May 9: Sixth Sunday of Easter

Reading I: Acts 10:25-26, 34-35, 44-48
Responsorial Psalm 98:1, 2-3, 3-4
Reading II: 1 John 4:7-10
Gospel: John 15:9-17

Peter said, “God shows no partiality.” (see this Sunday's First Reading.) Our first Pope insists “whoever fears him and acts uprightly is acceptable…”  While Peter was still speaking, the Holy Spirit poured out upon the Gentiles as well as the Jewish followers of Jesus. That Holy Spirit is still pouring out on those we perceive as likely and unlikely people, all the time. We’re not to judge but instead to discern what needs doing to alleviate suffering and injustice, and we call on the Holy Spirit to help us share in God’s wondrous deeds. 

Today’s Psalm 98:1-4 sings praises of God’s kindness and faithfulness as God’s justice is revealed.   

The rest of today’s scriptures tell of God’s love of us, our love of one another, provide encouragement to keep God’s commandments and bear fruit in Jesus’ name. On Mothers Day my heart swells with joy at our children and their spouses and our grandchildren! What lovely loving fruit! That one son is seriously brain-injured and our oldest grandson is no longer in this life marks our hearts with grief but does not dispel Steve and Blair’s fruitfulness nor spiritual presence.   

Religious and ethnic tensions in the Christian community during the time of today’s reading from Acts could have crippled the Church in its infancy. Instead of demanding conformity to all their traditional regulations, Peter was able to recognize God’s will in a dream. Yes, like Joseph, the son of Isaac and hundreds of years later, another Joseph, betrothed to Mary, Peter received God’s will in a dream. He heard God say, “What God has made clean, you are not to call profane.” Still pondering the meaning of his dream, he encountered the generous gentile, Cornelius who’d had a similar dream. The Holy Spirit came upon Cornelius and Peter, freeing Peter from burdening Gentile believers with every aspect of his traditional laws. 

We are filled with the Holy Spirit as well and given the spiritual gift to see with God’s compassion all kinds of people God has chosen, each with their unique gifts, each worthy of our love; man-made rules do not bind God’s Spirit. Love is the only measure. Love is the Measure is the title of a biography on Dorothy Day, another follower of Jesus, who like our Sr. Gracie Miller, opened her heart and home to people unwelcome elsewhere. 

Jesus commands, “Love one another” when our hearts are heavy and our spirits are full of sorrow. 

Jesus commands, “Love one another” when we are tired from our labors and are in need of rest.   

Jesus commands, “Love one another” when we see all our efforts fail. 

Jesus commands, “Love one another” when we take things for granted and plunder the earth for our own comforts. 

Jesus commands, “Love one another” when we lose the sense that we are Jesus’ beloved. 

Jesus commands, “Love one another” when we need courage and strength through all difficulties in life.  

Jesus commands, “Love one another” when many people have little or no access to quality health care, nutritious food, safe and affordable housing, sustainable jobs, equal education, clean air, and pure water. 

Jesus commands, “Love one another”  as we carry forward the work of Christ under the lead of the befriending Spirit.  

Jesus commands, “Love one another” when we try to pursue peace. 

From the original Mother’s Day Proclamation, 1870 by Julie Ward Howe  

Arise then...women of this day! 
Arise, all women who have hearts! 
Whether your baptism be of water or of tears! 
Say firmly: “We will not have questions answered by irrelevant agencies, 
Our husbands will not come to us, reeking with carnage, 
Our sons shall not be taken from us to unlearn 
All that we have been able to teach them of charity, mercy and patience, 
We, the women of one country, 
Will be too tender of those of another country 
To allow our sons to be trained to injure theirs.


Dr. Deni Mack
Pastoral Associate Emeritus