Beloved, let us Love one Another!

6th Sunday of Easter May 5, 2024 John 15, 9-17 John’s Gospel is permeated with the word “love.” In today’s reading of eight verses the word occurs eight times! The second reading today is also filled with the word “love.” In just three verses the word love appears 9 times! 17 times in all!! It is pretty clear what Jesus is asking of us his followers, to be a community of love. We should know what it means to be a follower of Jesus. There is a song in English, “they will know we are Christians by our love.” Love, that is what it is all about! Jesus begins by telling his disciples to remain in his love. Remain for me means to be in Jesus’ love. Remain means to stay. If the migration office says, “we want you to remain in Mexico.” That means that I cannot leave. If Gabby says to Jose, “Remain in your room!” It means that he can’t go out. To remain you don’t have to do anything, you just need to stay put. If we remain in Jesus’ love we allow Jesus’ love to overflow us. Like a tight embrace from a friend that we have not seen for a long time: just feel the love! Like standing in sunshine and allowing the warmth of the sun to fill you and cover you. Remain in his love. Be open to the gift of God’s love. Jesus promises us that if we remain in his love, if we accept the gift of his love, his joy will be in us and our joy will be complete. It is a great invitation and a wonderful promise. We only need to respond that yes, we want to remain in Jesus’ love. Jesus doesn’t end there though. First we simply accept the gift of Jesus’ love and then Jesus tells his disciples “love one another” (Jn 15:12, 17) Not just once but twice, he then goes on to say how we are to love one another: “as I love you” (Jn 15:12). Jesus tells us not just that we should love one another, but he tells us how we are to love one another. In the same way that Jesus loves us! Love is hard work, love isn’t easy. I find it interesting in spanish it seems like there are two words for Love, Amar y querer. Querer isn’t quite the same is like, but that is the way that it is used in the culture. In English we love everything. We love certain foods, we love holidays, we love the weather, we casually say, “love you bye” on the phone to just about everyone. In Mexico you very rarely say, “te amo!” I have been told that you only say I love you to your children, your spouse and your parents. Very rarely would you say that you love a friend. Querer yes! Amar, No! I think that in Mexico there is a better understanding of the meaning of the word Love. We shouldn’t casually say that I love you. We only should I love you when we are committed to the hard work of love. Love involves sacrfice love involves giving of yourselves. Friday we celebrated the Feast of the Holy Cross; the sign of God’s love for us is the Cross. True love involves sacrifice, if you aren’t willing to give you aren’t willing to love. If you haven’t made any sacrifices you probably haven’t loved. Today is my parent’s wedding anniversary. They were married 74 years ago today. They taught me how to love, not simply by loving me but by loving each other. The first reading says that God is love. Much more than just God loves us, but that God is love. Pure, unadulterated love. We are called to love not as the world loves but as God loves. We are called to be instruments of God’s love in the world. That means that we don’t simply preach the love of God. We don’t tell people that God loves them. We show them that God loves them by loving them. Love is a beautiful. But it isn’t a pretty word. Love is hard work. Jesus invites us to share in that work. Jesus invites us to be people who continue his hard work of love in the world today. Let’s get to work then, lets start loving one another. For God is love!