May 19th

Post date: May 20, 2019 6:28:4 PM

May 19, 2019 Homily by Fr. Karl Schray

About 50 years ago, an Archbishop in Indiana

was at a local parish for confirmation of children in the third grade.

The Archbishop used to ask the children questions

before he confirmed them.

That was right after the Vatican Council when a lot of religious education

programs had tossed out the catechisms and taught nothing but love & peace.

Well, the Archbishop started asking questions like,

“what was the name of Jesus’ mother?”

A hand went up and the child answered ‘love’. And…

“what is the name of the sacrament you are going to receive today?”

Again, one child answered ‘peace’. This happened two or three more times

before the Archbishop decided this question and answer session was

going nowhere and returned to the Altar to continue the Confirmation Mass.

The children’s teacher did a good job emphasizing love and peace

but missed out on teaching them a many other important things.

Now love is the answer to many things, and

if that is all we knew and practiced about our faith,

we would probably be in good standing with God—

as long as it is the kind of love Jesus is talking about.

The only problem with love, is that it has so many meanings.

We can distort it to make it mean almost anything we want, e.g.

I love pizza or he/she needs tough love-or worst:confusing lust with love.

Today, Jesus tells us he is giving us a new commandment:

to love one another. So, what is so new about love?

It is the meaning he gives it when he tells us,

“As I have loved you, so also you should love one another.”

“As I have loved you” are the key words here.

Jesus wants us to love as he did.

Jesus loved with perfect obedience to His Father.

He loved with a love that was and is divine.

How can we humans ever love with so a great a love?

We can, but only with his help and only with his presence in our hearts.

We must empty our hearts of pride, selfishness, greed, lust, etc.

and that’s a tall order.

But that is why we are here today—to remember Jesus’ love for us, and

to be inspired, to be filled with His Holy Spirit to imitate him.

Our second reading is from one of the last chapters

of the Book of Revelation.

With symbolic catastrophes, the author describes the persecution of

believers that was taking place then and to be in the future.

But the main point of the reading is hope and describes

where our future is headed if we remain faithful to God.

Revelation promises a new world

where death and suffering will no longer exist,

where those who have loved God and loved each other,

as Jesus commands, will abide with God in eternal love and peace.