Easter Sunday: VI A - Liturgy
Love comes from God, and everyone who loves is
born from God and knows God. May Jesus, the Son of God, who made God's love
known to us, be always with you. R/ And also with you.
Introduction by the
Celebrant
A. A Love without
Boundaries (Option
1)
We are again reminded today that the heart of
Christianity is love: love of God, love of one another. Jesus tells us that we
have to love one another as he has loved us. This is a very demanding love, for
it commits us to love not only those we like and who love us or like-minded
fellow Christians, but also the difficult ones, the "unlovable,"
people far from perfect, outsiders... That is not so easy, and this is probably
why he calls it a commandment. Let us ask our Lord in this Eucharist that we
may grow in this openness of genuine love.
B. As I Have Loved You
(Option 2)
We are often surprised how inventive love can
be and to discover it where we had not expected it. It makes a dour husband
surprise his wife with an unpredictable gesture of tenderness or a couple in
the slums adopt a child found abandoned in the street. God's astonishing love
is the source of it all. He shows it when he gives up his own Son for us. Jesus
kept giving a human shape to God's love when he cared for people and gave new
chances even to outcasts, the unloved and the unlovable. Today he calls us his
friends and he tells us: "Love one another as I have loved you." With
these words, he challenges us in today's Eucharist.
Penitential Act
We are still far from loving people the way
Jesus wants us to love them. We ask the Lord and one another to forgive us. (PAUSE)
Lord Jesus, you have loved us as the Father has
loved you. Keep us in your love: Lord, have mercy. R/ Lord, have mercy.
Jesus Christ, the way you have loved us is that
you laid down your life for us. Make us live for one another: Christ, have
mercy. R/ Christ, have mercy.
Lord Jesus, you loved the weak, sinners, those
hard to love. Open our love and make it like yours: Lord, have mercy. R/
Lord, have mercy.
In your goodness, forgive us, Lord, and make
committed love the characteristic of us, your people. Lead us to everlasting
life. R/ Amen.
Opening Prayer
Let us ask the Father that we may put no
boundaries to our love (PAUSE) God, love is your name and you have revealed all
its depth when you sent your only Son into the world and let him be the
sacrifice that took our sins away. Through Jesus, who calls us his friends, make
our love as strong as life and death, let it always have the last word in us and
be given for free, like yours. May we always remain in your love and love one
another as Jesus has loved us, he who is our Lord forever and ever. R/ Amen.
LITURGY OF THE WORD
First Reading
Introduction: God's Love Open to All God's sign to Peter and the Church that
believers from paganism are accepted and loved by God is that the Holy Spirit
comes down on pagans too.
Second Reading
Introduction: God Loves Us; So, We Love One Another God loves us so much that his love took a
human form in Jesus Christ. Since that time our love for one another is the
sign of God's love and of his presence among us.
Gospel Introduction:
Love One Another As I Have Loved You Jesus loves us and wants us to stay in his love
and joy by keeping his commandments of loving one another.
General Intercessions
Since Jesus is our friend, we can commend to
him all those we love and the needs of all those whom we should learn to love.
Let us say: R/ Lord, give us the gift of love.
- Lord Jesus, let there be love and friendship
and trust in the community of your Church between its leaders and the faithful,
we ask you, Lord: R/ Lord, give us the gift of love.
- Lord Jesus, let there be love and friendship
among all the people and the churches that claim that you are their Lord and
shepherd; may they become really one in you, we pray you, Lord: R/ Lord,
give us the gift of love.
- Lord Jesus, let love and friendship reign in
all our communities of religious, that they may be good witnesses to your love,
we pray you, Lord: R/ Lord, give us the gift of love.
- Lord Jesus, let love and friendship reign in
all our Christian families, that parents and children may be living cells from
which understanding and love may grow in our world, we pray you, Lord: R/
Lord, give us the gift of love.
- Lord, let there be love and friendship among
us that opens our eyes and hands and hearts to the needs and the persons of the
sick and the lonely, of the poor and the victims of injustice, we pray, you
Lord: R/ Lord, give us the gift of love.
- Let there be love and friendship in all our
Christian communities, that people may come to believe in you when they see how
we love one another, we pray you, Lord: R/ Lord, give us the gift of love.
Jesus, our friend, let us remain in your love
and warm one another with it, for you are our Lord forever and ever. R/
Amen.
Prayer over the Gifts
Lord our God, loving Father, your love appeared
with a human face in your Son Jesus Christ. He showed all the depth of your
love and his by laying down his life for us, his friends. As he gives himself
to us as the bread of life, may he be our food on the road of life and love, not
only when it is easy to love but also when it is hard to be faithful and when
love demands much sacrifice. We ask this through Christ our Lord. R/ Amen.
Introduction to the
Eucharistic Prayer
Let us raise our hearts and voices to our
loving Father in heaven for having loved us before we could love him. With
Jesus, God's sign of love to us, let us offer the Father our desire and will to
let his love overflow on everyone.
Introduction to the
Lord's Prayer
With Jesus, our brother, let us pray together
to our Father in heaven who loves us with so great a love as to give us his own
Son: R/ Our Father...
Deliver Us
Deliver us, Lord from all forms of selfishness that
close us to our people. Keep us free from all sins that endanger love among us and
grant us the peace of unity. Make us attentive and open to all, as we wait in
joyful hope for the coming of our Savior Jesus Christ: R/ For the kingdom...
At the Sign of Peace
Let the sign of peace today be the expression
of our genuine love for one another, and may it be followed by many signs and
tokens of love in the life of every day. The peace of the Lord be with you always. R/
And also with you.
Invitation to
Communion
This is our Lord who said: ''Love one another as
I have loved you." Happy are we to be invited to the Lord's table of love
and unity. R/ Lord, I am not worthy...
Prayer after Communion
God our Father, in this eucharistic celebration
you have given us new proof of your love by giving us your Son and his Spirit. Jesus
has strengthened our love. Accept our thanks and bring out the best in us, that
we may bear rich fruit of faithful, reliable love. Let your Holy Spirit unite
us to build community with one another and to live in your love and joy now and
forever. R/ Amen.
Blessing
We know that God loves us and wants to live
among us. He calls us his friends, his chosen ones. Let us respond to his love
without measure. We are sure that we love God and that he is present among us when
we love one another. May God give us the strength to do so, the Father, and the
Son, and the Holy Spirit. R/ Amen. Go
in peace, live in the Lord's love, and serve him in people. R/ Thanks be to
God.
****
REFLECTION: John 14:15-21
It’s a sin against the Holy Spirit to oppose renewal.
Today’s Gospel is part of Jesus’
first farewell speech at the Last Supper. Jesus promises not to abandon his
chosen disciples without protection and guidance. He promises that the Heavenly
Father will “send another helper” who will always be with them (v.
16). But the world cannot receive the paraclete, says Jesus.
When Jesus uses the term “world”,
he does not refer to persons but to attitudes in each person—wherein darkness,
sin, and death reign. Everyone has something good and bad. No one is without
sins. But, Jesus consoles his disciples as he says not to lose heart
when hatred, concupiscence, and uncontrolled passion control them. It is
because the world’s spirit is contrary to that of Christ.
In the Gospel today, Jesus
promises another helper. He says “another” helper because we already have one -
Jesus himself. Jesus is our first paraclete. John explains this in his first
letter: “My little children, I write you these things so that you may not
sin; but if anyone does sin, we have a Paraclete by the Father’s side: the
righteous Jesus Christ” (1 Jn 2:1). He defends us and protects us against
our accuser - the devil, our opponent. The enemy is sin, and Jesus knows how to
overcome sin and the devil.
Jesus assures his disciples that
he is not going away; he simply changes the type of his presence. He is no
longer physically present but always as the Risen One. He stays with us in an
entirely different way, infinitely and invisibly.
John reminds the Christians of
his community that with the presence of the Risen Jesus and his Holy Spirit
amid life’s difficulties, they would not be discouraged and would not lose
their serenity, peace of heart and joy. We shall not be frightened or broken
down even when we have so many spiritual miseries, frailties, and evil
inclinations.
A disciple must remain open to
the impulse of the Spirit, who constantly renews and reveals new things. He is,
by his nature, the one who renews the face of the earth (Ps 104:30). Therefore,
it is a sin against the Holy Spirit to oppose the renewal, to refuse the
innovations that favour the life of the community, that bring people closer to
Christ and to the brethren, that increase joy and peace, that help people to
pray better and free the heart from useless fears
Those who stubbornly remain attached to already obsolete and worn out religious traditions, who are not diligently given to the study of the Word of God, who do not accept updating of rites, formulae, and liturgical gestures, who give old answers to new problems, who do not accept with joy the discovery of biblical exegesis, they place themselves in opposition to the Spirit of truth.
