Reflecting on the Word

By Rev. James A. Wallace, C.Ss.R.

If we were going to give a name to this Sunday in the Easter season, we might  call it “Love Sunday.” No matter which year of readings we hear—A, B, or C—the  theme today is love: God’s love for Jesus, Jesus’ love for God, and God and Jesus’  love for us and their desire that we love them in return. 

This dynamic picture of divine love is captured powerfully in the first reading when the Holy Spirit “falls upon” Cornelius and his family while Peter is still  preaching. The most frequent images for the Holy Spirit in stained glass and  paintings are those of a white dove gently hovering, or a flickering flame of fire  suspended in mid-air. But here there is a sense of something weightier “falling  upon” the listeners, the weight of divine love, intensified by divine impatience.  St. Alphonsus spoke of a God “crazy in love” with us. Might we find evidence of  such a divine passion at play here? 

It is one of the clearest expressions of God’s desire for us, of God’s great love  that yearns for intimate communion. Jesus puts it into words for us: “As the Father  loves me, so I love you.” Take time and repeat these words of Jesus throughout  the week. Then, hear his next words: “Remain in my love.” How? “If you keep  my commandments, you will remain in my love.” And what are those commandments? Just one really: “This I command you: love one another.” 

Consider/Discuss

  • How does this command to love relate to the feast of Easter?
  • Jesus says that he told us this command to love “so that my joy may  be in you and your joy might be complete.” Have you known this  joy? 

Responding to the Word

God of love, you call us to know you as love and to live in your love so that  your joy may fill us. Draw us into the mystery of the love that binds you, Father,  Son, and Spirit, in such intimate communion. Send your Spirit upon us and break  down any resistance to knowing and doing your will.

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