What beautiful readings we have on this holiday of Mother’s Day. John, in his first letter invites us to “love one another.” Whoever is without love does not know God, for God is love. What a wonderful definition of God. He is the totality of love. For many of us, the first lasting bond of love we formed was with our mothers. And since God is love, every friendship, charity and genuine concern we share is a participation in God’s life.
And what goes along with love is joy. The formula to finding complete happiness comes from Jesus’ command to “love one another as I love you.” He says this so that the pure joy he feels may also be in his disciples. And now in us as well. Joy comes from a selfless attitude, from selfless action. It comes from loving others as we are loved. It is no accident that the word love appears in today’s second reading and the Gospel a total of eighteen times. Self-sacrificing love in imitation of Jesus, brings unparalleled joy. And, of course, we are also reminded that there is no greater love than laying down one’s life for others.
We honor today mothers, grandmothers, godmothers, and all women care-takers in our lives. We are grateful for their love, grow from it and pledge to pass it on to others.
Love, Peace, Joy,
Fr. Bob
Comments
There are no comments yet - be the first one to comment: