JN 15:12-17

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In this Gospel Jesus appeals to us to love one another.

What does he mean by love? To love another is to will his or her good. Love is the essence of every precept of the law; the law is fulfilled in love. One father writes more: "As all the boughs of a tree proceed from one root, so all the virtues are produced from one love." And good works take their life from remaining in love. Different words are used for love. In the first part of this passage, agape is used, which refers to love that does not count the cost but overflows in Christian charity. Later, the passage speaks of philios or brotherly love between friends.

How are we to love? We are to love as we have been loved first. This includes by the Church, by those members of Christ's body who have unselfishly given their lives for our happiness and destiny. Think back on your life. Who has shown you the love of Christ? For it is Christ who has loved us first, through them and through his own sacrifice on Calvary. Therefore we have our model for love - we are to love as Christ loves. We are to use our lives as gifts in the service of one another. Since Christ is the model, the martyrs are shining examples of Christians who loved to the end. And we can be martyrs of intention without dying physically. Consider the prayer of St. Therese, "In order that my life may be one act of perfect love, I offer myself as a victim of holocaust to Your merciful love, imploring You to consume me unceasingly, and to allow the floods of infinite tenderness pent up in You to overflow into my soul, so that I may become a very martyr of Your love, O my God! May this martyrdom, after having prepared me to appear in Your presence, free me from this life at last, and may my soul take its flight without delay, into the eternal embrace of your merciful love."

What enables this type of love? Only God's action in first loving us and choosing us. To give without tiring we need to drink continually from the stream that is Jesus Christ. He it is who appointed us to bear fruit, and will see to it that we do. He it is who will fill us with love so that we can overflow into loving one another. He it is who accompanies us along our life trajectory so that whether we live or die, we belong to the Lord. And it is He that will welcome us when we reach our eternal home.

Lord Jesus, strength of martyrs, help us to love as you love in our life and in our death. Come to us through the Church and all of reality and love us, inspiring us to love others. Help us, for apart from You we cannot truly love since You are the origin and destiny of every creature.

Mary, Mother of our Savior, lead us to the heart of Christ and teach us how to love without counting the cost. Strengthen us, inspire us, and fill us with grace so that we may love as you and Jesus and Joseph love, to the best of our ability and without ever giving up.

Jn 12:44-50

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Jesus reacts to those who don't believe in him, still trying to win their belief and warn them of coming judgment.

What can we learn about Jesus' relation to the Father? He is "begotten, not made" from the Father, "True God from True God, Light from light". Jesus is the Word spoken by the Father. Jesus is the Stream sent forth from the Fountain that is the Father. Therefore our faith in Jesus passes onto God the Father who sent Him. And as Jesus is sent by the Father, so we are sent by Christ: "'As the Father has sent me, so I send you.' And when he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, 'Receive the holy Spirit'" (Jn 20:21-22).

"Light from light." Jesus is light, as the Father is light. A Church father writes, "[Jesus] calls Himself the light, because he delivers from error, and disperses the darkness of the understanding." And John's prologue gives another angle: "What came to be through [the Word, the Son] was life, and this life was the light of the human race; the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it" (Jn 1:3-4). Think of the Easter Vigil when we celebrate Christ as our light with the Pascal candle, passing the flame to each other as we whisper "receive the light of Christ!" The light of Christ is life, and when we remain in Him we catch flame with his life and shine for all the world!

Jesus shows in this reading that he is both merciful and just: "in you justice and mercy shall embrace" it says in the mass. He is merciful in that he did not come to condemn the world but to save it, and he continues trying to save those who are stubbornly turning a deaf ear to his words. And He is just in that He is the Word which will judge us at the end of time, after God's period of forbearance has passed.

Lord, reveal to us the Mystery of the Father. Receive us, teach us, and give us the Holy Spirit so that we may be sent as ambassadors of Your presence in the world and be worthy of our name, "Christians." Come, be our light, and conquer the dark areas of our life and understanding with your saving power and truth. Catch us on fire with the light of your life! Be merciful to us, and lead us forward to progress in righteousness. Meet our desires for love and for justice as only You can.

Mary, mother of divine grace, grant us the grace of always remaining in the love of Christ. Direct our eyes swiftly and steadily to his Light, to his Person, and help us to remain enkindled with his light in our hearts at all times. Send your grace to disperse the confusions of our understanding, and the Holy Spirit to lead us to all truth! Lead us to Jesus so that we may know the Father, too, and have met our needs for love and justice.

Jn 10:1-10

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After Jesus has just saved a blind man and butted heads with the Pharisees, he gives a figure of speech to distinguish Himself and His way from deceivers.

Jesus emphasizes that the true shepherd enters through the gate. The fathers write that in the first part, by gate he is referring to the Scriptures. Here's a quote:

"The Scriptures He calls the door. They admit us to the knowledge of God, they protect the sheep, they shut out the wolves, they bar the entrance to heretics. He that uses not the Scriptures, but climbs up some other way, i.e. some self-chosen, some unlawful way, is a thief."

And through all the words of the Scriptures God speaks a single Word, Christ. The Porter can be taken as either Christ again, since He reveals Himself, or the Holy Spirit, who leads to all truth.

The gate is also Christ, who opens to the Father. How then should one approach those called by God, those whose names God has written in heaven? One should approach the children of God as Christ does. Here is a quote from the fathers:

"He enters by the door, who enters by Christ, who imitates the suffering of Christ, who is acquainted with the humility of Christ, so as to feel and know, that if God became man for us, man should not think himself God, but man. He who being man wishes to appear God, does not imitate Him, who being God, became man. You are bid to think less of yourself than you are, but to know what you are."

So we are to remember the humanity of Christ in our relations with others.

Jesus says that the sheep who hear his voice will go in and out, and find pasture. What does he mean by this? St. Augustine interprets in light the following line: "I came so that they might have life and have it more abundantly." The just live by faith in this world, and they enter into eternal life when they go out to the next. Friends, the promises of heaven are so sweet: "For the Lamb who is in the center if throne will shepherd them and lead them to springs of life-giving water, and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes" (Rev 7:17). It will be bliss. So we should find ourselves living each day for eternity. Or think on the promises in the Bread of Life discourse. "I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me will never hunger, and whoever believes in me will never thirst" (Jn 6:35). While it is true that God will give us life, all we need, and a hundredfold in this world, it remains true that God wants to give us heaven. Let us let our hearts expand to desire the things of heaven!

Lord, send forth your Holy Spirit to open our minds to Your Presence in the Scriptures and in our daily life. Give us a great love for God's Word, Your Person, so that we always seek to know You more fully. For "this is eternal life, that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent" (Jn 17:3). By Your revelation and shepherds lead us to life and even to eternal life. Let us hear your voice when you call us, and respond by following You.

Mary, cause of our joy, help us to discern the voice of the Good Shepherd who brings us life from all the many voices we hear. Teach us to ponder all of God's revelation in our heart. Mould us into the image of Christ, so that we might better serve God and neighbor. Fill our hearts with the life that Jesus has promised, and help us to be patient until we can join Him in heaven.

Lk 24:13-35

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After the women encounter the empty tomb, two bewildered disciples on the seven-mile road to Emmaus encounter the risen Lord. He comes fulfilling his promise, "Where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them" (Mt 20:17).

Let us consider the faith of these disciples. Jesus calls them foolish and says they were slow of heart to believe all that the prophets said. But they had some faith. One father remarks that they had walked the sixth mile, lamenting that Jesus had been put to death. They also walked the seventh mile, believing Jesus was laid in the tomb. But their journey had not reached the eighth mile, assent to the glory of the resurrection. Furthermore, they here profess Jesus as a great prophet, and not as the Son of God. They might have been also blaming themselves for putting their hopes in the man Jesus.

But Jesus does not leave them bewildered and incomplete. Rather, starting from where they are, he instructs them. "Was it not necessary that the Messiah should suffer these things and enter into his glory?" (Lk 24:26). (And he interpreted the scriptures for them.) This suffering Messiah is a detail peculiar to Luke. The fathers write that the evil men did not do God's intention when they put Jesus to death, but nevertheless God brought good from it. And somehow it was only through suffering an evil death that Christ could enter into his glorious resurrection. When we are faced with sufferings in life, Christ is there with us, calling us to unite our suffering to his and to press on to the resurrection, to the moment when God works it all out for our good and the good of humanity. "If we have died with him/ we shall also live with him;/ If we persevere / we shall also reign with him" (2 Tim 2:11).

How does Jesus educate us and draw us to a greater faith? By the methods of the Church. This episode was probably used as a catechetical and liturgical text. Think of its resemblance to the Mass - the word be proclaimed and broken for us in the readings and homily, and the breaking of the Eucharistic bread at which we can recognize Christ in his body, blood, soul, and divinity and say with Thomas "My Lord and My God" (Jn 20:28).

Lord, come meet us wherever we are in our faith journey and accompany us to the next step. Respond to what we know and believe, but do not leave us there. Rather, challenge us and explain to us the secrets of Yourself. Lead us also through our sufferings into a greater communion with You. Help us to find our place in the Church where You can work through Your human instruments to communicate Your divine goodness to us.

Mary, seat of wisdom, send forth a ray of Christ's brilliance to penetrate our minds. Teach us to meditate humbly but worthily on the Scriptures, finding Christ throughout their entirety. Set our hearts ablaze for your Son. And let us recognize His Body and Blood as concentrated Wisdom, as a Person Whom we love.

Mt 25:31-46

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Jesus concludes a set of parables with a direct revelation about the Last Judgement.

It is important to note that this separation takes place at the last judgement, after Jesus is revealed in his majesty. For until then, God forebears the evil in the world and does not cut it away, since "As I live says the Lord God, I swear I take no pleasure in the death of the wicked man, but rather in the wicked man's conversion, that he may live" (Ez 33:11). He patiently waits for us to turn back to Him and the way of life He proposes.

What does Christ mean when he says, "whatever you did for one of these least brothers of mine, you did for me"? Scholars disagree, but some say he indicates the missionaries who suffered on account of Christ. So our eternal salvation would depend on how we treat those who bring us God's message, on how we treat the Church, Christ's body. This makes sense, as they are the ones through whom Christ offers salvation, i.e. Himself as the Way to eternal life. We are to accept Christ's ministers, even when they ask us to change our ways or give up our own will. This can be accomplished in an effective way through spiritual direction, but it can also take place among a community of believers where each is a herald of Christ.

But we may also take Christ to be identifying with every poor and suffering man and woman. Mother Theresa said that on the streets she met "Christ in pitiable disguise." Others are less conscious that they are serving Christ directly, but they still do. The sheep of the passage were astonished that they had served Christ. This astonishment points to the fact that Christ is involved in our everyday actions, in the mundane, where we least expect him. He is especially in the personal. Let us look on our neighbor with the love with which Christ loves us, stretching out our arms to embrace all of humanity. Let us serve our neighbor humbly and diligently, for in serving him or her we serve Christ. We can be like the Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen, "servant of all."

Lord, convert our hearts before it is too late. Teach us to accept your ministers with the full strength of our mind and body. Lead us to find and embrace You in our neighbor who carries Your image, as Elizabeth embraced Mary who carried You. Keep us faithful to love.

Mary, gate of heaven, give us your heart to say yes to the plan of God as it is told us by God's herald. Watch over our priests and missionaries and give them the wisdom necessary for shepherding hearts. Be with us as we strive to live the works of mercy.

Mk 12:1-12

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Jesus tells a parable to the chief priests, scribes, and elders.

One thing we see in this parable is that God's mission for us may include persecution. When we are sent by God, when we live out our baptism as sharing in Christ's prophecy, when we stick up for the truth in a world of pluralism, we are liable to be persecuted. "Blessed are you when they insult you and persecute you and utter every kind of evil against you [falsely] because of me. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward will be great in heaven. Thus they persecuted the prophets who were before you" (Mt 5:11-12) and thus they persecuted Jesus.

Why are we persecuted? Because God respects all men's free will. He entrusts His plan to our freedom. He leaves free to accept or reject the messengers whom he sends. And we can reject them by persecuting them, or by forgetting them altogether. And he entrusts to us his very Son, in the Eucharist, in the Christians who bear his name, in all of reality, time and time again, begging for our heart. And by our actions we accept or reject Him.

But even though he was and is rejected by many, Christ has become the cornerstone for his Church. He is a cornerstone because it is a Church of all people, of former Jews and former Gentiles, of children and adults, of different movements and charisms. In all our experience of Church, Christ must be the living Rock; we must seek the personal relationship at the heart of our religious experience. "Who am I... and Who are You?" said St. Francis. Christ came for all humanity and gave his life for all of us, there is no distinction. He wants to draw out each personality into its fullest expression; he wants us to become fully ourselves, centered in He who knows us better than we know ourself.

Lord, keep sending us messengers of Your love, and dispose us to accept them! Do not let us be discouraged when we find we have rejected You out of weakness, but come again to our aid and win us back, be our Rock. Help us to live our acceptance of You in each moment. Give us strength to be the Christians we are called to be, especially in the face of persecution. Help us to discover our true selves in Your mercy.

Mary, mother of our Savior, keep us always in the Church, close to the Source and Summit of everything. Help us to surrender our freedom to Christ through faith and through our actions. Teach us to use our freedom as it was intended to be used.

Mt 7: 21-27

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At the end of the sermon on the mount Jesus highlights the difference between saying and doing, and between hearing and doing.

This injunction fits the situation: he has just finished a great moral speech. And Christ is the first one to do what he proclaims. For example, Christ lived the beatitudes - he was pure of heart, a peacemaker, meek, merciful, mournful (over Lazarus), upright, persecuted, and poor and spirit. And therefore he was blessed, that is, happy.

In this passage, though, Christ enjoins us to do the will of God, for it is only they who do the Father's will who will be admitted into heaven. The Father wills the same thing as Christ because they are one. Indeed, one Church father writes that Christ came to do:

the will of him that sent me, that every man that sees the Son and believes on Him should have eternal life. The word believe has reference both to confession and conduct. He then who does not confess Christ, or does not walk according to His word shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven.

So to do God's will is to believe in Christ (and act as if we believed in Christ). "This is the work of God, that you believe in the one he sent" (John 6:29). And this does not necessarily involve doing great things, for there were ones who did great things but not the will of God. Rather it is to do all things with great charity.

Then Christ likens the one who hears his word and acts on it to a wise man who built his house on rock. One father writes a beautiful interpretation of this part, interpreting Christ to be the wise man and the house to be the Church:

Christ is the wise man who has built His house, that is, the Church, upon a rock, that is, upon the strength of the faith. The foolish man is the Devil, who has built his house, that is, all the ungodly, upon the sand, that is, the insecurity of unbelief, or upon the carnal, who are called the sand on account of their barrenness; both because they do not cleave together, but are scattered through the diversity of their opinions, and because they are innumerable. The rain is the doctrine that waters a man, the clouds are those from which the rain falls. Some are raised by the Holy Spirit, as the Apostles and Prophets, and some by the spirit of the Devil, as are the heretics. The good winds are the spirits of the different virtues, or the Angels who work invisibly in the senses of men, and lead them to good. The bad winds are the unclean spirits. The good floods are the Evangelists amid teachers of the people; the evil floods are men full of an unclean spirit, and overflowing with many words; such are philosophers and the other professors of worldly wisdom, out of whose belly come rivers of dead water. The Church then which Christ has founded, neither the rain of false doctrine shall sap, nor the blast of the Devil overturn, nor the rush of mighty floods remove.Nor does it contradict this, that certain of the Church do fall; for not all that are called Christians,are Christ's, but, The Lord knows them that are his.

Let us then belong to Christ!

Lord, let us be blessed and at peace in doing the will of God, in believing in You. Send your Holy Spirit of love into our hearts and inspire us to live with great charity. And let us always be counted among those whom you have chosen.

Mary, mother of good counsel, lead us to the will of God for our lives and form us to do the truth in love. Do not let us be crushed by circumstances, but let all things work together for our good and God's glory.