If you love me you will keep my commandments, in other words if you really believe who I and what I have said and why I died and rose again then you will try and no matter how many times you may fail you will continue to try to keep my commandments.
It is not those who say Lord, Lord, who will enter the kingdom, it is those who do the will of my Father. It is not those who speak words of love who come to God but those who do loving works speak loving words that come to God.
You’ve heard all this before; love one another as I have loved you. At this Mass we celebrate Jesus’ love for each of us. He handed himself over to people who rejected him and his teachings and then condemned to a shameful and painful death. Even in his agony he prayed, ‘Father forgive them for they know not what they do.’
In the opening prayer at this Mass we prayed, ‘what we live in remembrance we may always hold to in what we do.’ What we live in remembrance is Christ’s dying on the cross out of love for us. ‘May we always hold to in what we do’ is our own struggles to ‘love others as we have been loved by Jesus.
Love one another as I have loved you. It is not easy but Christ asks us to die to our selfishness, our ‘me first ‘attitude and put the needs of others first. He wants us to be there for others as he was there for us.
Jesus wants us to be there for men and women who hunger and thirst for respect and acceptance no matter what their race or faith or life-style. Jesus wants us to be there for the men, women and children who are fleeing civil wars and religious persecution and as strangers seek to be welcomed to our land and you’ve done this many times,
Jesus went out of his way to be there for the sick, the outcast and the forgotten. He challenges us to be conscious of family members and friends who may be isolated at home or in nursing and retirement homes who would be thrilled with a phone call or a visit. What we live in remembrance may we always hold to in what we do.
Jesus taught us to forgive not seven times but seventy seven times those who harmed us in any way. From his cross he forgave those who brought him to this place of shame. What we live in remembrance may we always hold on to in what we do. We are not asked to forget but we are asked to forgive the harm, the hurt and the injustice we’ve endured from family members or friends.
If you love me you will keep my commandments. That’s not easy, it can be a challenge but nourished by the bread of life we can always hold on to in what we do.
This Homily entry was posted on Sunday, May 21st, 2017.
Founded by St. Paul of the Cross, every Passionist takes a special vow to spend his or her energies in promoting remembrance of the sufferings of Jesus, the memory of the Cross, and reflection of the meaning of the Cross for the world.
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