Homily 5th Sunday of Easter - May 15, 2022

 Today's readings can be found here.

I give you a new commandment: love one another.  As I have loved you, so you also should love one another.  Jesus gives this new commandment to the disciples at the Last Supper.  He knows it will be one of the last times he’ll see them before His Passion and wants to remind them of the core of his preaching: love.  Jesus previously told them the two greatest commandments were to love God with all their hearts and to love their neighbors as themselves.  Jesus reminds them they must love each other with the same unconditional, self-sacrificial love He has shown them.

As Jesus’ disciples, this new commandment applies to us as well.  We can break the commandment into its two parts: understanding how Jesus loves us and how we can love each other.  So how does Jesus love us?  We can generalize this by looking at Scripture.  Jesus loves us like a Good Shepherd.  Jesus loves us so much he laid down His life for us.  This approach is valid.  However, I suggest taking a more personal approach.  How does Jesus love YOU?  How does Jesus show His love for YOU in your everyday life?

To answer that question, we need to know Jesus and be in relationship with Him.  How do we know that those in our lives love us: our parents, children, siblings, grandparents, friends, etc?  They may tell us they love us, but it is through our interactions with them that we know we are loved.  It’s the same with Jesus.  We need to take time to get to know Jesus and allow Jesus to know us.  There are many ways to do so but prayer is one of the best ways to grow closer to Jesus.  Through prayer, we can speak to Jesus.  We also need to be open to listen to Jesus speaking to us.  We need quiet times in our lives to be aware of that still small voice.  This could mean setting aside our electronic gadgets and turning off the TV periodically.  It might mean sitting outside on a nice day and just enjoying the beautiful weather.  It may mean keeping our eyes open to see God in others as we go about our daily lives.

As we learn how Jesus loves us, we learn to love Jesus more.  This allows us to be more loving to others in the way Jesus is loving to us.  There are many ways we can show this love of others: praying for others, charitable works, being involved in ministry.  But there are also little things we can do as well.  I’ve been reading about Ignatian spirituality.  St. Ignatius was the founder of the Society of Jesus, the Jesuits.  He developed what is known as the Spiritual Exercises which are a series of meditations and prayers specifically designed to help us deepen our relationship with Jesus.  There are two practices I think would be very helpful in loving others as Jesus loves them.

The first is to listen to others.  Not just hear them, but truly LISTEN.  Sometimes as we’re listening to another, we begin to think about how we might answer them or what we are going to say next.  I know I have that tendency.  Ignatius teaches that we should clear our minds and really focus on what the other person is saying, giving them our full attention.  That’s not always easy, but it shows the other person we care enough about them to truly be present for them.  There are times when others just need someone to hear what they have to say, with no actual response needed.  This ministry of presence can show great love for others.

The second practice is to give others the benefit of the doubt.  We don’t always know what someone else is going through at a particular time.  They may say or do something that upsets us.  Or we may have preconceptions of others from our own biases.  Have you ever made a judgement about someone based on a social media post?  Or perhaps gotten upset with someone because they’re not doing what you think they should?  Giving someone the benefit of the doubt means accepting them as they are, just as God does.  We don’t know what a person might be going through at a given moment.  Jesus met people where they were in their lives and invited them to change their hearts and follow Him.  He did this out of love for them.  Shouldn’t we do the same?  This frees us to love other people as they are, not how we think they should be.

Jesus commanded us to love others as He loves them.  This is the way we can be known as disciples of Jesus.  In order to love others, we need to understand how Jesus loves us.  By deepening our relationship with and love for Jesus, we can love others more deeply.  How can we grow closer to Jesus?  In what ways can we love others like Jesus loves them?  How can we be known to others as disciples of Jesus by showing love?