Love Sunday

Love Sunday

Last Sunday, April 28th, the fifth Sunday of Easter, is what we sometimes call "Love Sunday". Why, do you ask? Because that is the Sunday the Liturgy readings are on our Greatest Commandment, to love one another. 

Some call it the Eleventh Commandment; some call it the Greatest Commandment, Gospel Reading: John 13:31-33a, 34-35

 When Judas had left them, Jesus said,

“Now is the Son of Man glorified, and God is glorified in him. If God is glorified in him, God will also glorify him in himself, and God will glorify him at once.

My children, I will be with you only a little while longer. 

I give you a new commandment: love one another. 

As I have loved you, so you also should love one another.

This is how all will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”

Some might argue that Jesus didn't give a new commandment because of other talks in the Gospels like Matthew 22:36-40 where the scribes were testing his knowledge of the Law.

36 “Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest?”

37 He said to him, “You shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all

your soul, and with all your mind.

38 This is the greatest and the first commandment.

39 The second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.

40 The whole law and the prophets depend on these two commandments.”

The two commandments were from two different parts of the Law. The first was given at Mt. Sinai to Moses on the stones, Exodus 20:2-3 and the second is recorded in Leviticus 19:18, 34, as Moses' teachings and explanations of the Ten Commandments. Some say that because it was recorded to "Love thy neighbor as thyself" in Leviticus it was part of the original Ten Commandments. But look at what Jesus said in the Gospel of John a bit closer and perhaps you will see a difference.

Jesus washes the feet of Peter

Jesus says to "love one another. As I have loved you, so you also should love one another"!

How did Jesus love his disciple's? He called them to him; He humbled Himself to them as a servant; He died in total disgrace for them, (and us). He showed them to have compassion for children, women, cripples, lepers, sinners and prisoners. He taught them the real meaning of God's commandments, not the bogged down, great weight it had become for the Israelites.

It begs you to ask the question, how great is true love for another human?

To love a complete stranger may sound like Bazarro World, but that is what the "world" wants us to believe. As members of Christ's Mystical Body on earth, we are part of Him and He is part of us, and as He loved, we should love. 

We, let's use caps here, WE, must have compassion for children, women, cripples, prisoners, sinners and the sick and infirm. We must feed the five thousand, with the Word which was made Flesh. The fishes and loaves are now our alms and service, to be given to nourish our brothers and sisters in need. It doesn't have to be with just money and food; it can be with a visit to the hospitalized, the incarcerated, and the infirm left in nursing homes by their children. It can be with a Blog, or social network, a Bible study in your home or church, a CD talk that you pass on to someone because it may give them hope or inspiration.

Join the Club today

There are as many ways to love our neighbors, our brothers and sisters, as there are ways to make a sandwich, literally thousands of ways. Jesus just wants us to LOVE!

Can you love others as yourself? Do you need love? Do you crave meaning in your life?

Christ is calling you; we are calling you, to come to Jesus. If you need help finding answers to these and other questions, feel free to email or message me and I'll point you to someone close to you. Or pull out that smart phone and tell it to find the nearest Catholic Church. We'll leave the light on for you.

Blessings and Love,

The Catholic Lady©