6th Sunday: Love – John 14:15-21
One of the deepest questions we can ask is: “What is God’s will for my life?” In today’s gospel, Jesus gives us the answer: “If you love me, you will keep my commandments.” In other words, if we love Jesus, He will enable us to live according to His divine teachings.
To love God is first of all to accept being loved by God. When we accept this love, we become free from fear and trouble. Being free from fear, we become free from compulsion; and thus, our way of seeing others begins to change. Once our way of seeing begins to change, our behavior will also begin to change. Today, the Gospel invites us to examine our love relationships with one another and our ways of loving.
St. Mother Teresa of Calcutta is one of the best examples of incarnating the love of God in real life. She showed us that it is possible to love even the unlovable and to make a difference in this world. She spent her life picking up the lepers and the homeless from the streets and showing them the face of God. This was her source of joy. She found God and heaven in the slums and in the afflicted.
Once, Mother Teresa said: “The other day, I dreamed that I was at the gate of heaven. St. Peter said: “Go back to earth. There is no slum up here.” She truly believed that the most terrible poverty is loneliness and the feeling of being unloved. She said: “I think today the world is upside down and is suffering so much because there is so very little love in the home and in family life. We have no time for our children, and we have no time for each other.” When was the last time, sitting down with our family or talking with our family, we felt our heart was on fire — the fire of love?
True love consists not only in “getting” something from the loved one but in “giving” something to the loved one. Our mother’s love is a great example. Today, we celebrate Mother’s Day. The Mother’s Day celebration always gets us so excited and so emotional because it is such a blessing to be a mom and such a remarkable task to raise a child. We always remember our mothers’ sacrifices, commitments, and love for their children.
Recently, I read a meaningful Mother’s Day story: A man stopped at a flower shop to send some flowers to his mother, who lived two hundred miles away. He got out of his car and noticed a young girl in front of the flower shop, and she was crying. He asked her what was wrong, and she replied, “I wanted to buy a red rose for my mother, but I have only seventy-five cents, and the rose flower costs two dollars.”
The man smiled and said. “Come on with me, I will buy a rose flower for you.” He bought the flower for this little girl, and he ordered his mother flowers for Mother’s Day. As they were leaving the shop, he offered the girl a ride back home. She said, “Yes, please, you can take me to my mother.” She directed him to a cemetery, where she wanted to keep the rose on her mother’s grave.
The man returned to the flower shop with tears, canceled his order, and instead picked up the flowers and drove the two hundred miles to his mother’s house to wish her Mother’s Day. This was one of the best gifts that a mother could receive from her son: the loving presence of her son on this Mother’s Day! This story tells us that the moral message is: Our loving presence is the greatest gift to give to our loved ones, more than any flowers or material gifts. Spend much time with your loving and caring people, and enjoy each moment with them before it is too late. There is nothing more important than family, especially our mothers!
Let us remember and pray for all our mothers, whether they are alive or have gone to their eternal rewards. Motherhood is a noble vacation! The month of May is traditionally the month of Mary. Through Mary, the work of motherhood is glorified and sanctified. Offering all our mothers on the altar, let us sing today: “Gentle mother, the peaceful dove, teach us wisdom, and teach us to love.”