Part 1 of 2
Daily Office Readings for Sunday of the 6th Week of Easter: Year 1
Morning, Psalm 93 and 96; Evening, Psalm 34;
Ecclesiasticus 43:1 to 12 and 27 to 32; 1st Timothy 3:14 to 4:5; Matthew 13:24 to 34;
“Let both of them grow together until the harvest; and at harvest time I will tell the reapers, Collect the weeds first and bind them in bundles to be burned, but gather the wheat into my barn.” (Matthew 13:30)
In light of this passage, I think I was planted as wheat. But over the years, I turned to weed, (no pun intended). I do believe now that I am returning to my wheat status. It’s hard to tell the difference just looking at me, even for me. Thank God for patience and mercy. How about you?
Part 2 of 2
Eucharistic Readings for the 6th Sunday of Easter: Year B
Acts 10:44-48; Psalm 98; 1st John 5:1-6; John 15:9-17;
“This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.” (John 15:12)
I like this edict from our Lord Jesus much better than the Commandment from the Synoptic Gospels which says to love your neighbor as yourself. The assumption is that we love ourselves. I have met people that hate themselves. I have met people that abuse themselves with cutting, drugs, alcohol, greed, gluttony, and other self abusive disorders. If we then set out to love our neighbor as we love ourselves we may feel free to abuse others in the same way we abuse ourselves.
In John’s Gospel we don’t get off that easy. Our Lord Jesus commands us to love one another, our neighbor, as He loves us. And we know that Jesus loved us to death, even death on a cross. It is a very difficult command. But we must strive to do just that; to love others as He, our Lord Jesus, loves us. No excuses, no treating others as we treat ourselves if that treatment is harmful. On this Mother’s Day we must all be like good, self-sacrificing mothers, nurturing all God’s children as did our Lord Jesus.
Happy Mother’s Day to all the moms in the world.
Let us live to love, more than just love to live, listening to what the Spirit is saying to, and through, the saints of God, while pondering anew what the Almighty can do. John
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