or even know."

Loving the Unlikable involves extending kindness and forgiveness to those who may have wronged us or whom we find difficult to like due to personality clashes, differing opinions, or past conflicts. We’ve all met unlikable people. Each of us have likely appeared to others as unlikeable. I’m a priest and people have not liked me for a whole number reasons. But we have to see beyond our emotions, and practice love to the unlikeable. 

We are to practice love to the Unknown: to strangers or people we do not know personally. This could include acts such as providing food or clothing to pantries for the impoverished, donating to charities that support refugees, or volunteering our time to feed and clothe and help people get their life in order or the medical care they need, or the education they want for their children. I think we do a great job of this here at St. Ignatius. Unknown people call us every day, and our SVDP, which many of you support so generously, is able to help so many people. 

And the charity we are able to offer and called to offer extends to groups of people that the rest of society may overlook or marginalize. We have a nice group of parishioners that brings communion to the sick and elderly in nursing homes.  

Pope Benedict also addresses the need for Christians to bring love into public life. This can mean engaging respectfully, respectfully, respectfully, with people who hold different political views, advocating for authentic justice, like the safety of the unborn in public policies, and working towards the common good in ways that uphold the dignity and rights of every person, especially the most vulnerable.

"The Church's deepest nature,” writes Benedict, “is expressed in her three-fold responsibility: of proclaiming the word of God celebrating the sacraments, and exercising the ministry of charity (diakonia). These duties presuppose each other and are inseparable." 

We preach the Gospel because we love non-believers and desire they share in eternal life with God through Christ. We celebrate the Sacraments, faithfully, because God desires to purify us of our sins and strengthen us in charity through them. And we engage in charity because that is our identity. To be Christian is to be a love-doer. A lover of God, a lover of your fellow man—in word and deed. 

May the Blessed Virgin Mary, who we honor in a special way during this month of May, most blessed of all women in her love of God and the Church, assist us by her example and prayers, along with St. John, St. Ignatius, and all the saints, in the practice of love toward all, for the glory of God and the salvation of souls.

26th Sunday in Ordinary Time 2021 - Holy Works In His Name

Remember a few weeks ago in the Gospel when Peter attempts to correct Jesus on the road to Caesarea Philippi? Peter had rightly professed that Jesus is the Christ, but then Peter objects when the Lord explains that he must go to the cross to suffer and die? Peter didn’t get it, he didn't get the cross, so the Lord corrects him, and thereby gives a lesson to all of us. 

Today, we heard a similar dynamic play out between one of the apostles and our Lord. This time it’s the Apostle John who seems to be missing something. He begins to grumble and complain that someone outside of the band of apostles was casting out demons. “Teacher, we saw someone driving out demons in your name, and we tried to prevent him because he does not follow us.”

John’s protest echoes the objection of Joshua in our first reading, that Eldad and Medad were prophesying, although they had not been with the other seventy elders gathered by Moses. 

Moses replies much like the Lord,  manifesting the wish that everyone enjoy the gifts of the Spirit. 

Likewise, when the apostle John complains about this exorcist, casting out demons in Jesus’ name, the Lord corrects John, saying, don’t stop him. He’s doing good works in my name.  Not just apostles are called to do the work of Jesus, but all Christians.

The Lord goes on to explain that good deeds done in his name are holy, no mattering who does them. There is no holy work, including the giving of a glass of water, that passes unnoticed by God when done in generosity and without selfish calculation. Every act of forgiveness, every donation to a Christian cause, every penny put in the collection basket, every piece of clothing given to the poor, every kind letter or visit paid to someone who was sick, in prison, or alone, every prayer offered up for those in need, every word of comfort, instruction, and guidance, every single action that we perform in our Christian efforts to love God and neighbor is noticed, remembered, and delighted in by our Lord Jesus Christ.

The work of the Church isn’t exclusive to the work of the Apostles, the bishops. Every Christian is given a share in the mission, and is called to works of charity. Remember, we heard, last week, that those who claim to have faith, but do not perform works, their faith is dead. 

On Monday, the Church celebrates a saint who took this call to holy works very seriously, the great St. Vincent de Paul, who labored in the streets of Paris, ministering to the hungry and homeless, war refugees, the neglected elderly, and orphans. He saw there was a problem, and knew that he couldn’t wait for someone else to do the work.  So he established houses for the poor, crippled and sick, personally caring for the patients who had the most contagious diseases. He would dress their wounds and nurse them to health. And this dear holy priest has inspired generations of Catholics—clergy and laity alike, to labor for the poor.

After Communion today, a member of our parish chapter of the Society of St. Vincent de Paul will share a bit more about what they’ve been doing in the name of Christ in our parish and neighborhood.

After explaining how the mission of the Gospel is so much bigger than just the Twelve Apostles, the Lord gave one of us sternest, strongest condemnations in the entire New Testament. He talks about scandal. Those who cause little ones to sin, should have a millstone tied around their necks and thrown into the sea. It would be better to have your hand cut off, then experience the punishment of those who lead people, especially little ones, the impressionable, away from following Jesus Christ.

St. John was almost guilty of scandal. He was about to stop this devout exorcist from casting out demons because he wasn’t one of the Twelve. This is the definition of scandal, when someone in authority, like an apostle, a bishop, a priest, a parent, a catechist, or even just a fellow Christian hinders the holy works and inspirations of others.

Again, this is a lot like when the Lord called Peter Satan. When Peter said, you mustn’t allow yourself to suffer, it was akin to Satan opposing the holy will of God to save us from hell. And so the Lord rebukes Peter, he rebukes Satan for opposing the salvific plan of God.

So, too, here with St. John. When John wants to stop this exorcist from engaging in good, holy, work, inspired by Christ’s Gospel, he is setting himself at odds with God. Which is why the Lord explains that fiery Gehenna is reserved for those who oppose holy charity. 

I love the tension in this Gospel. On one hand, we need to be extremely generous and patient with fellow Christians, encouraging them in holy work, even when they might be a bit different from us. On the other hand, the individual Christian needs to go to extreme lengths to not cause scandal, to not lead others away from Christ by our own words and actions.

On one hand, be deeply, profoundly patient with others, and focus on the good that they are doing, on the other hand, be deeply, and profoundly vigilant about not scandalizing people by setting bad example or teaching error, especially to children. For we will be held accountable for this. 

And the best way to avoid scandal is to be diligent about the works of charity, just like St. Vincent de Paul, and so many holy saints, up and down the centuries. 

Like Peter, St. John finally got the lesson which had eluded him during the Lord’s earthly ministry. As an old man, you know, St. John had been exiled to the island of Patmos. And every Sunday, the Christians of patmos would go up the mountain, and carry old St. John to Church, where he would celebrate the Eucharist and preach to Christians there. And it is said that every Sunday, St. John would give them same homily, “my little children, God loves you, now love God and love one another.” Sunday after Sunday. When someone finally asked him, St. John, why do you give the same homily over and over, St. John replied, I repeat it over and over because the master repeated it over and over, god loves you, now love God and love one another, for the glory of God and salvation of souls.

December 27 2017 - St. John, Apostle and Evangelist - Patron of the Diocese of Cleveland

St. John the Apostle is often depicted in art with his head resting on the breast of Christ, as he does at the Last Supper. Among the apostles, it was John alone who remained at Christ’s side at the crucifixion. John, in a sense, is among the first-born of the apostles, along with Peter, James, the Lord’s inner-circle. So how fitting it is to celebrate the apostle’s feast in such proximity to the Lord’s birthday, which John described in his Gospel, as the Word becoming flesh.

St. Ireneaus, bishop of Lyons around the year 200, reported with assurance: “John, the disciple of the Lord, who rested on the heart of Jesus, wrote a Gospel when he was in Ephesus.” Ireneaus, of course, was a disciple of St. Polycarp, who died around 156, and who was made bishop of Smyrna by St. John himself. Remaining so close to the Lord, it is no wonder that his Gospel is among the most mystical, filled with the most intense insight into the divine identity of the Lord.

In the Gospel for today’s feast, we read John’s own account of the morning of that first Easter. Upon hearing the news of the empty tomb, John sprints ahead of St. Peter to reach the Lord’s resting place. Was it his youthfulness or his intense love of the Lord which allowed him to reach the tomb first? Probably a little bit of both. Peter was likely weighed down by the guilt of having denied the Lord, during the Passion, while John had remained faithful. John, in his humility, though, shows deference to the Prince of the Apostles, by allowing Peter to enter the tomb first.

His humility may be a bit surprising, as elsewhere in the Gospel, John shows a thunderous temperament, wanting to call fire down from heaven on a group of unwelcoming Samaritans. Jesus, in fact, calls John, and his brother James, the sons of thunder.

We know, though, that the thunderous temperament of John was indeed tempered into a pure and zealous love of the Lord. After the resurrection, John preached the Gospel fearlessly, he was arrested, tortured, and exiled to the island of Patmos, from which he wrote his three new testament epistles, and continued to shepherd the Church with great pastoral care.

After his death, the bishop Polycrates testified that John’s body was returned to Ephesus, where he was once bishop and caretaker of the blessed Virgin Mary.

St. John is the patron of the diocese of Cleveland, and he is a powerful example to all of us: of zealous love for the Lord, temper under control, mystical prayer, devotion to the Blessed Virgin, tireless pastor, who used his intellectual gifts to combat the errors plaguing his flock and bestowing to the Church of all ages, a portrait of piercing insight of the Lord Jesus. May we know continuously the example and heavenly intercession of so great a patron saint for the glory of God and salvation of souls.

- - - - - - - - -
 
We bring forth now our prayers of petitions.

For the Church of Cleveland under the patronage of St. John, apostle and evangelist, and particularly for Bishop Nelson Perez, that together we may witness faithfully and tirelessly to the truth of the Gospel

For Christians who are persecuted throughout the world, especially those who face martyrdom, that they may have a faith that is constant and pure.

For those oppressed by hunger, sickness or loneliness, that through the mystery of the Nativity of Christ, they may find relief in both mind and body.

For all who have died, and for all the poor souls in purgatory, and for X. for whom this Mass is offered.

Incline your merciful ear to our prayers, we ask, O Lord, and listen in kindness to the supplications of those who call on you. Through Christ our Lord

Thursday - 5th Week of Easter 2017 - Remaining in Christ's love

St. John’s Gospel is so filled with teachings on Love that it is sometimes even called the Gospel of Love.

Saint John, the patron of our Diocese, was the only one of the twelve faithful apostles who did not suffer martyrdom.  They tried to kill him because of his faith, he was plunged into boiling oil, but he emerged unscathed. So, he was exiled from his home to the island of Patmos, a small Greek island in the Aegean Sea where he lived to a very old age. There on Patmos, as you might imagine, as last of the twelve apostles, people would flock to him to hear stories of the Master and to hear the Gospel preached.

Every Sunday, the Christians of Patmos, would make pilgrimage to see Saint John and he would celebrate Eucharist for them and preach.  And Sunday after Sunday he always had the same message for them: he would say, “My little children, God loves you.  Now you love Him and love one another.”  Always the same message, Sunday after Sunday: “my little children, God loves you.  Now you love Him and love one another.”

After some time, someone, asked him, “why do you keep repeating the same message, over and over again?” To which St. John replied: “I keep repeating it over and over again because the Master repeated it over and over again. “My little children, God loves you.  Now you love Him and love one another.”

Love is to be at the heart of the Christian life—Jesus tells us to love one another as he loves us. And in the Gospel today, he tells us to remain in his love by following his commandments.Which commandments? Well, all of them. And through the scriptures Jesus issues quite of few of them:

His first command in the Gospel of Matthew is “repent”, turn away from sin and back to God. He commands us to follow him, to rejoice in the things of God, to let the light of faith shine for all to see, to honor God’s law; he commands us to be reconciled with our brothers, to rid our hearts of lust, to go the extra mile in caring for a brother in need, to love, love, love your enemies. He commands us to lay up treasures in heaven and seek first the kingdom of God. He commands us to be baptized, to eat his flesh and drink his blood, to deny yourself take up his cross and follow him.

By keeping his commandments, we remain united to Him and to His Father, we are filled with the Holy Spirit who produces peace, fortitude and joy in us. May we remain in him always, for the glory of God and salvation of souls.

- - - - -
 
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.
For an increase in vocations to the priesthood and consecrated religious life, and for the 8 men who will be ordained priests for our diocese tomorrow evening in the Cathedral of St. John the Evangelist.
That civil leaders will use their authority to protect the dignity of human life and the well-being of the poor, especially the unborn.  We pray to the Lord.
For those experiencing any kind of hardship or sorrow, isolation or illness, and that the Lord may grant his gift of peace to those most in need of it.
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.