1) God’s love in action:
When Fr. Damien arrived in Molokai to assemble a prefabricated church for the lepers, he spent the first few weeks sleeping out under the trees, because he was unable to cope with the stench in the hovels of the lepers. He certainly wouldn't dare preach to them about God's love for them, because, as they saw it, that would be offensive. But slowly he opened his heart to the grace of God which enabled him to see the suffering Jesus in them. In no time, he was washing them, bandaging them, and burying them. He came to love them, and, through him, they came to believe that God loved them. He smoked a pipe to counteract the stench, but he soon was passing the pipe around for others to have a smoke. He ate food with them from a common bowl, out of which they scooped the food with hands that had no fingers. He caught the disease himself, and he was happy to be able to live and to die for them. Greater love than this no one has…
2) “He is very fond of me.”
Brennan Manning tells the story of an Irish priest, who, on a walking tour of a rural parish, saw an old peasant kneeling by the side of the road, praying. Impressed, the priest said to the man, "You must be very close to God." The peasant looked up from his prayers, thought a moment, and then stated with a broad smile, “Yes, He's very fond of me." Manning has a slogan to introduce himself to others: "I am the one Jesus loves." He has borrowed this meaningful phrase from the gospel where Jesus’ closest friend on earth, the disciple named John, is identified as "the one Jesus loved." Manning says, "If John were to be asked, 'What is your primary identity in life?' he would not reply, 'I am a disciple, an apostle, an evangelist, an author of one of the four Gospels,' but rather, 'I am the one Jesus loves.'" Today’s gospel and the second reading remind us that our primary identity in life as Christians should be "the one Jesus loves,” precisely because we keep his commandment, “Love one another as I love you.”
Thomas O’Loughlin
Introduction to the Celebration
We are the people who live in Christ’s love: by dying he has destroyed our death, by rising he has restored our life, and we look for him to come in glory. So now let us celebrate his presence among us.
Gospel: Jn 15:9-17
Set at the heart of the Last Supper discourse, this passage restates, yet again, the new commandment of love, and establishes the nature of the bond between those celebrating the Eucharist in Johannine communities: they can be seen as friends of the Word. The intimacy implied in friendship in the ancient world is something that is lost on us today, but it was used to describe the highest level of human intimacy.Michel DeVerteuil
General Comments
Today’s passage follows directly on last Sunday’s. The metaphors however are not as dramatic. We must therefore make an effort to use our imagination in reading and eventually in interpreting them.
– Verse 9 provides us with the key to the whole passage. We must therefore give it all our attention. The rest of the passage will then illustrate some aspect of it.
This passage is giving us one message – we come to others with a love which we ourselves have experienced from others. This is telling us two important things.
– The first is that we love others from something we feel in ourselves. There are people outside ourselves whom we love. It isn’t something we do because we have been ordered to do; we just feel it and then act accordingly.
– On the other hand, the love we feel for others has come from somewhere else. It was placed within us by those who loved us first. When we love nowadays therefore, we are re-enacting something we have inherited from others. It did not come only from us.
We need to spend some time meditating on these two facts. Once we get them right, we will be able to decide how to prolong our desire to love – the love we have within us and which we have to practice on the others we meet in the course of our lives.
The term “love” is over-used, both in our sacred language and in our secular language. The love we speak about therefore tends to remain abstract. In interpreting a passage like this one then, we must link it to a personal memory. We have to remember some act of love which touched us very deeply.
We remember something a person said to us or allowed to happen to us. They would be saying something like: I am suffering this for you now and I am doing it so that you too can be of service to others when your turn comes. When the person told us this, it made a very deep impression on us. Ever afterwards we would always return to it and remember what it meant to us. We know that we can now suffer for others because this other person suffered with us. They were helping us to lift others and because of that, we now know what we must go through so that others will feel safe with us. We think of that as we bring up our children and all those whom the Lord has entrusted to our care.Through this memory, we know that when we are deeply loved we do not have to be enslaved to those who loved us. We know we can trust them. It will naturally be someone who was or eventually became very important for us. Perhaps one of our parents, an uncle or aunt, a brother or sister. It could also be someone who later became a deep friend. We remember too other people who loved us sincerely in our lives – a teacher, a friend, someone we met on our life journey.
We can also apply the passage to our relationship with the wider world. In all the great trouble spots of the world there are always people who spend a lot of their time working for peace between warring factions. This has happened in areas like Palestine, Iraq, Northern Ireland, the Basque Countries. They don’t make the news headlines but they are really there and as we read this passage we are with them within our hearts.
Jesus does a very interesting thing then. He says, “As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you.” This is telling us that we give ourselves to others in the same way that others have given themselves to us. This is very true, isn’t it? Once we love others we find that we can share with them the truth of who we really are.
– Verse 10 takes us a little further. It invites us to move in a new direction, as Jesus makes the connection between “keeping commandments” and “remaining in his love”. This is telling us something important about “commandments”. In this passage they do not refer to a series of obligations. They are rather a general commandment to accept what the other person is doing for us. Keeping his Father’s commandments means simply that Jesus can remain calm within the awareness of his Father’s love.
– Verse 11 brings in the theme of joy. This is a new development again. All love produces joy. It is like an unnamed corollary of giving one’s life to others. If our love doesn’t produce joy, it can’t be right. We have to add something to it which we may have neglected.
– Verse 12 starts by repeating the connection that was made earlier, “This is my commandment, love one another as I have loved you”. The Christian commandment to love is based on Jesus’ love for us. We love not merely from ourselves but because the love of Christ has taken charge of us.
– Verses 13-15. Jesus then goes on to make the connection between love and the relationship between friends. He goes to the heart of what being a friend is all about. It means seeing another in the light of our experience.
“A servant does not know his master’s business, but I have made known to you everything I learnt from my Father.” Let us spend some time with these imposing words. We take what we can from them and then let them take charge of us.
– Verse 16a stays with friendship and goes back to the theme of bearing fruit which we saw last Sunday. It stresses first the choice of the person who wants to make us his friends – “You did not choose me, no I chose you”. This is so important. We often act as if we are the ones responsible for loving others. We do not really chose the person we decide to love. It is God who chooses us to reach out to them. We must be aware of this fact and respond accordingly.
Then Jesus gives an important lesson. “I commissioned you” means first that he has sent us out and that we are to go out and bring forth results. The results are simply “to bear fruit”, to show the world what our love has accomplished. Then he adds another important corollary, “the kind of fruit that I know will last”. It must not be a fruit that no one can understand or accept. It must the kind that we know will last.
– Verse 16b. Then Jesus makes a very important point. “The Father will give you anything you ask him in my name”. The Father in heaven will therefore give honour to all those who bear the name of Jesus, written in their hearts.
– Verse 17 is the climax, striking in its simplicity. When all is said and done, what really counts in life is the principle of love. Once we know how to love, we will have kept all the Lord’s commandments.
Thomas O’Loughlin
Introduction to the Celebration
We are the people who live in Christ’s love: by dying he has destroyed our death, by rising he has restored our life, and we look for him to come in glory. So now let us celebrate his presence among us.
Gospel: Jn 15:9-17
Set at the heart of the Last Supper discourse, this passage restates, yet again, the new commandment of love, and establishes the nature of the bond between those celebrating the Eucharist in Johannine communities: they can be seen as friends of the Word. The intimacy implied in friendship in the ancient world is something that is lost on us today, but it was used to describe the highest level of human intimacy.Prayer Reflection
“Spiritual poverty clings to nothing and nothing clings to it.“ Meister Eckhart
Lord, forgive us that we are so busy when we come into your presence.
We have to tell you all our needs in case you might forget some of them.
We make many resolutions in case you don’t think well of us.
We are anxious to get some teaching from you
that will keep us faithful to your will.
We thank you for the times when you invited us just to be quiet
and remain in your love,
your permanent unconditional love, the kind you had from your Father.
“Prayer is not meant to change the world. It is meant to change us so that we will then change the world.” Sr Joan Chittister
Lord, we have made the commandments into cold, objective obligations
and many of them, at that.
We thank you that they are gestures of love
– the tender embrace between husband and wife before leaving for work,
– the words of wisdom that a great leader speaks to his intimate followers on his deathbed,
– the wave of friends at the airport.They are all gestures that we treasure
because they tell us that we are loved
and set us free to give ourselves to others.
Lord, when we look at our lives we discover a history of love.
We were loved when we were small, as Jesus was loved by Joseph and Mary.
And that love freed us;
it was a starting point from which we could trust others
and give ourselves to them.
And now our children, those whom we have loved in our turn,
have grown up and become loving people too.
Lord, that history of love is your presence in the world.
“Be as uninteresting as a glass of cold, clear uninteresting water.” Aidan Kavanagh
Lord, we thank you for our friends.
We remember when we knew them first.
We admired them so much that we just wanted to please them,
not really to understand them – just like servants.
Then gradually we became friends, as we learnt to trust each other,
to let ourselves be known so that we could share
what was most intimate to us,
the kind of things only you taught us,
and there was no such thing as “this is my business”.
The interesting thing is that we have come close to you too.
“Baby, will you remember me when you wake on Ash Wednesday morning?
You know how Ash Wednesday is always a different story.” David Rudder , Calypsonian
Lord, the ideal for great people today seems to be that they give orders
and demand obedience.
We have those who know and then the rest who know nothing.
We thank you for Jesus and those who follow his style,who look on their followers as friends
and make known to them their dreams for themselves and for the world.
Only they can bring about true community.
Lord, we thank you for the joy of married love,
when you don’t have to prove yourself or try to be different
but can just relax in someone’s love.
Truly that is a joy that is complete.
“Be men and women of the world but not worldly men and women.”
Jose Maria Escriva
Lord, we sometimes act as if our plans for society are our own
and we must destroy all who oppose us.
But the hopes we have for the Church, for our country, for the world,
are your gift to us, the passion we feel is your doing.
We are your servants sent to carry out your commission,
and our achievements are the fruit you cause to emerge.
So even if we die before we achieve what we set out to do,
and even if our successes are short-lived,
the fruit we bear will endure because they come from you.
“If you love God, the pain does not go away, but you live more fully.”
Michael Hollings
Lord, we thank you for those precious moments
when we know that your command to love, though very simple,
was all that we needed.
It summed up the law of life,
the secret of peace and prosperity,
and the only hope for the world.
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Homily notes
1. Finding suitable ways to give a broad overview catechesis of what we believe in by saying Jesus rose from the dead and has shared his new life with us is something that has concerned preachers from the very beginning as we can witness, for example, in 1 Peter. What is needed is a rounded statement, that is accessible, memorable, and pictorial. The most frequently chosen image has been that of baptism – but while this is the foundational Christian symbol, its power for many today is limited as it is too often seen just as a family occasion or as rite for infancy. So even when we preach about it, we have to face the dissonance that an actual baptism may for those concerned involve more worry over the name to give the child than the ritual or its reality.
2. However, we must still use our great symbols and continue to expound them. One way of doing this is to take the prayer for the blessing of the water at baptism at the Easter Vigil (Missal, pp. 213-214) and go through it by way of a meditation with comments. This serves to recall that we are in Eastertide and calls up all the great images of Christian memory.
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Sean Goan
These verses continue the text from last Sunday and tease out the implications of the vine symbolism and what it means to abide or remain in Jesus. The underlying reasoning is simply this: everything arises out of the loving relationship between Jesus and the Father. Throughout his life Jesus is responding to the Father’s love and making it known. As the disciples come to faith in Jesus they are being drawn into that loving relationship and they too can share the joy that enthuses Jesus and inspires him to reveal his Father to the world.The one sure way of knowing that their faith is true is their love for one another. Just as Jesus was prepared to lay down his life for them, so too must they be willing to live in humble service of one another.Reflection
The gospel and letters of John were probably written around 100 AD and were among the last parts of the New Testament to be penned. It is as though the prayer and reflection of the first generations of believers finally brought them to an understanding of what the whole Christian experience was all about and it could be summed up in three simple words: God is Love. This is neither pious sentimentality nor a bland cliche for, if it is taken seriously, nothing can ever be the same again. Peter and Cornelius both discovered that this is a love that makes changes and shatters old certainties. This is the love which proves that God will stop at nothing to convince a weak and wounded humanity of its immeasurable worth and dignity. The sad thing is that we often still choose to live in the darkness surrounded by our prejudice and fear. Or worse still, we imagine that being a follower of Jesus is about intellectual adherence to dogmas rather than a living out of a relationship of love
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| From Father James Gilhooley |
| The German army began to round up Jewish people in Lithuania. Thousands of Jews were murdered. But one German soldier objected to their murder. He was Sergeant Anton Schmid. Through his assistance, at least 250 Jews were spared their lives. He managed to hide them, find food, and supply them with forged papers. Schmid himself was arrested in early 1942 for saving these lives. He was tried and executed in 1942. It took Germany almost sixty years to honor the memory of this man Schmid. Said Germany's Defense Minister in 2000 in saluting him, "Too many bowed to the threats and temptations of the dictator Hitler, and too few found the strength to resist. But Sergeant Anton Schmid did resist." Name a person who better obeyed the admonition of the Christ in today's Gospel. "No one has greater love than this, to lay down one's life for one's friends." The hero Schmid went beyond what even Jesus encouraged. He laid down his life for strangers. What a welcome the court-martialed Anton Schmid must have received from Our Lord when he entered the Kingdom. Being a Christian requires all the character we can summon up. However, in the face of people such as Sergeant Schmid, we should not grow weary and give up the quest. When our Master returned to His Father, he sent to us the Holy Spirit. It is He who increases the spiritual marrow in our Christian backbones. It is He who empowers us to stand up and be counted as Christ followers. As one pundit says, "What Jesus accomplished for us in His lifetime, the Holy Spirit accomplishes in ours." With the Spirit, we can face the might of hell and win. William Barclay suggests the Teacher has chosen each one of us to be advertisements for Himself. Our lives should be billboards for Christ. He is most anxious that we produce abundant good works. The only authentic method of spreading the Gospel message is to be oneself a genuine Christian. History proves we waste our time arguing or forcing other people into becoming Christians. They do not want to hear about Christianity. They want to see it work. Our lives must attract them to the truth of the Gospel. It was Socrates who told us that the greatest way to live with honor in this world is to be what we pretend to be. When the Catholic Al Smith, later four time Governor of New York, was a member of the New York State Assembly in the 1920s, he roomed with a fellow Assemblyman, Robert Wagner, in the state capital. Wagner, who was later to be a distinguished member of the US Senate, became a convert to the Church. He was asked what prompted his conversion. He replied simply, "Watching Al Smith get down on his knees every night to say his prayers." Like Smith, each of us is an ambassador with portfolio for Christ. Oftentimes, we are completely unaware of the role we are playing. But the non-Christians watching us do not forget that we follow Christ. Frequently we disappoint them. Said one agnostic, "I expected nothing and he did not disappoint me." You have tried many times to be a Christian only to fall on your face. Do not grow tired. Reflect, as an historian tells us, that the first electric bulb was so faint that a lit candle had to be used along with it. Thirty-two hours were initially required to make the trip by steamboat from Albany to New York - a trip of but 150 miles. The initial flight of the Wright brothers in Kitty Hawk, North Carolina lasted but 12 seconds. The top speed of the first car was anywhere from two to four miles each hour. We know what those inventions can do today. Remember the aphorism that God makes a great finish out of a slow start and nothing can be done until we take the first step. Be patient. It takes an oak fifty years to produce an acorn. Once you have begun to make progress, speak that prayer of the old man: "Lord, I am not yet what I would like to be. But thank you, Lord, because I ain't no longer what I used to be." Jesus gave up His life for our sins. We must give up ourselves for His service. Finally one person can make a difference. If you have any doubt on that point, check it out with any of the 250 people whose lives Sergeant Anton Schmid saved. |
From ACP:
Choosing and being chosen
The experience of being chosen by someone can be a welcome one. The experience might be as simple as someone choosing us to be on their team; or, some years later, to be their referee. They trust us to give them a good reference if we are asked about them. The experience of being chosen can be more significant than that. At the root of every happy marriage is the fact that two people once chose and then kept on choosing each other. At the heart of every true friendship between people is a similar choice. Two people choose to be friends with each other; they valued their relationship something special and worthwhile. As in marriage, the choice must be mutual if the friendship is to last. When the choice is one-sided and not mutual, there can be heartbreak for the one not chosen in return. One of the really difficult experiences of life is unrequited loveIn the gospel today Jesus uses this language of choice and friendship. He tells them (and us), “I chose you,” “I call you friends.” We can each hear those words as addressed to us. The disciples in John’s story represent us all. When Jesus says that love leads him to lay down his life for his friends, we are all included. He has handed over his life for us all. Like St. Paul we can each speak about the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me. In giving his life for us on the cross, Jesus chose us, personally; he called each of us his friend. His death to all the world, “You are my friends.” Our Lord continues to make that same proclamation among us, because the Mass makes present the self-giving death of Jesus in every generation, to every community that gathers for the Breaking of Bread. Right here and now the Lord continues to speak those same words that he said to his disciples at the last supper, “You are my friends,” “I chose you.” In our own lives, to choose one means not choosing another. This is not the case with the Lord, who is able to choose each of us equally. As Peter says in the first reading, “God does not have favourites.”
If I choose someone as a friend, I long for that person to make a similar choice of me. In a similar way, the Lord’s choice of us seeks and desires our choice of him. He has chosen us first. As he said to his disciples in the gospel reading, “You did not choose me, no, I chose you.” But having chosen us, he waits for us to reciprocate that choice. A few chapters earlier in John’s gospel, at a time when many people stopped following Jesus, he turned to his disciples and said to them, “Do you also wish to go away?” This was the moment when Jesus was putting it up to them to reciprocate the choice he had made of them. At that highly charged moment, Peter came forward on behalf of them all and said, “Lord, to whom can we go? You have the message of eternal life.” Peter, as spokesperson for the others, publicly declared his choice of Jesus. At Mass we both celebrate the Lord’s choice of us and we renew our choice of him. When we respond to his invitation to take and eat, we take Him to our heart, and renew our choice him as our way, our truth and our life.
God loved us first
It is said that St. John lived to a great age, and as an old man was carried each Sunday to where the Christians at Ephesus were celebrating the Eucharist. Invariably he was asked to address the little congregation, and always he spoke about the love of God, until even these devout people grew a little weary of the same recurring theme. The old man would not change his subject but persisted in speaking about love, because for him the central theme of Jesus’ message was the overwhelming love of God. “We believe in love,” was the motto of those who were in full agreement with John.This could easily be an empty slogan, except that John stated clearly what he meant by love, and it is echoed in today’s second reading. “This is the love I mean: not our love for God, but God’s love for us, when he sent his Son to be the sacrifice that takes away our sins.” The deep truth about God is not that he loves us or that he is a lovable being, but rather that, in himself, he is love. By his nature God gives and shares of his inner self. It also means that whoever receives the gift of God’s love must mirror God’s own sharing of self. God’s love was such as to impel him to give his only Son so that we might have life through him.
I am quite unable to love myself to the same degree that God loves me. God is even closer to me than I am to myself. Through the prophet Isaiah (49:16) God addresses to me the consoling words, “See upon the palm of my hand I have written your name.” Indeed, in the person of Jesus, God, as it were, reaches out to us with two hands — the one extended in forgiveness which saves us from being engulfed here and now in our evil ways, the other casting a ray of light beyond the portals of death, reminding us that as God raised Christ from the. dead, so he will redeem us too, when we have completed our earthly existence. That we are able to grasp those hands of God extended to us, that we are able to cling to them steadfastly, is more a gift of God’s grace that our own accomplishment. No amount of self-pruning, of teeth-gritting human striving, will bring us any closer to God.
But if we try and go through life in the conviction that God’s loving care is watching over us, we will cease to be anxious about our own happiness, about what we would like to become. Strange as it may seem, faith in God’s love for us frees us from all kinds of inner pressures, and yet at the same time brings us to a closer and more completely loving our God. “There are three things that last,” St Paul tells us, “faith, hope and love; and the greatest of these is love” (1 Cor 13:13). For coming into the presence of God, faith will give way to vision, hope to attainment, but love will continue alive and well for all eternity. [Martin Hogan]
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From the Connections:
Continuing last Sunday’s theme of the vine and branches, Jesus speaks of the love of God as the bonding agent of the new Israel. The model of love for the faithful disciple – “to love one another as I have loved you” -- is extreme, limitless and unconditional. The love manifested in the Gospel and the resurrection of Christ creates an entirely new relationship between God and humanity. Again Christ, the obedient Servant Redeemer, is the great “connector” between God and us.
In Christ, we are not “slaves” of a distant divine Creator but “friends” of God who hears the prayers and cries made to him in Jesus’ name. As “friends of God,” we are called to reflect that love to the rest of the world.
Christ transforms creation’s relationship with its Creator. God is not the distant, aloof, removed architect of the universe; God is not the cruel taskmaster; God is not the unfeeling judge who seeks the destruction of the wicked. God is creative, reconciling, energizing love -- and Jesus is the perfect expression of that love.
All that God has done in the first creation of Genesis and the re-creation of Easter has been done out of the limitless, unfathomable love of God. Such love invites us not to fear God but to accept his “friendship” with God, not to self-loathing at our unworthiness but to grateful joy at what God has done in us.
“This is my commandment: Love one another as I have loved you . . .”
But one of the pillars tells a different story. It is about a little girl named Ilse, a childhood friend of Gerda Weissman Klein, who recounts the tale. Gerda remembers the morning when Ilse, who was about six years old at the time of her internment at Auschwitz, found a single raspberry somewhere in the camp. Ilse carried the raspberry all day long in a protected fold of her pocket. That evening, her eyes shining with happiness, Ilse presented the raspberry on a leaf to her friend Gerda.
“Imagine a world,” writes Gerda, “in which your entire possession is one raspberry, and you give it to your friend.”
In the midst of the horror of the Holocaust, little Ilse manages to discover the joy that only comes from bringing that same joy to another. That is the commandment of Jesus to us who would be his Church: to love one another as Christ, God made human, has loved us. As Christ gives his life for others, he commands us to do the same; as Christ brings healing and peace into the lives of those he meets, he commands us to find our life’s purpose in bringing his healing and peace into the lives we touch; as Christ reveals to the world a God who loves as a father loves his children, he commands us to love one another as brothers and sisters. Such love can be overwhelmingly demanding -- but such love can be the source of incredible joy and fulfillment, no less than an experience of Easter resurrection.
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2) God’s love in action: When
Fr. Damien arrived in Molokai to assemble a prefabricated Church for the
lepers, he spent the first few weeks sleeping out under the trees, because he
was unable to cope with the stench in the hovels of the lepers. He certainly
wouldn’t dare preach to them about God’s love for them, because, as they saw
it, that would be offensive. But slowly he opened his heart to the grace of God
which enabled him to see the suffering Jesus in them. In no time, he was
washing them, bandaging them, and burying them. He came to love them, and,
through him, they came to believe that God loved them. He smoked a pipe to
counteract the stench, but he soon was passing the pipe around for others to
have a smoke. He ate food with them from a common bowl, out of which they
scooped the food with hands that had no fingers. He caught the disease himself,
and he was happy to be able to live and to die for them. — Thus, St. Damien
followed Jesus’ commandment of love given in today’s Gospel: “This is
my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. Greater love has
no man than this that a man lay down his life for his friends.” Fr. Tony (http://frtonyshomilies.com/) 2021.
3) Carrying a burden alone: Dr.
Albert Schweitzer, the great humanitarian, theologian, musician, and physician
was eighty-five years old when I visited his jungle hospital at Lambarene, on
the banks of the Ogowe River. One event stands out in a special way. It was
eleven in the morning. The equatorial sun was beating down mercilessly, and we
were walking up a hill with Dr. Schweitzer. Suddenly he left us and strode
across the slope of the hill to a place where an African woman was struggling
upward with a huge armload of wood for the cook fires. I watched with both
admiration and concern as the eighty-five-year-old man took the entire load of
wood and carried it on up the hill for the relieved woman. When we all reached
the top of the hill, one of the members of our group asked Dr. Schweitzer why
he did things like that, implying that in that heat and at his age he should
not. Albert Schweitzer, looking right at all of us and, pointing to the woman,
said simply, “No one should ever have to carry a burden like that alone.” — Dr.
Albert Schweitzer not only believed but practiced Jesus’ great commandment of
love given in today’s Gospel: “Love others as I have loved you.” [Andrew
Davidson, quoted by Fr. Botelho)]. Fr. Tony (http://frtonyshomilies.com/) 2021.
4) Laying down one’s life for one’s friends: In 1941, the German Army began to round up Jewish people in Lithuania. Thousands of Jews were murdered. But one German soldier objected to their murder. He was Sergeant Anton Schmid. Through his assistance, the lives of at least 250 Jews were spared. He managed to hide them, find food, and supply them with forged papers. Schmid himself was arrested in early 1942 for saving these lives. He was tried and executed in 1942. It took Germany almost sixty years to honor the memory of this man, Schmid. Said Germany’s Defense Minister in 2000, saluting him, “Too many bowed to the threats and temptations of the dictator Hitler, and too few found the strength to resist. But Sergeant Anton Schmid did resist.” This is the central of theme of today’s Gospel. “No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.” — The hero Schmid went beyond what even Jesus encouraged. He laid down his life for strangers. (Fr. James Gilhooley). Fr. Bobby Jose. Fr. Tony (http://frtonyshomilies.com/) 2021.
5: After all these years of love: An old couple was sitting
by the fireside. He looked over at her, had a romantic thought, and said,
“After fifty years, I’ve found you tried and true.”
The wife’s hearing wasn’t very good, so she said, “What?”
He repeated, “After fifty years, I’ve found you tried and true.”
“After fifty years, I’m tired of you too,” she replied.
6: Everlasting love: “Dearest Jimmy, no words could ever
express the great unhappiness I’ve felt since breaking our engagement. Please
say you’ll take me back. No one could ever take your place in my heart, so
please forgive me. I love you, I love you, I love you! Yours forever, Marie…
P.S. And congratulations on winning the 20 million state lottery
7: If it doesn’t rain: A young man wrote this to his girlfriend. “Sweetheart, if this world was as hot as the Sahara Desert, I would crawl on my knees through the burning sand to come to you. If the world would be like the Atlantic Ocean, I would swim through shark-infested waters to come to you. I would fight the fiercest dragon to be by your side. I will see you on Thursday if it does not rain.”
25 – Additional anecdotes:
1) “Terminal hospital” in London: There is a
special hospital in London for those whom other hospitals consider a lost
cause. It is a hospital for those who are diagnosed as “terminal.” Most people
would consider such a hospital to be a very sad place, but it is not. Actually,
it is a hospital filled with hope and a lot of life. The emphasis in this
London hospital is on life and not on death. The truth is that several of the
patients have seen remissions in the disease process instead of death. A great
deal of the credit is given to the way the facility is run. The basic
philosophy is different from most other hospitals. In this program the patients
are expected to give themselves away in service to the other patients. Each
patient is given another patient for whom to care. So, for example, a person
who is unable to walk might be given the task of reading to another who is
blind. The blind person would then push the wheelchair of the one who could not
walk but who gives directions on where to push the chair. Is this not the new
commandment to which Jesus referred? He calls us to be disciples who love one
another. We are the ones who are healed and strengthened when we learn how to
give and how to love. [Bruce Larson, Passionate People (Dallas:
Word Publishers), p. 203.]. Fr. Tony (http://frtonyshomilies.com/)
2021.
2) “No one has greater love than this…” In 1941,
the German Army began to round up Jewish people in Lithuania. Thousands of Jews
were murdered. But one German soldier objected to their murder. He was Sergeant
Anton Schmid. Through his assistance, the lives of at least 250 Jews were
spared. He managed to hide them, find food, and supply them with forged papers.
Schmid himself was arrested in early 1942 for saving these lives. He was tried
and executed in 1942. It took Germany almost sixty years to honor the memory of
this man, Schmid. Said Germany’s Defense Minister in 2000, saluting him, “Too
many bowed to the threats and temptations of the dictator Hitler, and too few
found the strength to resist. But Sergeant Anton Schmid did resist.” —
Name a person who better obeyed the admonition of the Christ in today’s Gospel,
“No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends”!
The hero Schmid went beyond what even Jesus encouraged. He laid down his life
for strangers. (Fr. James Gilhooley). Fr. Tony (http://frtonyshomilies.com/) 2021.
3) “Mom, you’ll never have to take in washing again.” Marian
Anderson, perhaps the greatest Contralto who ever lived had a wonderful
relationship with her mother. It was said of Ms. Anderson’s life: her music
could bring one to tears; her life could bring one to his knees. She was once
being interviewed, and she was asked the most wonderful moment in her most
impressive career. She could have mentioned that time when the great Arturo
Toscanini told her that hers was the greatest voice of the century. She could
have mentioned that time when she sang before the Roosevelts and the King and
Queen of England. She could have said it was winning a coveted award for the
person who had done the most for her hometown of Philadelphia. There was also
the time when she sang before a crowd of 75,000 on Easter Sunday beneath the
Lincoln statue. Which of these high moments would she chose? None of them. “My
greatest moment,” she said, “is when I went home to my mother and said: ‘Mom,
you’ll never have to take in washing again.’” — If this relationship can exist
between a mother and a daughter, then how much more can our relationship with
Jesus Christ be? “I am the true vine, you are the branches” he said. “As the
Father has loved me, so I love you.” And what happens when we abide in him and
he abides in us? Our joy will be made full. Amen. Fr. Tony (http://frtonyshomilies.com/) 2021.
4) Great lesson of the story of “Beauty and the Beast. ”
G. K. Chesterton once said that the really great lesson of the story of “Beauty
and the Beast” is that a thing must be loved before it is loveable. — A person
must be loved before that person can be lovable. Some of the most unlovely
people I have known got that way because they thought that nobody loved them.
The fact of the matter is that unless, and until, we feel ourselves loved, we
cannot love. That’s not only a principle of theology but of psychology and
sociology as well. Just as abused children grow up to abuse their children,
loved children grow up to love their children. Loved persons are able to love.
Unloved persons are not. Christianity says something startling. It says that
God loves and accepts us “just as we are.” Therefore, we can love and accept
ourselves and, in so doing, love and accept others. That is what Jesus commands
us to do in today’s Gospel by challenging us to love others as he has loved us.
Fr. Tony (http://frtonyshomilies.com/)
2021.
5) The Centurion Card: A few years ago American
Express quietly introduced its most exclusive new card. The Centurion Card is
absolutely black, and is actually made out of titanium – the hardest known
naturally occurring metal. In fact, when one of these titanium Centurion Cards
expires, the member has to send it back to American Express for recycling. The
titanium can’t be cut up or shredded. Besides, titanium is too valuable to be
thrown away. — Jesus introduces and invokes a whole new mindset, heartset, and
soulset, into the universe. Jesus established The Titanium Rule. Anyone figure
out what it is? Here’s a hint: you find it in his understatement in this
morning’s text, “It is enough for the disciple to be like the teacher.” The
Titanium Rule does not focus on “doing;” it focuses on “being” and on “loving.”
Jesus commands his followers, “Love one another as I have loved you.” Fr. Tony
(http://frtonyshomilies.com/) 2021.
6) Transformation of a surgeon with Tourette’s Syndrome: Some
years back, neurologist Oliver Sacks wrote a fascinating vignette of an
intriguing neurological difficulty. As some of you know, Tourette’s Syndrome is
a bizarre physiological disorder that causes victims to have any number of
physical and verbal tics. Some Tourettic people have constant facial twitches,
others find themselves uncontrollably uttering verbal whoops, beeps, and
sometimes also raunchy swear words. One man with Tourette’s whom Dr. Sacks knew
was given to deep, lunging bows toward the ground, a few verbal shouts, and also
an obsessive-compulsive type adjusting and readjusting of his glasses. The
kicker is that the man is a skilled surgeon! Somehow and for some unknown
reason, when he dons mask and gown and enters the operating room, all of his
tics disappear for the duration of the surgery. He loses himself in that role
and he does so totally. When the surgery is finished, he returns to his odd
quirks of glasses adjustment, shouts, and bows. — Sacks did not make any
spiritual comments on this, of course, yet I find this doctor a very intriguing
example of what it can mean to “lose yourself” in a role. There really can be a
great transformation of your life when you are focused on just one thing
focused to the point that bad traits disappear even as the performing of normal
tasks becomes all the more meaningful and remarkable. Something like that is
our Christian goal as we travel with Jesus. Our desire is to love one another –
to love the whole world finally, I suppose – as Jesus loved us. To do that, we
need an infusion of a kind of love that does not arise naturally from the
context of the world as we know it. So as we lose ourselves in Jesus and in
being his disciples, we find even our ordinary day-to-day activities infused
with deep meaning as a love from another place fills our hearts. Fr. Tony (http://frtonyshomilies.com/) 2021.
7) “Yes, daddy, but I can’t sit on its lap!” Some
time ago, there was an article in the Los Angeles Times about
Howard Maxwell and his four-year-old daughter, Melinda. As children often do,
Melinda developed a fixation on the story of “The Three Little Pigs.” Every
time her father came around, Melinda wanted him to read it to her. Well, for
adults, a little “Three Little Pigs” goes a long way. The father, being both
modern and inventive, got a tape recorder, recorded the story, and taught
Melinda how to turn it on. He thought that had solved his problem. But it
lasted less than a day. Soon Melinda came to her father, holding out “The Three
Little Pigs” and asking him to read. Somewhat impatiently, the father said,
“Melinda, you have the tape recorder, and you know how to turn it on!” The
little girl looked up at her father with her big eyes and said, plaintively,
“Yes, daddy, but I can’t sit on its lap!” — Of course, what she really wanted
was love. That is what we all want, and we never outgrow our need for it. To be
valued, to be cared about, to be loved with a love without strings, a love that
will always be there for us; I tell you, that is a foundation for our families
that is strong enough to build upon! Fr. Tony (http://frtonyshomilies.com/) 2021.
8) “Hand me your papers that I may carry all your crimes
away with me in death.” French writer Henri Barbusse (1874-1935),
tells of a conversation overheard in a trench full of wounded men during the
First World War. One of the men, who knew he only had minutes to live says to
one of the other men, “Listen, Dominic, you’ve led a very bad life. Everywhere
you are wanted by the police. But there are no convictions against me. My name
is clear, so, here, take my wallet, take my papers, my identity, take my good
name, my life, and quickly, hand me your papers that I may carry all your
crimes away with me in death.” — The Good News is that through Jesus, God makes
a similar offer. Something wonderful happens to us when we are baptized. When
we are baptized, we identify ourselves with Jesus. We publicly declare our
intention to strive to be like Jesus and follow God’s will for our lives. When
we are baptized, our lives are changed. We see things differently now. We see
other people differently. Baptism enables and empowers us to do the things that
Jesus wants us to do here and now. We are able to identify with Jesus because
we have been baptized into His death and live with His Life. And we are able to
love as he loved. Such identification is life-changing. That kind of
identification shapes what we believe and claims us. Fr. Tony (http://frtonyshomilies.com/) 2021.
9) “This is the happiest day of my life.” You
have heard a bride say it. You have heard a new mother in the maternity ward
say it. You have heard a graduating senior say it: “This is the happiest day of
my life!” Some days are like that; they’re special. There are great days in all
of our lives. — I wonder what was your most wondrous moment? For me such days
are filled with extraordinary hope and joy. For me it was the birth of my
daughter because it was shared with my wife and family. [state yours]. Life
involves many happy affairs – the birth of a child, the gatherings of
Christmas, a summer vacation. It is often said that to love and be loved is the
greatest happiness in the world. For most of us, then, the most significant
movement of hope and joy is our wedding day. It’s the day we celebrate before
God and all our friends the love in our life. Marriage vows are the most
profound vows one can make. No other vows are more tender; no other vows are
more sacred. No other pledge will so radically shape and claim an individual.
The two become one. A home is born. A haven for family is founded. Your place
to be is created. But, alas, in too many marriages and in so many lives the wine
fails. Fr. Tony (http://frtonyshomilies.com/)
2021.
10) “God, I ain’t got nothin’ against nobody.” Anthony
Campolo tells about a mountaineer from West Virginia who fell in love with the
beautiful daughter of the town preacher. The gruff, tough man one evening
looked deeply into the eyes of the preacher’s daughter and said, “I love you.”
It took more courage for him to say those simple words than he had ever had to
muster for anything else he had ever done. Minutes passed in silence and then
the preacher’s daughter said, “I love you, too.” The tough mountaineer said
nothing except, “Good night.” Then he went home, got ready for bed and prayed,
“God, I ain’t got nothin’ against nobody.” — Many of us know that feeling. To
love and to be loved, what joy that simple emotion brings into our lives! Then
to realize that the very nature of God is Love is almost more than you or I can
comprehend. No wonder, Jesus’ greatest commandment for his followers is “Love
one another as I have loved you.” Fr. Tony (http://frtonyshomilies.com/) 2021.
11) The greatest commandment revolutionizing prison: During
the Second World War Dr. Ernest Gordon, later Chaplain of Princeton University,
was a prisoner of war in Thailand. In his book, Through the Valley of
the Kwai, he reflects on the difference between two Christmas seasons he
spent in prison. He says that during the Christmas season of 1942 there were
thousands of American soldiers in that prison who robbed the sick among them,
mistreated one another, and did not care whether the other prisoners lived or
died. During the following year, a healthy American soldier began giving his
food to a sick buddy to help him get well. In time the sick prisoner recovered,
but the buddy who had given him food died of malnutrition. The story of the man
who sacrificed his life to save a buddy made the rounds of the camp. Some of
the prisoners remarked that he was a lot like Christ. Some of the soldiers
began to recall passages from the Bible they had learned years earlier under
far different circumstances. One of the passages stated, “This is my
commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. Greater love has no
man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.” Some who were
Christians took heart and began to witness to other men. The prisoners began to
ask about Christ and to meet for Bible study. When they began to know Christ as
Lord the entire atmosphere in the camp changed from despair and desperation to
hope and compassion. When Christmas of 1943 arrived, Dr. Gordon said, 2000
prisoners assembled for worship. They sang carols and someone read the story of
the birth of Jesus from a Gospel account. Much more was different. In spite of
their hunger, prisoners who were well shared food with the sick to help them
gain strength faster. They cared for one another. They agreed that the
difference came about because of faith in Christ and people who lived his love
in the midst of unloving circumstances. The choices they made were for
righteousness and not evil. Fr. Tony (http://frtonyshomilies.com/)
2021.
12) “Dad couldn’t remember which one of us was adopted.” One
time a Sunday school superintendent was registering two new sisters in Sunday
School. When she asked them how old they were one replied, “We’re both seven.
My birthday is April 8th and my sister’s is April 20th.” That superintendent
replied, “That’s impossible girls.” The other sister then spoke up and said,
“No it’s true. One of us is adopted.” “Oh,” the superintendent said. “Which
one?” The two sisters looked at each other, and one said, “We asked Dad that
question a while ago, but he just looked at us and said that he loved us both
equally, so much so that he couldn’t remember which one of us was adopted.”
(from God’s Little Lessons on Life for Women, Honor Books). — That
is a wonderful analogy for the love of God. God loves us all, equally. We are
loved, not because we have earned God’s love or deserve it, but because of
God’s grace. Fr. Tony (http://frtonyshomilies.com/)
2021.
13) There is a beautiful old story about Zacchaeus,
the tax collector. It tells how, in later years, he rose early every morning
and left his house. His wife, curious, followed him one morning. At the town
well he filled a bucket, and he walked until he came to a sycamore tree. There,
setting down the bucket, he began to clean away the stones, the branches, and
the rubbish from around the base of the tree. Having done that, he poured water
on the roots and stood there in silence, gently caressing the trunk with both
of his hands. When his amazed wife came out of hiding and asked what he was
doing, Zacchaeus replied simply, “This is where I found Christ.” — I can just
imagine that for the rest of their lives, that woman who touched the hem of
Jesus’ robe that day on the street and the daughter of Jairus who was raised up
in that room in her home, continually brought people back to those sacred spots
and said, “This is where I found Christ! This is where Christ loved me into
life!” Do you have a sacred spot like that? This is the Good News of our
Christian Faith, isn’t it? Love has the power to heal, to reconcile, and to
redeem. Fr. Tony (http://frtonyshomilies.com/)
2021.
14) “He is very fond of me.” Brennan Manning
tells the story of an Irish priest, who, on a walking tour of a rural parish,
saw an old peasant kneeling by the side of the road, praying. Impressed, the
priest said to the man, “You must be very close to God.” The peasant looked up
from his prayers, thought a moment, and then stated with a broad smile, “Yes,
He’s very fond of me.” Manning has a slogan to introduce himself to others: “I
am the one Jesus loves.” He has borrowed this meaningful phrase from the Gospel
where Jesus’ closest friend on earth, the disciple named John, is identified as
“the one Jesus loved.” Manning says, “If John were to be asked, ‘What is your
primary identity in life?’ he would not reply, ‘I am a disciple, an apostle, an
evangelist, an author of one of the four Gospels,’ but rather, ‘I am the one
Jesus loves.'” — Today’s Gospel and the second reading remind us that our
primary identity in life as Christians should be “the one Jesus loves,”
precisely because we keep his commandment, “Love one another as I love
you.” Fr. Tony (http://frtonyshomilies.com/)
2021.
15) The Whisper Test: Mary Ann Bird
wrote a short story entitled “The Whisper Test.” It is
a true story from her own life. “I grew up knowing I was different, and I hated
it. I was born with a cleft palate, and when I started school, my classmates
made it clear to me how I must look to others: a little girl with a misshapen
lip, crooked nose, lopsided teeth and garbled speech. “When schoolmates would
ask, ‘What happened to your lip?’ I’d tell them I’d fallen and cut it on a
piece of glass. Somehow it seemed more acceptable to have suffered an accident
than to have been born different. I was convinced that no one outside my family
could love me. There was, however, a teacher in the second grade that we all
adored — Mrs. Leonard by name. She was short, round, happy — a sparkling lady.
Annually, we would have a hearing test. I was virtually deaf in one of my ears.
But when I had taken the test in past years, I discovered that if I did not
press my hand as tightly upon my ears as I was instructed to do, I could pass
the test. Mrs. Leonard gave the test to everyone in the class, and finally it
was my turn. I knew from past years that as we stood against the door and
covered one ear, the teacher sitting at her desk would whisper something and we
would have to repeat it back … things like, ‘The sky is blue’ or ‘Do you have
new shoes?’ I waited there for those words. But God put into her mouth seven
words which changed my life. Mrs. Leonard said, in her whisper, ‘I wish
you were my little girl.'” Fr. Tony (http://frtonyshomilies.com/)
2021.
16) ……. I love you: An adult
education teacher once gave his students an assignment to go to someone they
loved before the following week’s class and tell that person that they loved
him or her. They would then give their report at the next class. It had to be
someone to whom they had never said those words before, or at least not for a
very long time. At the next class, one man stood up and recounted his story to
the class. “I was quite angry with you last week when you gave us this
assignment. I could not understand how you dared to tell us to do something so
personal. But as I was driving home, my conscience started talking to me. It
was telling me that I knew exactly whom I needed to say ‘I love you’ to.
Five years ago, my father and I had a terrible argument which we had never
resolved. We had avoided seeing each other since, unless it was absolutely
necessary, and even then we hardly spoke to each other. So last week by the
time I had returned home after class, I had convinced myself to tell my father
that I loved him. It was strange, but just making the decision seemed to lift a
heavy load off my chest. When I told my wife, she jumped out of bed, gave me a
big hug and for the first time in our married life, she saw me cry. We sat up
half of the night talking and drinking coffee. The next day I was up bright and
early as if I had slept soundly all night. I got to the office and accomplished
more in a couple of hours than I had the whole day before. At 9AM, I called my
father to tell him I wanted to come over after work and talk to him. He
reluctantly agreed. By 5:30, I was at the house. When my father answered the
door, I didn’t waste any time. I took one step inside and blurted out ‘Dad,
I just came over to tell you that I love you.’ Well, it was as if a
transformation had come over him. Before my eyes, his face softened, the
wrinkles seemed to disappear and he too began to cry. He reached out and hugged
me, saying ‘I love you too, son, but I’ve never been able to say it.‘
My mother walked by just then with tears of joy in her eyes. I didn’t stay
long, but I hadn’t felt that great in a long time. Two days after my visit, my
dad, who had had heart problems but hadn’t told us, had an attack and ended up
unconscious in the hospital. I still don’t know if he’ll make it. So my message
to all of you in this class is: don’t wait to do the things you know need to be
done. If I had waited, I might never have had another chance to do what I did.”
(Do It Now. Copyright 1995 by Dennis E. Mannering). Today’s
Scripture teaches how we should love others. Fr. Tony (http://frtonyshomilies.com/) 2021.
17) “Because you are precious in my sight, I love you.” Harold
Hughes was a United States Senator and a former Governor of Iowa. God
drastically changed his life. He was a hopeless alcoholic, wallowing in his own
vomit, and so despairing that he was ready to take his own life away. He was
uncontrollably addicted to alcohol. He reached a point where his wife and
children left him and he lost his job. One day he ended up drunk, sitting in
his bathtub with the barrel of a gun in his mouth and his finger on the
trigger. Then he fortunately cried out to God. Immediately, he felt a spreading
sense of peace within that delivered him from the crises of the moment. Through
much struggle and pain, God led him along until he was at last free from the
grip of alcohol. He eventually became the governor of his state and a United
States senator. — We may be unwanted by people; we may be rejected and shunned
by people but: we are wanted by God; we are worthy, we are precious in the eyes
of the Lord. Through the prophet Isaiah, the Lord said, “Because you are
precious in my sight, I love you (43:4)” After Mother Theresa received the
Noble Prize, someone asked her, “How can we solve the world’s problems.” She
replied, “Go home and love one another.” The thing that is destroying the world
today is: hatred and intolerance. It is only love, which can save the world
from destruction. And love shall be the only thing that is eternal. [John Rose
in John’s Sunday Homilies; quoted by Fr. Botelho.] Fr. Tony (http://frtonyshomilies.com/) 2021.
18) “Don’t bug me! Hug me!” says a bumper
sticker. One man who believes this strongly went around giving hugs to all
sorts of people. Challenged to come to a home for the disabled, he hugged
people, who were terminally ill, severely retarded or quadriplegic. Finally he
came to the last person, Leonard, who was wearing a big white bib, on which he
was drooling. Overcoming his initial reluctance, the man took a deep breath,
leaned down and gave Leonard a hug. All of a sudden Leonard began to squeal, “Eeehh!
Eeeehh!” Some of the other patients in the room began to clang things together.
The man turned to the staff- physicians, nurses and orderlies for some sort of
explanation, only to find every one of them was crying. To his enquiry, “What’s
going on?” the head nurse said, “This is the first time in twenty-three years
we have ever seen Leonard smile.” — In the Gospel we are once
again reminded of the outgoing nature of God, because of which He continues to
love us and share His spirit with all peoples. (Harold Buetow, God Still
Speaks: Listen! Quoted by Fr. Botelho). Fr. Tony (http://frtonyshomilies.com/) 2021.
19) True love in dangerous: Rita was dying
of a disease from which her nine-year old brother, Richard, had just recovered.
The surgeon said to Richard. “Only a transfusion of your blood will save your
sister. Are you ready to give her your blood?” Richard was terrified but
finally said, “OK, Doctor!” After the transfusion, Richard asked quietly,
“Doctor, when will I die?” It was only then that the doctor understood
Richard’s fear: he thought that by giving his blood he would die for Rita. Is
our love a ready-to-die love?” — Little Richard was ready to die for Rita. And
many mothers daily sacrifice so much so that their children might live fully.
But what about our larger family, the world? We have a glowing example of a
ready-to-die love in Indian social activist Medha Patkar, who sacrificed a
flourishing legal career in Mumbai to work for the rights of tribals. She was
accused of ‘Attempted suicide’ since her fast against the height of the Narmada
Dam was seen as potentially dangerous to the powers that be. True love is
dangerous! [Francis Gonsalves in Sunday Seeds for Daily Deeds; quoted by Fr.
Botelho).] Fr. Tony (http://frtonyshomilies.com/)
2021.
20) “I loved those boys!” A college
professor had his sociology class go into the Baltimore slums to get case
histories of 200 young boys. They were asked to write an evaluation of each
boy’s future. In every case the students wrote “He does not have a chance.”
Twenty-five years later another sociology professor came across the earlier
study. He had his students follow up on the project to see what had happened to
these boys. With the exception of twenty boys who had moved away or died, the
students learned that 176 of the remaining 180 had achieved more than ordinary
success as lawyers, doctors and businessmen. The astounded professor decided to
pursue the matter further. Fortunately, all the men were in the area, and he
was able to ask each, “How do you account for your success?” In each case the
reply came with feeling, “There was a teacher.” The teacher was still alive, so
he sought her out and asked the old but still alert lady what magic formula she
had used. Her eyes sparkled and her lips broke into a gentle smile. “It is really
simple,” she said. “I loved those boys.” — In today’s Gospel we read Jesus’
great commandment: I command you, love one another. (Harold Buetow
in God Still Speaks: Listen! Quoted by Fr. Botelho). Fr. Tony (http://frtonyshomilies.com/) 2021.
21) United in the moon in His name: The
lunar module Eagle carrying astronauts Aldrin and Armstrong,
landed on the moon on July 20, 1969. While Armstrong prepared for his
moon-walk, Aldrin unpacked bread and wine and put them on the abort system
computer. He described what he did next. “I poured the wine into a chalice…In
the one-sixth gravity of the moon the wine curled slowly and gracefully up the
side of the cup. It was interesting to think that the very first liquid ever poured
on the moon and the very first food eaten, were consecrated Bread and Wine.”
Just before receiving the Holy Communion, Aldrin read the passage from the
Gospel according to John: “I am the vine, and you are the branches. Whoever
remains in me, and I in him will bear much fruit, for you can do nothing
without me.” Commenting on his Communion experience on the moon,
Aldrin says, “I sense especially strongly my unity with our Church back home,
and everywhere.” (Mark Link in Sunday Homilies; quoted by Fr. Botelho). Fr.
Tony (http://frtonyshomilies.com/)
2021.
22) Where love is, God is: In a certain
village in the Swiss Alps there is a small Church which has been used by
generations of worshippers. What makes it so beautiful is the story of how it
came to be built on that particular spot. The story goes like this. Two
brothers worked a family farm, sharing the produce and profit. One was married,
the other wasn’t. The climate was harsh with the result that grain was
sometimes scarce. One day the single brother said to himself, “It’s not fair
that we should share the produce equally. I’m alone, but my brother has a
family to support.” So every now and then he would go out at night, take a sack
of grain from his own barn, quietly cross the field between their houses, and
place it in his brother’s bin. Meanwhile, his brother had a similar idea, and
said, “It’s not right that we should share the produce equally. I have a family
to support me but my brother is all alone.” So every now and then he would go
at night, take a sack of grain from his barn, and quietly place it in his
brother’s bin. This went on for a number of years. Each brother was puzzled how
his supply of grain never dwindled. Then one night they bumped into each other
in the dark. When they realized what had been happening, they dropped their
sacks, and embraced each other. Suddenly a voice from Heaven said: “Here I will
build my Church. For where people meet in love, there My presence shall dwell.”
(Flor McCarthy in New Sunday and Holy Day Liturgies; quoted by Fr. Botelho).
Fr. Tony (http://frtonyshomilies.com/)
2021.
23) The great commandment of Christian symbiosis: The
Oxford Encyclopedia English Dictionary defines symbiosis as “a mutually
interactive relationship between two living things, usually to the advantage of
both.” The created universe is rife with fascinating examples of symbiotic
relationships. For instance, the rhinoceros has very poor eyesight. But its
tough hide is infested with ticks which are a delicacy to a certain small bird
which rides on its back, feasting on the insects and alerting the rhino to
danger. Similarly, both the ratel, or honey badger, and the honey-guide bird
are fond of honey, which they hunt together. With its keen eyes, the little
bird easily finds the beehive and the ratel’s powerful claws tear it open,
making the honey available to both. Among sea creatures, the pinna, a blind
slug or snail is threatened by many predators, the worst of which is the
cuttle-fish. No sooner does the pinna dare to open its bivalve shell than the
cuttle-fish rushes in and devours it. Happily, the keen-eyed crab-fish is a
constant companion of the pinna. Both live together in the pinna’s shell. When the
pinna is hungry, it opens its valves and sends out its roommate to secure food.
If an enemy is near, the crab-fish dashes back to its blind protector who
quickly closes the valves once its symbiont is inside. If food can be secured
without danger, the crab-fish returns to the shell, makes a gentle noise at its
opening, is admitted by the pinna and the two share the feast together. — God
has created human beings to be symbionts for one another. The relationship to
which God calls us in Christ is to be characterized by a mutuality in which
each and all of us can grow and thrive. When he lived in human flesh and walked
among us, Jesus explained that such a relationship is possible for those who
love God and keep the commandments. As today’s second reading and Gospel are
read, believers are once again reminded of Jesus’ teaching, that we, who are
beloved of God, are to love one another, freely, fully. Jesus proved the depths
of his love and that of God for humanity by laying down his life so that we
might live. (Patricia Datchuck Sánchez). Fr. Tony (http://frtonyshomilies.com/) 2021.
24) The praying hands: Who is a
friend? For Aristotle, a friend was a “single soul, dwelling in two
bodies.” Ralph Waldo Emerson believed that “a friend may well be reckoned the
masterpiece of nature.” In describing the mutuality enjoyed by friends, Antoine
de Saint-Exupery wrote, “Experience teaches us that love does not consist of
two people looking at each other, but of looking together in the same
direction.” Some anonymous writers have defined a friend as “one who multiplies
joys and divides grief.” Within our own Judeo-Christian tradition, Jesus ben
Sirach offered the following: “A faithful friend is a sure shelter; whoever
finds one has found a rare treasure. A faithful friend is the elixir of life
and those who fear the Lord will find one” (Ecclesiasticus 6:14, 15)
(J.B. trans). Two of Albrecht Durer the Elder’s children had a dream. They both
wanted to pursue their talent for art, but they knew full well that their
father would never be financially able to send either of them to Nuremberg to
study at the Academy. This is the story of how one of them made it. As it
happened, the older brother suggested that Albert Durer his younger brother
should study while he worked to support them both. Reluctantly, Albert agreed
and when at long last his paintings began to sell, his brother was able to
return to his art. Sadly, the hard work had stiffened and gnarled his fingers
and he could no longer paint with skill. Some say it was these aged and worn
hands of his brother that inspired one of Albert Durer’s best-known paintings,
“The Praying Hands.” — This being so, then those hands revealed the quality of
friendship to which Jesus calls his disciples. Like the brother who sacrificed
himself so that Albert Durer could develop and thrive, Jesus showed the depths
of his love by laying down his life so that we, his friends, might live. There
is no greater love than this (John 15:13). (Adapted from Sanchez files). Fr.
Tony (http://frtonyshomilies.com/)
2021.
25) 101 Ways to Say I Love You. Here are some of them: Watch the sunset together; Cook for each other; Hold hands; Buy gifts for each other; Hugs are the universal medicine; say ‘I love you’ and mean it; Give random gifts of flowers/roses/candy, etc; Tell her that she’s the only woman you ever want, don’t lie; spend every second possible together; look into each other’s eyes; Put love notes in their pockets when they are not looking; Buy her a ring; sing to each other; Read to each other; PDA (Public Display of Affection); Take her to a dinner and do the dinner for two deal; Dance together; Tell each other your most sacred secrets or fears; Go to Church/worship together; Learn from each other and don’t make the same mistake twice; Everyone deserves a second chance; Describe the joy you feel just to be with her; make sacrifices for each other; Dedicate songs to them on the radio; always remember to say, ‘sweet dreams.’ Fr. Tony (http://frtonyshomilies.com/)
Scott Hoezee, comments and observations on John 15:9-17.
One time I served a church that was hidden in an obscure corner of a suburb. The people of that congregation never thought highly of themselves. One time we took a survey and discovered that our presence had a profound affect on the life of the people who lived there. They noticed when the bushes were pruned, the parking lot was full or that remodeling was taking place. Just as the church is a visible presence of God's abiding love, each of you is a visible presence in the community.
Keith Wagner, Fruit of the Vine
"Well," I said, "now that you mention it, a little gratitude wouldn't hurt."
"Well, I'm not.” "Why?" I asked.
"Because you are a Christian. You don't help me because you want to. I’m not going to thank you. You want to know why?" he sneered. “You have to help me because he [now thrusting his finger up into the air] told you to help me!" And then he left.
“I stood there, stunned, angry. The nerve of these people! On my drive home it finally hit me. The man was right, absolutely right. “
Love God with all you have and are and love your neighbor.
Amen.
