Selfless Love

05-09-2021Weekly ReflectionFr. Arul Doss

Dear People of God,

Good morning to you all! Happy Mother’s Day. I wish and pray that all our Mothers may be blessed with the choicest blessings of our Risen Lord Christ through the powerful intersession of our Mother Mary.

One of the remarkable qualities of a Mother is selfless love. On this sixth Sunday of Easter, the readings are all about love. It is a very fitting day liturgically to celebrate Mother’s Day. Both second and gospel reading are calling us to love as Christ loves. This request from our Lord is no small endeavor. It is something we must work at every day in every moment. When we put it at the forefront of our minds and hearts, and strive to live it out each day, it will transform our lives and impact others, too.

As St. John tells us in our Second Reading, it is "not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as expiation for our sins." Recall that God loved us first, not because of what we do for Him, but because He created us out of love. His love for us is pure and radical.

Today’s Gospel speaks of God’s love for us. In the same way that the Father loves Jesus, His Son, so also Jesus loves us! That is incredible. We often do not think of God’s love for us as in any way being the same love that the Divine Persons have among themselves. Somehow, we often see ourselves as less. The whole Christian tradition tells us, however, that Jesus became man, human, so that we might share in His Divinity. We have been created to share in the Divinity of Jesus.

We are all aware that to share in Christ is to follow Him by living the way that He lived. So, God gives us a path of life. Not everything is good and not everything is holy. There are actions and ways of thinking and ways of speaking that take us away from this incredible gift of Divine Life. Far too often today, everything is seen as good as long as it makes me happy and feel good. This is not the way of the Lord Jesus. Love in the Gospel is not a feeling about another person, but a choice to seek the good of the other person even if I must sacrifice my own good. This is the way of the Lord Jesus.

We actually have the power to live that way once we recognize God’s love for us and His choice to share His life with us. Our power, our virtue, our goodness, our capacity to love—all come from the Lord Jesus. He is risen indeed, alleluia!

Have a Happy and Blessed Sunday!

Yours in Christ Jesus,
Fr. Doss

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