We celebrated the first
wedding of the season this afternoon.
The bride and groom were there, as were other members of their bridal
party, their families, their friends, and some people from the parish community
too. As I prepared my reflection for the
wedding, it seemed as though I needed to find some profound truth which should
be spoken. After all, isn’t that what
the priest is supposed to do: to interpret the scriptures?
As it turns out, not only the
readings chosen for the wedding this afternoon spoke of the gift of love; the
scripture passages for this Sunday’s liturgy also speak of love, so either God
is trying to tell me to share some of the homily from this afternoon with you,
or he’s trying to tell me that I need to work harder at understanding what love
is all about. Speaking to the disciples,
Jesus issues a command: As the Father has
loved me, so I have loved you; abide in my love … and … love one another. This seems simple enough, perhaps even too
simple. For the wedding couple sitting
before the altar, these words represent an ideal which they hope and dream will
come true, but if truth be known, loving another is much easier said than done.
If we try to learn love from
modern society (watching television and movies), love seems to be easy. The world encourages us to believe that love
can somehow be translated as ‘take pleasure in someone’ at times as though that
someone were a something. According to
this way of thinking, when the warm feelings fade, it’s ok to walk away. By contrast, if we try to learn love from
watching Jesus at work in the gospels, the task is considerably more difficult,
but much more worth the effort. In fact,
Peter himself tells us that God shows no
partiality … but anyone who fears him and does what is right is acceptable to
him. The love that Jesus wants to
teach is like the words of wisdom that parents often will share with their
children on the day of a wedding: words about building a life together, words
about loving one another, words about caring for each other, words about practicing
forgiveness.
Sometimes (even today) these
words are spoken publicly and at other times, they are exchanged in a setting
away from the limelight, a place where the hearer is able to absorb them, and
to begin to plumb the depth of meaning that such words contain. Perhaps this is the reason why Jesus so often
spoke of love in great crowds, but afterward called his disciples aside to
explain his words in more depth. He
still does the same for us today, when we take the time to listen in the hidden
places where we come to him in prayer.
Jesus’ love calls us to total
giving. In and of itself, love is life-giving, a gift offered to the one who is
loved. Jesus’ love gives joy to others
without any regard for the feelings of the giver. Even more profoundly, giving out of love is a
giving of our very self. This is the
beginning of laying down one’s life for another. If we are to be able to give such love, we
must first know it in our own lives.
Only once we have begun to understand and appreciate (with our minds and
our hearts) the depth of God’s love for us, can we begin to share it with
others. Our presence at the Sunday
liturgy allows us to learn, remember and celebrate this love, and in
celebrating it, we are better able to know it in the depth of our being.
This weekend, society around
us is observing Mothers’ Day. What
better way to celebrate our mothers than by remembering them at the table of
the Saviour, by praying for them, and by asking Mary, the Mother of God to
watch over them. Like the couple who
begin their married life today, let us be aware of the gift of love God offers
to us. Let us give thanks for yet another
opportunity to experience its gentle reassuring presence, here in this place of
prayer, and in so many facets of our lives. Let us pray also today for all
those who help us to recognize the love that is from and of God, and come to appreciate
it all the more every day.
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