Gospel of John, Chapter 14:23

How do you know you love others like Jesus? Chapter fourteen of St. John’s gospel, gives the answer. You know you love others like Jesus when you keep his word. To keep his word, to follow his example – that’s how you know you love Jesus and others. In order to keep the Lord’s word, you have to know it first: you have to meditate upon the word in the silence of your heart. This is what prayer is all about – meditating on the scriptures, the word of the Lord, in the silence of the heart.

This pure teaching about love is not hot air; it is not a pie in the sky doctrine. It is the real thing because there is no substitute for fidelity to Jesus’ word when it comes to loving him and one another.

Jesus wants his followers to get real about his message of love. His message is not the kind of feel-good message that the Pharisees and some sentimentalists today prefer to follow, by giving lip-service to the Lord without paying the price. That’s why Jesus says: “it is not the one who says Lord, Lord, who will enter my kingdom, but the one who hears my word and keeps it.”

Jesus’ message of love is a very practical message. By insisting that we be faithful to his word, Jesus wants to change our attitudes and behavior so that we can love one another as he loved us. Some people might call this ‘tough love’ but Jesus does not describe it that way. It demands sacrifice, of course, but in the words of Jesus: his “burden is easy,” and his “yoke is light.”

On Sunday, May 9 we celebrate Mother’s day. Mothers know instinctively that love involves sacrifice, and that you cannot have one without the other. The hidden, often unremembered acts of love and sacrifice of a Mother for her children, cannot be described adequately. How could they?

I remember once visiting a Mother in the parish. As we are talking over a cup of coffee, her eleven year-old boy, Mark, keeps bugging her, and saying: “why are you doing this to me?” The Mother turns to Mark and gently replies: “I’m doing this to you, Mark, because I love you.” With that, Mark becomes silent.

To those of you who are Mothers, I salute you and pray that God will hold you in the palm of his hand.

Happy Mother’s Day!

Fr. Hugh Duffy