This week's readings Week of May 25 - 31 Sunday, May 25, 2003 Reading I: Acts 10:25-26, 34-35, 44-48 Reading II: 1 Jn 4:7-10 Gospel: Jn 15:9-17 Monday, May 26, 2003 Reading I: Acts 16:11-15 Gospel: Jn 15:26--16:4a Tuesday, May 27, 2003 Reading I: Acts 16:22-34 Gospel: Jn 16:5-11 Wednesday, May 28, 2003 Reading I: Acts 17:15, 22--18:1 Gospel: Jn 16:12-15 Thursday, May 29, 2003 The Ascension of the Lord Reading I: Acts 1:1-11 Reading II: Eph 1:17-23 Gospel: Mk 16:15-20 Friday, May 30, 2003 Reading I: Acts 18:9-18 Gospel: Jn 16:20-23 Saturday, May 31, 2003 Reading I: Zeph 3:14-18a Gospel: Lk 1:39-56 Pope's Prayer Intentions May General Intention Mary Mother of Life: That children in difficulty and their caretakers may find in Mary support and help. May Mission Intention The evangelization of Asia: That in the local Churches the Holy Spirit may kindle renewed ardor for evangelizing the entire continent.

Keep my commandment: Love one another

		Word of God  Word of Life  Fr. John G. Stillmank

It's easy to love the people in our life who are close to us.

Mom and Dad. Brothers and sisters. Grandparents, uncles and aunts. Spouses and children. Our friends. They love us too. But maybe that's not exactly the love Jesus has commanded for us. It comes easy, and even though sometimes our love is mixed with challenges, we love these people.

"Friends are those who wish the best for one another, who bring out the best in others. That makes God a pretty good friend to have!"

It's hard to love people we don't know well.

How about people where we work - our bosses and co-workers. At school - our teachers and fellow students. In the parish - a member of the staff or the person next to us in the pew. In the community - the teller at the bank or the grocery clerk. That's getting more challenging, isn't it? Maybe it's not so much love but tolerance, patience, being polite. But maybe that's not the love Jesus has commanded for us either.

It's very hard to love people we don't know at all.

Readings for Sixth Sunday of Easter (May 25, 2003) Acts 10:25-26, 34-35, 44-48 Psalm 98:1, 2-3, 3-4 1 John 4:7-10 John 15:9-17

Can we love the people we've never seen? The unborn child half a nation away, or his mother and father. The poor family in another country, barely making enough for food, clothing, and shelter. The prisoner in the jail, whom we will never meet. The old man who is all alone, no family, no friends.

These nameless, faceless people, billions of them - could they be the ones Jesus is talking about? Maybe it's all three groups: the ones we are close to, the ones we know only casually, the ones we don't know at all. Jesus commands us to love one another as he loves us, as the Father loves us.

How do we know if we have this love? Jesus gives us the answer: "remain in my love," he says. "Keep my commandments," he teaches. If we keep his commandments we remain in his love, the love he has commanded that we are to have for each other.

Jesus calls us his friends. He taught us how to love one another by laying down his life for us, his friends. This is the wondrous deed of Jesus we sing about in the psalms, the victory his holy arm has won for God and for us. Dying and rising so we can be the friends of God - this is how the Lord has made his salvation known.

Love is of God, teaches Saint John. All that we are, all that we have, all that we do, everything about us that has value and meaning flows from the love of God. If we remain in that love, Jesus promises, we are his friends, and we become the friends of others who are his friends.

Saint Peter elaborates on this gift of friendship in love. "God shows no partiality," Peter teaches. Those who fear him and act uprightly are acceptable to him - are his friends. And friends are those who wish the best for one another, who bring out the best in others. That makes God a pretty good friend to have!

It is hard to love, if we do not remain in the love and friendship of the Lord. People we do not know, people we know a little, and people we know very closely - without God's love in our hearts, it is very hard to love others, maybe impossible.

But the good news is that God has placed his love in our hearts by the gift of his Son. The command of Jesus does not force us to love one another, but rather enables and empowers us to love. After all, we were made out of love; we were made in order to love. Jesus is the one who puts a song of praise in our hearts and on our lips: a song of praise for the love of God which makes us fully human, fully alive, fully in love with the God of love, fully able to love one another.

Fr. John G. Stillmank is Moderator of the Curia for the Diocese of Madison and pastor of St. Andrew Parish, Verona, and St. William Parish, Paoli.