All About Love

First Reading: Acts 1:15-17, 20-26

During those days Peter stood up in the midst of the brothers (there was a group of about one hundred and twenty persons in the one place). He said, "My brothers, the scripture had to be fulfilled which the holy Spirit spoke beforehand through the mouth of David, concerning Judas, who was the guide for those who arrested Jesus. He was numbered among us and was allotted a share in this ministry. For it is written in the Book of Psalms: 'Let his encampment become desolate, and may no one dwell in it.' And: 'May another take his office.' Therefore, it is necessary that one of the men who accompanied us the whole time the Lord Jesus came and went among us, beginning from the baptism of John until the day on which he was taken up from us, become with us a witness to his resurrection." So they proposed two, Joseph called Barsabbas, who was also known as Justus, and Matthias. Then they prayed, "You, Lord, who know the hearts of all, show which one of these two you have chosen to take the place in this apostolic ministry from which Judas turned away to go to his own place." Then they gave lots to them, and the lot fell upon Matthias, and he was counted with the eleven apostles.

Resp. Psalm: Psalms 103-1-2, 11-12, 1-20

Second Reading: 1John 4:11-16

Beloved, if God so loved us, we also must love one another. No one has ever seen God. Yet, if we love one another, God remains in us, and his love is brought to perfection in us. This is how we know that we remain in him and he in us, that he has given us of his Spirit. Moreover, we have seen and testify that the Father sent his Son as savior of the world. Whoever acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God, God remains in him and He in God. We have come to know and to believe in the love God has for us. God is love, and whoever remains in love remains in God and God in him.

Gospel: John 17:11-19

And now I will no longer be in the world, but they are in the world, while I am coming to you. Holy Father, keep them in your name that you have given me, so that they may be one just as we are. When I was with them I protected them in your name that you gave me, and I guarded them, and none of them was lost except the son of destruction, in order that the scripture might be fulfilled. But now I am coming to you. I speak this in the world so that they may share my joy completely. I gave them your word, and the world hated them, because they do not belong to the world any more than I belong to the world. I do not ask that you take them out of the world but that you keep them from the evil one. They do not belong to the world any more than I belong to the world. Consecrate them in the truth. Your word is truth. As you sent me into the world, so I sent them into the world. And I consecrate myself for them, so that they also may be consecrated in truth.

Reflection

By Theresa Ballo

When I was a college student, I recalled how my friends and I would talk about one’s love life and even the love life of our other classmates. It is in those moments we tried to entertain ourselves apart from the psychological concepts we need to memorize.  It is one of our stress-busters. 

Instead of twisting our neurons memorizing parts of the brain and how each part works we preferred to talk about the amazing power of the hypothalamus -- the region of the lower brain where love feelings commence.

After college, I worked as a high school counselor, I was amazed how our “tweens” (the current term for teenagers) would define, regard, and label a certain emotion as love.  My amazement comes from being ignorant that teenagers can actually feel, react and get hurt by their so-called falling in love. Three years after and to this day, I have young children as students. I hear them talk about their love for their parents and caregivers, while other children talk about their needs and longing for parental love and attention.

I thought of these students as I reflect on today’s readings.  They are all about love. The first reading talks about a love that exists across races, social status and partiality. The second reading, John commands us to love one another because God is love.  We are called to stand out in love as a reflection of God’s love in us. God has provided us with an astounding proof of His love for us through Jesus. In the Gospel, Jesus tells us to love one another as He has loved us. Moreover, it also talks of our relationship with Him.

Our relationship with Jesus has two stages. First, it starts off as a master-servant relationship. An adult saying to a child, “You have to follow me, or else Jesus will get mad at you, I will get mad at you”. Just as the servant does what pleases the master so as to avoid punishments, so as a child creates a life in the shadows of his parents and not his/her own.

Yet as the relationship with Christ deepens, as a child gets to establish his identity, the master-servant relationship can become into a less formal friend-friend type of relationship. This will change the way we communicate with Jesus through prayers and the way we live, feeling more peace and joy in our lives, as in-love people do.

At times, I pray that most parents can also be a friend to their sons and daughters. Children as expected, will regard their parents as “super mom and super dad” but with teenagers, as their circle of influence grows and their world started to revolve around friends, having a “super mom and super dad” vary.

Moreover, it is important to remember that God chose to love us. He took the first move. He loved us first and continues to shower us a love that knows no boundaries, no limitations and brings us always into wholeness.

“This I command you, to love one another”. We carry in us a special mission, to keep our hypothalamus always active, to be steward of love that includes the unlovable. Those people we do not like and those who hurt us are still worthy of love and goodness. Easier said than done as we often said, still taking the first move is still worth the try.

As we celebrate Mother’s Day, we honor the woman who birthed us into life as well as the many women who have shown us a mother’s love that is selfless and unconditional. Happy Mother’s Day to all moms out there!

  

Prayer:

Almighty Father, thank You for loving us even at times when we are not worthy of Your love. You keep us in Your untiring grace. May we always abide in that love as we become more accepting of our neighbors, showing goodness and mercy, and forgiving on shortcomings of others. May we remain loyal and trusting in You Lord as we carry on our mission. Amen.