Fifth Sunday of Easter

Readings of the Day
RB: Ch 4:1-21 The Tools for Good Works
Mass: Acts 14:21-27; Resp Ps 145; Rev 21:1-5a; Jn 13:31-33a, 34-35

As I have loved you, so you should also love one another.

Today we hit the jackpot with the readings from Mass and our reading from the Holy Rule having a similar theme. In the Gospel, Jesus speaks to the Eleven disciples at the Last Supper, addressing them as His children: "My children, I will be with you only a little while longer." Then He gives them a new commandment to "love one another." Loving one another presents demands. In order to love as Jesus has loved us, we have to pick our cross and follow him. Like Paul and Barnabas, "it is necessary for us to undergo many hardships". St Benedict helps us with better understanding the crosses and hardships that we face. After he begins his chapter on the Tools for Good Works with the greatest commandment of love, that is, to love the Lord God with your whole heart, your whole soul and all your strength, and love your neighbor as yourself, he goes on to list some of the practical and demanding ways of love, for example, honor everyone, never do to another what you do not want done to yourself, relieve the lot of the poor, visit the sick, help the troubled and console the sorrowing. This love of Jesus is anything but superficial. "This love", as St Teresa of Calcutta said, "must come from within, from our union with Christ. It must be an outpouring of our love for God, in one family, a family with a common Father, who is in heaven." It is a journey, this loving. We must put this love into action, day in and day out. "Loving", continues St Teresa, "must be as normal to us as living and breathing, day after day until our death." In what way will you love another this week?

I AM THE TRUE VINE AND YOU ARE THE BRANCHES, SAYS THE LORD. WHOEVER REMAINS IN ME, AND I IN HIM, BEARS FRUIT IN PLENTY, ALLELUIA.

(Communion Antiphon, Mass)

NB. Today's photo of me and my friends who came all the way from North Carolina for a visit. We stand in front of Founders Tree that stands 346.1 feet high, has a diameter of 12.7 feet, circumference of 40 feet, with a height to the lower limb of 190.4 feet. That's one tall tree and two beautiful friends!

YOUR WAY OF ACTING SHOULD BE DIFFERENT FROM THE WORLD'S WAY; THE LOVE OF CHRIST MUST COME BEFORE ALL ELSE.

(RB 4:20-21)