“Love, love, love.  It always comes back to love.” St. Faustina, Diary entry.

On Pentecost Sunday we are amazed by the descent of the Holy Spirit upon the apostles of Jesus, like tongues of fire upon each apostles, the promised “advocate”, the amazing power of God. This Sunday, the 6th Sunday of Easter, we have another experience of the Holy Spirit descending upon disciples – but this time, specifically, the gentiles.  Peter proclaimed that since these people had received the Holy Spirit they should be baptized with water, just as they had been, in the name of Jesus Christ.  They are clearly chosen by God.

We are learning something new and fantastic about God!  HE does not have favorites, but loves all!  No one is excluded from the love of God – His love total and complete for EVERYONE.  There is no one that God loves more than YOU.

The second reading is from 1John 4:7, a reading from the first letter of Saint John:

"Beloved, let us love one another, because love is of God, everyone who loves is begotten by God and knows God.  Whoever is without love does not know God, for God is love.  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.  In this is Love:  not that we have loved God, but the he loved us and sent his Son as expiation for our sins."

This letter from Saint John reaffirms the fact of God’s unconditional and all-inclusive love.  This greatly supports the events of the first reading where God shows us in a very real way how He loves both Jew and gentile by the descent of the Holy Spirit upon the gentiles.  Can you hear God say, “See, I love the gentiles the same as I love you and I am giving them the same gift, the Holy Spirit, that I have given to you to mark their equality with you in my love.”

In the Gospel according to John 15:9-17, Jesus is assuring his disciples of his love.  As I have loved you, he says, so you should love one another.  There is no greater gift, said Jesus, than to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.  When you keep my commandments, you will remain in my love.  I COMMAND you:  love one another.

Love – the greatest power in all creation.  Never mind the “Big Bang Theory”, the real and true “Big Bang” is God’s LOVE.  So powerful is His love that all of creation exists in it and because of it!  We are so small – we cannot grasp the immenseness of this kind of power that is LOVE.  Not just any old love, but a special kind of LOVE – AGAPE LOVE.  Agape kind of love is love that has no “self”, but is entirely self-LESS.  It is a love that does not require reciprocation of any kind.  It is a one-direction kind of love, because it does not ask for or anticipate any return of its gift.  It is this kind of love that God enacted when the Son was born and sacrificed for our sake.  No greater gift.  No requirement or expectation of a return of that love.

It is this kind of love that Jesus commands us to have for one another.   He is not asking us to only love those who love us back – in fact he commanded us earlier in his ministry to love our enemies and pray for them.  He does not make as a condition of his sacrifice our love, but, by example, lays down his life for us without expectation of anything.  “This I command you:  love one another.”

Love, love, love.  It always comes back to LOVE.

The Psalm this week is Psalm 98: The Lord Has Revealed To The Nations His Saving Power