Homily - 6th Sunday Easter - Year B - Love

Homily (Sermon)

Sixth Sunday in Easter Year B - 2015
"What I command you is to love one another.”




Readings
First  Act 10:25-26, 34-35, 44-48
Psalm Psalm 97
New  1 John 4:7-10
Gospel John 15:9-17

[These readings can be found at www.universalis.com for the next few week.]

I Love You.

Those were the words I finished my homily with three years ago when I last preached on these readings. So I thought I would start with them this time and tell you what happened after I gave that homily, after I told everyone in the church I loved them. They looked up, they seemed to look at me rather than the vested deacon. Some of them smiled, some of them mouthed the words I Love You, one or two actually said them. Some of the couples in the congregation turned to each other and kissed or said something.

After Mass as I greeted people as they left the church many more told me they loved me, several gave me a hug. We are a community built on Love, Love of each other, Love of God and Loved by God.

Most of the time we find it difficult to show our love, to tell those sitting around us right now that we love them. It’s probably three years since I told Fr Jim and Fr Frank that I love them. If you didn’t hear me preach three years ago you may never have heard me say it. I am after all British and we brits do our best not to show our emotions.

But that is not today's Gospel message, today message is beautiful and simple, todays message is Love. Jesus tells us that:

His Father loves Him,
He loves us and will continue to love us, His friends,
and we should follow His example and love everyone.

Before Christ came the very best of us called ourselves servants or salves. Moses called himself a servant of God, Joshua called himself a servant of God, King David called himself a servant of God. This was a high honour and these men were some of the greatest in our spiritual history.

Jesus changed this relationship, because of love, no longer should we be His living tools, his servants, used to do His work. We should be His friends, compelled through love and friendship to help him with his business.

In the Roman world at the time of Christ there was a title of Friend of the Emperor. A friend of the emperor had unrestricted access to the emperor, they could approach whenever they pleased and ask whatever they liked. They weren't the generals or leaders of the time, they were much closer to the emperor than that.

We have been called friends of God, allowed to approach Him whenever we like, with whatever request we care to bring before him. Through love we have been raised to friends, and it must be through love that we approach our God.

We are called, commanded and compelled to love each other. What a wonderful task that is. It's not always an easy task but it is wonderful. What would our world be like if everyone truly loved everyone?

This is the world we have been hearing about all through Easter, it's the world the apostles were building after Jesus left them. It's the story told in Acts, it's the story of the church, it's our story too, and it will be our children's and their children's until Christ comes again.

Jesus came to us, told us his plans, showed us how to live, and how to die. Showed us love is the only way. Then he commanded us as his friend to do his work. Not as servants just doing as we are told, but as friends, thinking and acting with love, bringing His kingdom of heaven to earth. Think about the worlds of our Lord's Prayer, “Thy Kingdom come, on earth as it is in heaven.” By our love for each other that is what we are called to achieve.

Over the last few months a lot of our Children have been preparing to receive their first communion. They have been learning about Gods love, about forgiveness, about taking Christ into themselves, about living a Christian life. Well I have a challenge for those children today, I want you to remember what Jesus told us to do in today's gospel, He told us to love one another, so I want you to tell someone that you love them.

Today's message is beautiful and simple. “What I command you is to love one another.”

My friends, with that as our command, I am going to finish as I started, and I encourage all of you to do them same and tell someone, tell everyone.

My friends, I Love You!

---

About the Author - Deacon John Scanlon
Homily Index

Love

Readings
First Act 10:25-26, 34-35, 44-48
Psalm Psalm 97
New 1 John 4:7-10
Gospel John 15:9-17

If you prefer to list to the homily click here for the audio post.

Homily – 2012 Year B – 6th Sunday Easter

Today's message is beautiful and simple.

Jesus tell us that:

His Father loves Him,
He loves us and will continue to love us, His friends,
and we should follow His example and love everyone.

Before Christ came the very best of us called ourselves servants or salves. Moses called himself a servant of God, Joshua called himself a servant of God, King David called himself a servant of God. This was a high honour and these men were some of the greatest in our spiritual history.

Jesus changed this relationship, because of love, no longer should we be His living tools, his servants, used to do His work. We should be His friends, compelled through love and friendship to help him with his business.

In the Roman world at the time of Christ there was a title of Friend of the Emperor. A friend of the emperor had unrestricted access to the emperor, they could approach whenever they pleased and ask whatever they liked. They weren't the generals or leaders of the time, they were much closer to the emperor than that.

We have been called friends of God, allowed to approach Him whenever we like, with whatever request we care to bring before him. Through love we have been raised to friends, and it must be through love that we approach our God.

We are called, commanded and compelled to love each other. What a wonderful task that is. It's not always an easy task but it is wonderful.

What would our world be like if everyone truly loved everyone?

This is the world we have been hearing about all through Easter, it's the world the apostles were building after Jesus left them. It's the story told in Acts, it's the story of the church, it's our story too, and it will be our children's and their children's until Christ comes again.

Jesus came to us, told us his plans, showed us how to live, and how to die. Showed us love is the only way. Then he commanded us as his friend to do his work. Not as servants just doing as we are told, but as friends, thinking and acting with love, bringing His kingdom of heaven to earth. Think about the worlds of our Lord's Prayer, “Thy Kingdom come, on earth as it is in heaven.” By our love for each other that is what we are called to achieve.

Over the last few months a lot of our Children have been preparing to receive their first communion. They have been learning about Gods love, about forgiveness, about taking Christ into themselves, about living a Christian life. Well I have a challenge for those children today, I want you to remember what Jesus told us to do in today's gospel, He told us to love one another, so I want you to tell someone that you love them.

Today's message is beautiful and simple.

“What I command you is to love one another.”

My friends, with that as our command, there is one thing I must tell you,

I Love You!

For Real: For True

For Real: For True.

My friend; believe; this is the truth,

Something real; honest,

Honourable,

My word; handshake,

As I tell you simply this,

You are loved; respected

Simply ‘cos you’re you,

Unique; so special

With charm that’s yours alone,

Gifts only you can share

Making this world a better place

Without the need to try,

Just simply being the real you,

Rewarding me with this prize,

The joy of your company,

Laughter; your gentleness,

And above all else

Your friendship!

Patrick R.
January 2013.

To Love

To Love.

To love truly; love deeply,

With a heart that’s true,

Is to let go of all of self,

Our hopes and fears,

All cherished ambition,

And simply to accept,

You,

You just as you are,

You just ‘cos you’re you,

The one we love,

Whose friendship we cherish,

Who means the world to us,

And,

To whom we offer our all,

For you are you

Just as you are; just as we met,

And fell in love!

Patrick R.
September 2011

Homily 31st Sunday Ordinary Time Year B – Work At Love

Homily (Sermon) - Work At Love

The Readings for Sunday 4th November 2012  or Thirty First Sunday of Ordinary Time Year B:
Deuteronomy 6:2-6
Psalm 17:2-4, 47, 51
Hebrews 7:23-28
Mark 12:28-34
[These readings can be found at www.universalis.com for the next few weeks.]

I few months ago I finished a homily by telling you all that I loved you, and a lovely thing happened afterwards. As I stood with Father at the door of the church, a large number of you said, “I love you too” as you left. I hadn't expected that, it was lovely and proved that not all of you slept through my preaching.
Mark’s gospel reading today builds on that teaching of love, it links the law of Moses to the teaching of Christ. Jesus started by repeating the command God gave Moses that we heard in our first reading. ‘This is the first: Listen, Israel, the Lord our God is the one Lord, and you must love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind and with all your strength.” He then goes on “The second is this: You must love your neighbour as yourself. There is no commandment greater than these.’
So today’s message is the simple message at the heart of our faith, the command to love. You are commanded to love God and love everyone.

It might seem strange when you think about being commanded to love. Our society paints a picture of love and romance. Of falling in love. Of love being uncontrollable. You only need to listen to some of our music and literature to think that love is only something you only fall into.

“Love is a many splendored thing.” ~ The Four Aces

“Love lift’s us up where we belong.” ~ Jennifer Warnes & Joe Cocker

“The power of love is a curious thing Make a one man weep, make another man sing” ~ Huey Lewis

“This bud of love by summer’s ripening breath, May prove a beauteous flower when next we meet.” – Shakespeare - Romeo and Juliette

But love is so much more than romance. Love is the bond between friends, love is what drives us to care, to help, to serve. Sometimes love is easy, automatic, we are compelled by love. The love of a parent and child, the love of a husband and wife. Sometime’s though love is more difficult because the compulsion, the feeling, the automatic response isn't there. But today’s command is to love regardless.

I want to tell you a couple of stories, two extremes. The first I hope you will never have to face anything similar. The second in some form I think we all face every day.

During World War II a Dutch family helped Jewish people fleeing the death camps. The family was eventually caught, the father in his eighties died quickly in prison. The two daughters both in their 50’s ended up in a concentration camp, one lived and the other died. But before she died she was told by God that her sister would survive and after the war would help the German concentration camp guards to know love and forgiveness again. That’s exactly what happened, Corrie ten Boom, the surviving sister built a home and hospital in the grounds of an old concentration camp. She taught love and forgiveness, and with God’s help and grace she even forgave one of the guards who had tortured her and the sister.

My second story is about Mother Teresa, she went to prayers every day, and every day was distracted by a nun sitting a few rows behind her who clicked her rosary beads. She started getting annoyed by this unseen nun, wishing she could just pray quietly and not impose on her silent prayer with that constant clicking. Then she realised she was not loving that other nun, so she started to pray for that nun every time she heard the clicking. Soon she would listen out for the comfort of the clicking, knowing that the nun was well. One day when she couldn't hear the clicking she worried that the nun may be ill, and prayed that she and the clicking would return.

This is the love Christ is talking of, not easy love, but love to be worked at. It’s difficult to love the stranger, it’s harder still to love someone who offends or harms us. But that is what Christ does, he loves us all. That’s is what the Father does, he loves us all so much he sent his Son to know us and to die for us.

If we are to follow today’s teaching we need to work at Love. We need to pray for the gift to love those we don’t know, and those we dislike.

To paraphrase Paul’s letter to the Corinthians, we need to be patient, kind, never jealous, boastful, conceited, rude or selfish. We must not take offence or resent others. We must delight in truth and always be ready to trust, to hope and to endure.

Today you have been commanded, go out and work at love. Go and Love your God, Go and Love everyone. And know that you are loved, your God loves you, and so do I.

---

About the Author - Deacon John Scanlon
Homily Index

Homily 22nd Sunday Ordinary Time Year B - Gods Love, Promise and Law

Homily (Sermon) – Gods Love, Promise and Law

The Readings for Sunday 2nd September 2012  or the twenty-second Sunday of Ordinary Time Year B:
Deuteronomy 4:1-2,6-8
Psalm 14
James 1:17-18, 21-22, 27
Mark 7:1-8, 14-15, 21-23
[These readings can be found at www.universalis.com for the next few weeks.]

The first five books of our bible Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy contain a loving promise. The promise of our Creator, the promise of God, the promise that He loves us and wants to be with us, to keep us safe and well. That promise became known as The Law, and it contained the wisdom and love of God.

The Law contained customs and commands, rules for living a good life. The Ten Commandments were part of the Law, part of the loving promise, part of the covenant between man and God. We can all to easily be drawn into thinking of the Law as just a set of rules, restrictions put in place to limit us. But you shouldn't look at the Law out of context, you can't hope to draw Gods wisdom from it unless you first understand that it's a gift from God, it's a huge warm hug from the the biggest softest pair of arms in  all creation.

If I told you that anything hot was bad and not to be approached, and that all objects with a shape edge can only transported at 3miles an hour or less, you would think this daft and restrictive. But have you ever told a small child not to go to near a fire or not to run with scissors. The instruction comes from love and is there to protect. It is the wisdom of a parent, and so is the Law that was given to Moses and then passed on by the people of Israel and Christ to us.

As Christ tells us today there are things within us that are opposed to the Law, our pride, envy and avarice to name just a few. They will try and drive our actions just as our love, compassion, kindness and faith drive our actions. We have a choice, sometimes it seems easy, sometimes it's very hard. Do we live our lives understanding and knowing that we are loved by God and trying always to please Him, to make Him proud. Or do we give into to the corrupted side of our nature, the selfishness we all have, the sin of the apple we have carried since Adam and Eve. Personally, I know I try and act as God would want me to act, but all to often I get selfish and do what seems best for me.

Once we have been selfish and given in to the weakness of sin we have another choice. We can own up to the mistake, say sorry and do our very best to make it right. We can look back at our actions and inactions and think about, pray about how to not make the same mistake again. Christ gave us the gift of saying sorry, He forgave us, God knows what we are and still loves us, He made sure through the sacrifice and suffering of His own Son, Jesus Christ, that we could say sorry and be forgiven.

The other side of the choice though, might be to not admit our wrong, to justify our actions, to hide in a legalistic debate with ourselves and our peers. We can twist and turn the words of scripture to make our wrong actions seem right in the letter of the Law. We can, as the Pharisees did, pay lip service to the Law and reduce Gods promise, Gods Love to just a book of human regulations.

As followers of Christ, we have to look hard at ourselves. We should reflect daily on our actions. We should say sorry to those we hurt and make good, and remember every time we let someone down we also let God down so we should say sorry to him as well. Our prayer life, our  liturgy and our sacraments all give us an opportunity to say sorry to God, please use them.

Live your life with love, kindness and charity for all those around you. Remember to be loving and kind to yourself as well, but not at the cost of others. Seek out those less fortunate than yourself, don't wait for them to find you they may not be able to. James tells us to help orphans and widows, in today's world there are many more we can also help. James also tell us to keep ourselves uncontaminated by the world. This is great advice, but so, so difficult. Our modern, mad and selfish world offers us everything we want instantly, the cost not to be worried about you can pay for it later. Take it now, because you are worth it.

God loves you now, because you are worth it. He has given you his Love, He has given you His Life, He has given you His forgiveness and He has Given you His Law, a promise that you and He can be together, always.

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About the Author - Deacon John Scanlon
Last weeks Homily 21st Sunday - Homily Index

The Hiding Place - Corrie ten Boom

Image linked from Amazon

I have just finished reading 'The Hiding Place' by Corrie ten Boom. It's a wonderful witness to God, and while sometimes a difficult book to read, just because of the nature of the world Corrie lived in during the second world war, it was for me and uplifting read.

Corrie lived in Holland, in a small and respected watchmakers shop. She had a strong Christian upbringing and the scenes in the book where she describes the wisdom of her father are amazing. This Christian preparation is what allowed Corrie and her family to make the decision God would want them to make as the world went so horribly wrong during the second world war. And it's her families Christian faith that allows God to use them powerfully for good when everything in the world seems bad.

I want to tell you all about her story, about ants and flees, about heavy suitcases or bottles of vitamins, but if I do I'll start to spoil a true story I really hope you will take the time to read. I will be constantly remembering examples from this book as I prepare my homilies and it will go on my book shelf next to 'The Screwtape Letters' and 'He is Risen' as a source major influences in my personal Christian journey. This book has made a difference to my life, somehow it's made my world a bit more spiritually focused, a bit easier to deal with, a little bit closer to my Lord and God.