Episode Transcript
[00:00:12] Speaker A: Welcome to the Blessed Sacrament Homilies Podcast where our mission is to help everyone recognize and experience the presence of God. We hope you are nourished and encouraged by the Word. Thank you for joining us.
[00:00:26] Speaker B: The Lord be with you and with your spirit. A reading from the Holy Gospel according to John Glory to you, O Lord.
When Judas had left them, Jesus said, now is the Son of Man glorified, and God is glorified in him.
If God is glorified in him, God will also glorify him in himself, and God will glorify him at once.
My children, I will be with you only a little while longer.
I give you a new Love one another.
As I have loved you, so you also should love one another.
This is how all will know that you are my disciples if you have love for one another.
The Gospel of the Lord.
Praise to you Lord Jesus Christ.
Well, this is the 50th anniversary of something pretty important.
Anybody want to take a guess?
No, it's not what somebody said last night the last hair fell off the top of my head. That was not it. It's the 50th anniversary of my first communion and I was going through some pictures that my mom had had in an album and I found the picture of that day.
Now I got to admit I'm surprised that that photograph didn't make the COVID of Gentleman's Quarterly because I was dressed to the nines.
I had a burgundy sport coat, red, green and white striped pants, a pretty fancy tie and black buckle shoes couldn't possibly look any better than I did that day.
But that wasn't what was important to me, at least about that photograph.
It was the look on my face, but also the look on my parents face as we posed for that picture.
There was something powerful about it that's still powerful for me to see today.
One it was a clear recognition, I think in my eight year old self that I just experienced something amazing, namely Christ giving himself fully to me.
And while I may not have totally grasped all the details of it because I still don't, it's still bigger than my mind can wrap around.
It meant a lot and continues to be the center of who I am.
But more importantly, it was the faces of my parents who both had so much love coming out of those faces that I recognize looking at that picture now that is what not only set an example, but taught me a profound truth about what Jesus is talking about in the Gospel when he tells his disciples shortly before he goes to the cross that they have a new commandment and that new commandment, by the way, supersedes any commandment that came before it.
Love one another.
And if that commandment is followed, all the other ones are naturally going to fall into place.
And I learned how best to do that by those two people standing on each side of me in that picture.
My mother, who, in love for my father, literally went above and beyond anything any human being should have to do.
Because I think my dad thought the moment he got married, he was never going to have to wash clothes, do dishes, cook anything, to the point that it drove me nuts as a teenager. And I would always jump on him, why don't you get up and put your dish away? Which didn't get me in much of a good standing with my dad.
But she did it because she loved him.
On the other side of the equation, my father would have done absolutely anything other than pick up after himself for my mother, including stand in front of a train, if that meant saving her.
He would have given his life without even thinking about it.
And that love that those two showed for each other was also given to me because there were a lot of times where I. I know this is going to shock you. Was not that lovable.
There were times where my big mouth got me in trouble.
There were times where I failed to respect their authority that was only there to keep me safe and to teach me.
And there were times where I was almost annoyed that I had to be around them, yet their love for me never left.
Well, that's the kind of love Jesus expects us to have for each other.
Love that isn't based on how lovable the other is.
Love that isn't based on any kind of condition, but love that is there no matter what.
And he taught us through his life to live that out.
Now I know I don't live up to it very well. I understand what it's about.
I saw examples of what it's about. And every once in a while there's a little glimpse that I get it. But I keep trying.
And what makes it okay for me is that I know that Jesus love for me is not conditional. It's not based on how well I do it.
It's there anyway, which makes me want to be better each and every day because I know I've been given a gift I don't deserve.
As the four of you come forward to share in the Eucharist for the first time today, pay attention to the fact that Jesus gives himself to you totally and completely.
And the only thing he asks back is that you love those people you meet in your lives, I'm pretty convinced you're going to do a good job of it.
But even when you don't, that love is still going to.
