Humbled by Love

On May 18th, 2019 I celebrated my Mass of Thanksgiving at Holy Family in East Taunton, it was a very humbling experience.  Here are the readings and my homily (more or less) for that day.

Acts 14:21-27, Revelation 21:1-5a, John 13:31-33a,34-45
http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/051919.cfm

I love that my wife Allison and I share a Google calendar, this way I can see what days she has hair appointments and when I get home I remember to say how much I love her hair!  Nowadays we love everything, dare I say all of us love pizza, especially with pineapple and ham on it, we love that new car, especially it’s smell ... that dress you are wearing - I love it!  We tend to water down what love means.  Jesus tells us to love one another as I have loved you.  That’s not the same as loving pineapple ham pizza, it’s a bit more intense than that … actually a LOT more intense than that.

The ancient Greeks had many words expressing their different forms of Love that I wish we still used today but the one I want to focus on now is called agape. Agape is a love that is used by Christians to express the unconditional love of God for his children.  For us. This is a love that only gives, it expects nothing in return, it is perfect love.  The ultimate sacrificial love.  We heard this a few Sunday’s ago when Christ asked Peter “do you love me”.  It was Agape or perfect love that Jesus used the first two times when questioning Peter.  It was filial or brotherly love that Peter responded.  Jesus, during his third question of Peter’s love for Him, met Peter where he was at using the filial love term.  That's what Jesus does for us, he meets us where we are at.

Today, if I could dare be so bold I would rephrase this gospel.  I should love one another as you have shown love for me!  Thank you for all of your support and prayers over the last five years of my formation, I would not have gotten through it without the support from my family, my friends, my classmates, teachers, mentors, and fellow parishioners and most importantly the guidance of the Holy Spirit.  There were trials and doubts that nagged me but I know it was the prayers of all of you that got me through it.  The kind of prayers that were given in love, a love that surpasses the love of pizza, a love that is perfectly expecting nothing in return, a love that God has given to all of us.  Agape love.  And again, I thank you for that.

We can love each other, we can love God but to change the thinking a bit, do we also let God love us?  God wants to love every single one of us - and not love us, meaning this giant building of people called the Church - he wants to love you - the individual.  When you realize the type of agape or perfect love God has for you it’s something you have to share.  St. Catherine of Siena said, "Love does not stay idle." That’s what was going on in the first reading.  Paul and Barnabus were indeed not staying idle.   They now understood the love Jesus had for them and they went all over telling people about it.  Our readings from Acts talks of how Paul and Barnabus just traveled to all these distant cities just after Paul was stoned...no, not that kind of stoned,  the kind of stoned where a mob of angry people throws rocks at you.  Biblical scholars estimate that their travels covered about 500 miles by sea and 700 miles by land.  This was done without using the Uber app, or high-speed ferries.  They would have traveled via sailing ships by sea and walking while on land.  They were spreading the Good News that is the love of Christ, the love of God to as many as they could and suffering greatly for it.  Remember, they also didn’t have Dr. Scholl's custom fit sandal inserts back then either.  Imagine the blisters on their feet!  They suffered greatly to spread this love of God around and they were happy for it!  I pray I don't suffer as they did but it was the realization of God's love for me that got me here in this fancy outfit preaching to you today, I can't keep that to myself, I must share it!

God loved Paul and Barnabus and also taught them how to love, and God wants to teach us the same.  For homework everyone, read the book of Acts in your Bible at home.  In my Bible the book of Acts is only 39 pages so I’m not asking you to walk 700 miles here, it’s not that bad.  If you don’t have a Bible at home you can find one online as well. We can learn from those who were starting the early Church and how they showed love by spreading the love of Christ during their first missionary journeys.

We hear it loud and clear from Jesus in today’s Gospel.  Love one another; even as I have loved you.  How did Jesus love you?  He died for you.  Jesus did not die for all of us, he died for EACH ONE of us.  That’s how we must love one another.  It makes my alb sweaty just thinking about this!!  I get like Peter, I can’t return that kind of Agape love, I’m at the let's just be good pals stage!

God loves us and wants us to return that love to him.  A great example of how to return that love is the sacrament of confession, also known as reconciliation.  I dislike this sacrament the most prior to receiving it and love it the most afterward.  Reconciliation and I have a strange relationship.  I should be going to reconciliation because I have offended God and love him, that’s what we call Perfect contrition - the sorrow of my sins because I have offended God and love him.  What I seem to have instead is Imperfect contrition which is sorrow for my sins because I fear God’s righteous judgment and forthcoming punishment.  I’m going to confession to save my hide from eternal suffering!  That’s still ok if we do that by the way, and our confession is still valid.  Jesus understands and will meet us where we are at while in the confessional.  In the second reading from Revelation we hare the one who sat upon the throne say “Behold, I make all things new.”  These words are trustworthy and true.  These words are what we experience when we go to confession, we are made new.  The longer it’s been since your last confession the newer you feel!  It’s like that first time you wash, wax and then vacuum your car after a long messy winter taking the care to even clean the dust out of the vents.  When you finish it’s like you just bought a new car!

The other sacrament that demonstrates Christ's love for us is the Eucharist,  the source and summit of our faith.  Our church eloquently demonstrates Christ's love for us in what I call the theology of Holy Family Church.   We begin at the top with the image of the Holy Family itself in the stained glass window. There is Christ as a vulnerable child. Next, below it, we have Christ on the cross where he has died for us in his humanity.   Finally, below that, we have the altar where we soon will see Jesus allow himself to be transformed from bread and wine to the body, soul, and divinity of himself during the Eucharist prayer.   Yes, he still loves each of us tremendously.

As St. Damien of Molokai said:

“The Eucharist is the bread that gives strength... It is at once the most eloquent proof of His love and the most powerful means of fostering His love in us. He gives Himself every day so that our hearts as burning coals may set afire the hearts of the faithful."