Sixth Sunday of Easter / Mother’s Day Weekend
Call to worship
In today’s Easter season gospel, Jesus asks us to remain in his love. We do this by growing in our love for each other. In our celebration also of Mother’s Day, we gratefully remember the love given to us by our mothers as a sign of God’s love for us.
- To the point: Jesus issues two commands in this gospel: to remain in his love and to love one another. Actually, the two commands are one: remaining in his love is to love others. By remaining in his love, we love with his love, laying down our lives. By remaining in his love, we bear the fruit of a very tangible love that is expansive enough to call everyone “friend.” Everyone.
- Connecting the Gospel (John 15: 9-17) to the second reading: The second reading invites us to obey the command to love given by Jesus in the gospel. Love is the very being of God (“God is love”) and since we are “begotten by God,” love is our very being as well. To refuse the invitation is to refuse who we are.
- Connecting the Gospel to experience: We generally use the word “remain” to mean to “stay put.” The “remain in me” that Jesus speaks, however, calls us to move beyond where we are to embrace an ever-widening circle of those we love.
Centering prayers
The Gospel
(John 15: 9-17)
“Love one another as I love you.”
They were his close friends. He had chosen them.
But sad they were. And sad was he.
Risen, the Lord must leave the earth.
Yet he loved them so much
he could not lose them from his life.
He would place his Spirit deep within them.
And within the rest of us.
Soul of Jesus, constant companion,
teacher of all good, remind us
what Jesus said and did, and who he is;
how he loves us and makes his home within us.
And the only thing he asks is that we love one another.
The First Reading
(Acts 10: 25-26, 34-35, 44-48)
“The Holy Spirit fell upon all who were listening to the word.”
The Spirit, the one that fell upon those
who listened as Peter preached, that same Spirit sings
in the streams of summer;
cries out within the hungry, the immigrant,
the discriminated, the trafficked, the children
left alone; calls out to the lost and lonely,
whispers inside our souls.
Lord, unplug our ears so that we can hear.
The Second Reading
(I John 4: 7-10)
“In this way the love of God was revealed to us: God sent his only Son
into the world so that we might have life through him.
God spoke Word to us,
healing the afflicted ones,
feeding the hungry ones,
laying down his life to show love’s extent.
In fact, the Word was love.
His name is Jesus.
Jesus, let us love one another in you.
Copyright © 2021, Anne M. Osdieck
Music for reflection