Gospel reflection for the 6th. Sunday of Easter

6th. May – All you need is love…

We are still making our way through the Season of Easter and the risen Jesus continues to appear to his friends and followers. And, as always, when he does appear he offers them a powerful and challenging word.

Earlier in the gospel when Jesus was asked what the first and most important commandment was, he said quite clearly, ‘you must love your God with all your heart, all your soul, all your mind and with all your strength. The second is this: you must love your neighbour as you love yourself. There are no greater commandments than these.’    

Jesus offers his followers and us today the challenge of loving each other as he loves us. His love for us was so complete, that he bent low, took the place of a slave and washed our feet. His love for us was so complete that he gave his life for ours.  As his followers, he asks us to do the same; to love and serve other. The call to love that the risen Jesus asks of us is not easy!  He doesn’t ask us just to like each other; we have to go further; we are called and challenged to love each other as we follow his example.

Jesus asks us to love one another as he has loved us: to put others before ourselves and to find our joy in bringing joy to others. When Jesus was asked how many we are to forgive others he said ‘seventy-seven times.’ What Jesus means by this is that there is to be no limit to the amount of times I forgive others. In our gospel this Sunday, Jesus is saying the same to us about love. We are to love each other without limit and without conditions. Jesus does not say, love others if they love you. He does not say love others if they are nice to you. His message is very clear and at the same time, very challenging.  Jesus even asked us to love our enemies! Being a follower of Jesus means that we are to try our very best love each other as he loves us.

 How do we show that we love each other as Jesus asks? The call and challenge is to make our love visible through how we treat each other. It is through the many ordinary and simple ways that we treat others every day that we show our love for each other. It is through the way we talk to and about others that people will see our love in action. But we cannot do this by ourselves or on our own. To love others as Jesus asks means that we must remain close to and focused on Jesus himself. He asks each of to remain in his love. When we do this, we will experience his joy and then our joy and our love will be complete.

May the love and faith we have in our hearts and profess with our lips be seen in the work of our hands and through the quality of our daily lives with each other.

• Michael Moore OMI