The Catholic Calendar for Sunday, May 23, 2004
Seventh Sunday of Easter

Scripture from Sunday’s Liturgy of the Word:
Acts 7:55-60
Psalm 97:1-2,6-7,9
Revelation 22:12-14,16-17,20
John 17:20-26

A reflection on today’s Sacred Scripture:

Today’s Gospel is an exquisite discourse by Jesus as He speaks eloquently of how much He and God love us.

Certainly Christ’s dramatic death on the Cross showed the depth of His and the Father’s love, but today’s gospel puts it into words. In it, we’re told that God loves us as he loves Jesus (can you imagine?) and all that the Father has given to Jesus, He also gives to us.

The concept of that amount and kind of love is beyond our understanding, inconceivable.

To think that God loves us (me) as much as He loves Jesus is incomprehensible. After all, Jesus is pure and sinless and has never caused the Father a moment of disappointment or grief. I on the other hand, so often fail to do the smallest things that would give Him a little joy.

In light of God’s immense love and our relative lack of in-kind response to such love, what shall we do? The devil would like us to be discouraged and give up trying altogether. Let us not submit to despair, but resolve to make frequent acts of love that they may become ever more a habit of our existence. Breath by breath, heartbeat by heartbeat may we learn to say, “I love you Jesus, thank you Father.”

- Donna Raye Nelson, ocds
(drn3rd at hotmail dot com)

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posted by joachim at 4:19 AM