On the
Sixth Sunday of Easter, we are reminded not only of all the reasons for our hope but the need to share those reasons with others as well. The Easter season has two weeks to go, and we have to be ready for the return to Ordinary Time that should be no less characterized by hope.
This weekend fills us with profound hope and joy as we gather for the first time in two months to celebrate Mass with the participation of the faithful. Although it is great blessing to be together again, we do need to follow new guidelines, policies, and protocols that will work best under these new circumstances. To offer your support to our efforts to serve you, please exercise the gifts of patience, understanding, and support. As you already know, there are a strict set of non-negotiable rules that will apply to everyone who plans to attend Mass in the church, far from what we would consider our usual worship.
Today, the Lord reminds us as we return to Mass of the gift of His love for us and the greatest response we can offer to reciprocate that love as we obey Christ out of love.
“Whoever has my commandments and observes them is the one who loves me.” To love God and to be faithful to His commandments is our baptismal call rooted in the reality that Christianity is the religion of the community and unity of humankind. “Whoever loves Me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and reveal Myself to him!” The origin of our existence is born from the experience of being loved which enables us to love others. Saint Augustine says the Lord loves each of us as if there were only one of us to love. God’s love for each of us is as real and tangible, far exceeding the love of a mother for her child. God made us for love, to know Him personally, and to grow in the knowledge of His great love for us.
The connection between the love of God for each one of us is experienced in keeping His commandments. The commandments are divine gifts, heavenly road signs to keep us on the path to holiness. Love is ultimately a union with the beloved, a holy communion, which is the source that satisfies every human desire. To live in that communion of love, we need to keep His commandments. And there is a clear reason for this: because Jesus is the One who loved us first. Through His love we entered into relationship that is expressed in the Word that became flesh. Therefore, we cannot truly love Him and at the same time fail to love His Will expressed in the commandments – love one another just as I loved you. We cannot love Him and at the same time fail to be faithful to Him in comparison to false gods, or to disrespect, hate, kill, steal, lie to Him in others. We cannot love Him and at the same time think that His love is not enough and to search for some kind of satisfaction in all the wrong places. In truth, the concept of God’s love is pretty simple, but in practice so many of us try to separate Jesus from His Word, thinking that we love Him as long as we “feel good” about Him, “respect” Him or have “affection” for Him. But in reality, Jesus is extremely clear– love is expressed in actions, not necessarily words or feelings. Just like a husband’s love for his wife is shown not by how many times he whispers “I love you,” but by his faithfulness to their marriage vows, so our love for Jesus is shown by our loving fidelity in remaining faithful to Him in all the areas specified by the commandments. Out of love for us, Jesus gave us the commandments so that we might be filled with His peace and joy.
This year, our parish will host a seminarian for the summer– Steve Henderson. Steve was born and raised in south Florida. After graduating high school, Steve entered college and during his sophomore year, he joined the US Navy as a nuclear reactor operator. After six years of service, Steve was honorably discharged and began a career with BellSouth/AT&T for the next twenty plus years as he served in many roles inside the company. His call to serve led him to apply and be accepted as a seminarian. This year Steve successfully completed his first year of pre-theology program of priestly formation at St. Vincent DePaul Regional Seminary in Boynton Beach. Steve’s parents and two siblings must be very proud!
Please join me in welcoming Steve into our parish and pray that he will continue to grow in his vocation to the priesthood with our support, example, and prayers.
Have a blessed week filled with God’s love! I pray that during this week each one of us will have an opportunity to show how much we love Christ, by being faithful to His commandments.