Love one another.........SIX SUNDAY IN EASTER

SIXTH SUNDAY OF EASTER. 

Good morning everyone. Once a rich man was giving a powerful talk to a group of people in a church saying, "once I was so poor and then one day, I came to this church and heard the inspiring words of God. Then and there, I had a deep spiritual conversion. I gave to God what I had that day. Yes, all I had was a dollar and I gave the whole dollar to God. And God that day blessed me highly and today, because of my giving, I am blessed with billions and billions of dollars. So, it's always good to give. Then a voice came from the back of the church saying, "I dare you to do it now". 

Then a reporter approached him and asked how he became so rich. The man said, "you know what I am so glad that you asked. When my wife and I got married, we started out with roof over our heads, some food in our pantry and only five cents between us. I took that nickel, went down to the grocery store and bought an apple, shined it up, and sold it for ten cents. What did you do then? The man said, "I bought two more apples and sold them for twenty cents. Wow...what a powerful human story of struggle. Then he looked at the rich man and said, "come on tell me the story..."Then what my father-in-law died and left us $20 million". 

1. Today we celebrate a new commandment of Christ our Lord. This commandment proclaims to the whole world that we belong to Christ. Yes, the world will come to know that we are disciples of Christ our Lord, only by our love. Why do we need a commandment of love? If we think that we are basically loving and kind, I know that you haven't visited a playground, children and adult alike fight and fight. If we live in paradise, we don't need any commandment. But as we live in wilderness like the people of Israel in the desert where they were given ten commandments, we need commandments to keep us human and be kind to each other. If we ask any rabbi about the hardest commandment of all the ten commandments, he would say, "Honor your father and mother". Yes, loving others is the hardest one and especially loving those who live with us. Today Jesus asks us to love one another not as we love but as He has loved us. 

2. In those days, while the Roman emperors enjoyed watching the circus events in which the believers of Christ were tortured and killed by lions and gladiators, they said to each other, "See how these Christians, the followers of Christ love each other". Even in the face of great danger, the followers of Christ, had loved and supported each other.  The followers of Christ did everything with Christian love and kindness. That is the love, Christ our Lord is talking in today's gospel saying, 'You are my friends if you keep my commandment and love one another as I have loved you". Some years ago, St. Mother Teresa was asked by a reporter, "what is your biggest challenge?" Without any hesitation, she said, "Professionalism". Then she said, "Here are theses servants of Christ who care and love for the poorest of the poor. I have one who just went off and came back with her medical qualification as doctor and others with registered nurse qualifications, qualifications of social workers, teachers and so on. When they came back with their higher qualification, their first question is, "where is my office?" But you know what I do. I send them over to the house of dying where they simply hold the hands of dying people for six months and after that, they are ready to be servants again. They are ready to love one another as Christ loved us. Christ gives us a new commandment saying, "Love one another as I have loved you...." He loved us so much that He laid down His life for us. 

3. Once a king was told that a new preacher came to his city wanting to preach to his people. The king said, "I will let him preach, if he would preach about God's love like Jesus, if he would suffer like Jesus and die like Him on the cross and would come back to life on the third day.  For two thousand years, many tried to define love and its meaning but Christ by dying on the cross set an example for self-sacrificing love. If we love the Lord, let us love like Him and let the world know that we belong to God. Once Gandhi said, "I love your Christ not you Christians... because you have to practice what you preach". 

4.  Once a tourist said to his guide, "you have a right to be proud of your town. I was especially impressed with the number of Churches in it. The people here must love the Lord". The guide said, "yes, of course, they may love the Lord but they sure as hell hate each other". When people fight with each other in the name of God, when they kill each other in the name of God and destroy each other in the name of religion, then they cannot be followers of Christ. 

   Conclusion: Christians, disciples, apostles and followers of Christ are those who follow Christ. They know that the prophets and the teaching so of the testaments complete in love. When we love one another, we complete the commandment of Christ our Lord. So, let us love each other. Amen.