Gospel Reflection for May 19, 2019, 5th Sunday of Easter

Sunday Readings: Acts 14,21-27; Revelation 21.1-5; John 13.31-35

“As I have loved you, so you should love one another.” – John 13.34

Love is a feeling, the warmth of an embrace when spouses find themselves at home after work and commitments. Love is sometimes passionate, sexual, sensual, intimate. Love is attraction, the excitement of meeting someone who reads as  much or as widely, who cares about sustaining Earth, who values hope over cynicism, whom one can be oneself with.

Love lives faithfully and sustained over time translates into actions. Love is a verb. Cook, clean, wash clothes, plan shop, pay bills, fix. Like the bass drum in a marching band, these actions set the pace and rhythm of our days.

As in Jesus’ life, our lives sometimes ask more, even everything we can give. A sick child, a sick parent, mental illness. Our lives in the end asks all we have to give. Jesus stakes him claim with us in our capacity to love one another. In his footwashing and laying down his life for his friends, Jesus reveals his love for them and for us.

How do people know you are a follower of Jesus?


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Published by GoodGroundPress

Good Ground Press is the publishing ministry of the Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet. We publish resources for living the Gospel today, including Sunday By Sunday for adults and SPIRIT ONLINE for teens.

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