Homily for 5^th Sunday of Easter (Year C)
May 18-19, 2019
Sacred Heart, EGF:     Saturday 5:30 PM; Sunday 10:00 AM (Baccalaureate); 5:30 PM

Focus:               Love One Another
Function:         Love One Another

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A few years back, in a nearby school district, there was a student who just didn’t quite fit in. Joel, the custodian, always made time to talk and joke with her, to ask her how things were going. This fall, she was involved in a car accident and died. The day after the accident, her dad called and asked Joel if he would be a pall bearer at her funeral.

Her dad recounted that she had once told him, “Dad, if anything ever happens to you, I’d want Joel to be my dad.”

Joel was floored. He never knew that. It took her dying for him to find that out. He didn’t think he was doing anything special. He treated all of the other students the same way. But to her, it meant the world.

…

My children, I will be with you only a little while longer.
I give you a new commandment: Love one another.
By this will all know that you are my disciples:
If you have love for one another.

Love one another.

See one another through my eyes.
See one another as I see you.

Love one another.

Love those who are easy to love.
Love those who are hard to love.

Love one another as I have loved you.

Brothers and sisters, if we are going to love one another as Christ loved us, then the love of Christ must dwell in us.

St. Teresa of Calcutta:
Intense love does not measure; it just gives.
To be an apostle of the Sacred Heart, one must be burning with love, intense love for your neighbor…
This love must come from within, from our union with Christ.

Is your heart afire with love? Does your heart wish to suffer for the good of another? Are you an apostle of the Sacred Heart?

Have you allowed your heart to be replaced with the Sacred Heart of Jesus?

A heart of flesh

A heart of tenderness and compassion

A heart that listens to another,
that listens to the voice of God
and then listens for what the voice of God has to say to the Other

Do you give from your heart and not merely from your hands?

Do you offer a sacrifice of love or merely a sacrifice of obligation?

Do you give without counting the cost because whatever our love costs us pales in comparison to what it cost him? Where do you find yourself counting the cost?

Brothers and sisters,
He gave himself entirely for us on the Cross.
We now must give ourselves entirely to him and to each other.

He gives himself entirely to us in the Eucharist

This is my body, which will be given up for you.

Can we love one another like that? Can we make those sacred words our own?

This is my body, given up for you? This is my blood, poured out for you?

If we are not willing to do that,
if we are not willing to try to do that,
how can we approach this altar with any integrity?

…

His love saves us from ourselves.
Our ego
Our selfishness
Our navel-gazing
The endless selfishness of the unholy trinity of me, myself, and I.

His love calls us out of ourselves and into mission.
His love makes life worth living.

St. John Paul II:
Man will not fully find himself until he learns to make a sincere gift of himself.

Jesus:
He who loses his life for my sake will find it.

At the end of your life, when you have lost your life, what will others say about you?

The measure of life for the Christian is the measure of love.

My children, I will be with you only a little while longer.
I give you a new commandment: love one another.
By this will all know that you are my disciples:
If you have love for one another.

…

Seniors:
Transitions stir up a lot within us. They bring to the forefront what is important.
Jesus in transition – says these words before he leaves his disciples.
You are in transition – “I will be with you only a little while longer”

Sometimes when we feel this, we try to avoid it. Challenge: live in the moment. Don’t avoid it. End well. Begin well. Don’t miss the transition. Love in the midst of the transition:

3 things to say to transition well: Thank you. I’m sorry. I love you.

Say that to your family, your teachers, your classmates. To do this is to love one another.