Love Unconditionally!

Fifth Sunday of Easter

2 May 2021 

 

First Reading:  ACTS 9:26-31

Responsorial Psalm:  PS 22:26-27, 28, 30, 31-32

Second Reading:  1 JN 3:18-24

Gospel:  JN 15:1-8

 

Reflection

By: Benj Santiago

 

"We have confidence in God and receive from Him whatever we ask, because we keep His commandments and do what pleases Him. And His commandment is this: "We should believe in the Name of His Son, Jesus Christ, and love one another just as He commanded us."

 

"If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask for whatever your want and it will be done for you. By this is my Father glorified, that you bear much fruit and become my disciples."

 

On this Fifth Sunday of Easter, we are reminded of the commandment of Jesus before He ascended to heaven to "love one another". And along with this commandment is a promise: "we will receive from Him whatever we ask".

 

In the world we live today, we are so much challenged in all aspects of our life. The pandemic had caused a lot of people to lose their livelihood and for some even their lives! We are all being called to act in the midst of this COVID-19 pandemic to show love for one another.

 

In the Gospel reading today, the call to LOVE unconditionally is super needed to be heeded by all of us! From those that are in power and from those who are powerless. From government leaders to the lowliest level of the citizenry.

 

How do we do it? I believe that it can be done by putting the welfare of others ahead of ourselves. We all need to do for others what is good for them regardless of whether they have done good to you!

 

A lady friend of mine who is a Lawyer and Financial Educator has a stay out helper who had asked for salary advances but did not show up to serve her services for many months. But just recently, the same helper contacted her asking for support. Guess what? She still provided the help in spite of the helper's wrongdoing. Atty. GJ showed me a concrete example of how to LOVE unconditionally.

 

We all need to put CARE above MONEY!

 

I hope and pray that people who have the power over what directions and actions to take to fix the pandemic, must have an open heart to CARE for what is good for all and not for what MONEY they would get.

 

And for us; who are continually blessed with good health of mind, body, pocket, and spirit, let's continue to contribute to all that we can to help others. To give CARE. To LOVE as He has commanded us!

 

Finally, stay safe. Spread not the virus but LOVE!

 

Prayer

 

Heavenly Father, we thank and praise You for the continuing good health of our minds, body, and spirit. Lord, we pray that we may be continually inspired to serve others specially those who are sick and are in need. May we continue to serve with unconditional love. In Jesus Name, we pray. Amen.

 

 

 

Unconditional Love

30th Sunday in Ordinary Time Oct 26
First reading                                        Exodus 22:20-26
The Lord said to Moses, ‘Tell the sons of Israel this:   ‘“You must not molest the stranger or oppress him, for you lived as strangers in the land of Egypt. You must not be harsh with the widow, or with the orphan; if you are harsh with them, they will surely cry out to me, and be sure I shall hear their cry; my anger will flare and I shall kill you with the sword, your own wives will be widows, your own children orphans.   ‘“If you lend money to any of my people, to any poor man among you, you must not play the usurer with him: you must not demand interest from him.   ‘“If you take another’s cloak as a pledge, you must give it back to him before sunset. It is all the covering he has; it is the cloak he wraps his body in; what else would he sleep in? If he cries to me, I will listen, for I am full of pity.”’
Psalm                                                Psalm 17:2-4,47,51

Second reading                               1 Thessalonians 1:5-10

You observed the sort of life we lived when we were with you, which was for your 
instruction, and you were led to become imitators of us, and of the Lord; and it was with the 
joy of the Holy Spirit that you took to the gospel, in spite of the great opposition all round 
you. This has made you the great example to all believers in Macedonia and Achaia since it 
was from you that the word of the Lord started to spread – and not only throughout 
Macedonia and Achaia, for the news of your faith in God has spread everywhere. We do 
not need to tell other people about it: other people tell us how we started the work among 
you, how you broke with idolatry when you were converted to God and became servants of 
the real, living God; and how you are now waiting for Jesus, his Son, whom he raised from 
the dead, to come from heaven to save us from the retribution which is coming.

Gospel                                          Matthew 22: 34-40

When the Pharisees heard that Jesus had silenced the Sadducees they got together and, to disconcert him, one of them put a question, ‘Master, which is the greatest commandment of the Law?’ Jesus said, ‘You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the greatest and the first commandment. The second resembles it: You must love your neighbour as yourself. On these two commandments hang the whole Law, and the Prophets also.’

Reflection

By Beth Eguia

We live in a stressful busy world. We wake up early in the morning, prepare ourselves for work or for school. We commute daily either in a jeepney, bus or MRT. Upon reaching the office we get engrossed with deadlines, internal and external meetings. When tasks are not finish, we extend our stay in the office, goes home too tired to handle other things and just want to rest. For some individuals especially the mothers, they still need to check on their children, do other chores before they sleep at night. It varies also from country to country like here in Singapore, everything is fast pace. You need to do multi-tasking at times and even when you sleep, you still think about work.

I wonder, how do we really show our love to others, to God when we live in this kind of set-up? Hard isn’t it? I personally am a busy person. I am fully occupied at work especially due to deadlines of project implementation. There were moments I ask God, Lord have I shown my love to you with all my heart, my soul, my mind? It made me reflect before I was able to answer that question. I prayed for it so God could enlighten me then suddenly everything just pops out of the blue. To love God is to be our best, living a life dedicated and offered to Him regardless of who and what we are, and what we do in life. Loving God with all my mind is offering all my dailythoughts, my desires, my ambitions my goals and plans to Him even my deepest fears, frustrations, worries. Yes I am not perfect. I am sinful. I struggle most of the times in doing good. But by His grace, I humble myself unto Him and lift every small and big details in my life. God has shown me His unconditional love in simple and extra ordinary ways. Living alone and far from family is not an easy thing. I have to fight being homesick and being lonely. When I feel empty and I cry at night, I ask Him to embrace me and I would just feel relieved and loved. It may be hard to comprehend but it’s the truth. He does make me feel loved. Simple smile from other people you just pass by the street, kind gesture of being offered a seat in the MRT, the feeling of being understood by others when at times I am not in good mood. These are just some of the ways God has express His love to me and it is but rightful and fitting to show the same to Him.

God’s love is unconditional, no ifs no buts for Him. He loves us even when we are in good mood, bad mood, even when we left Him so many times. Remember the youngest son who got all his share in the family wealth and squander all his money? He came back sorry for what he did and still his father was the happiest person and prepared a feast for him. That’s our God, truly amazing.

Prayer

To our dearest and loving God, we honour You and thank You for loving us unconditionally despite of our shortcomings. Grant us the grace of humility especially at times when we are wrong, when we are full of pride. Grant us understanding, patience, wisdom so that we may live each moment of our lives in accordance to Your will. Guide us also that in everything that we do, we may offer and dedicate it for Your greater glory. Amen.