Today, we are celebrating a lot of things. We are celebrating the 6th Sunday of
Easter in our liturgical year, but we are celebrating two other important
occasions as well. Today, is Mother’s Day, a special day we have set
aside in the United States to honor our mothers and grandmothers. Today is also our baccalaureate mass honoring the
young men and women of our parish who are graduating from high school this
year. We celebrate with all of our families with great
joy, honoring these members of our parish at mass today.
As we recognize our graduates and our mothers and
grandmothers, what better Gospel reading could we have, of Jesus giving us the
commandment to love one another. But Jesus does not call us to an ordinary kind of
love: he tells us love one another in the same way that he loves us. This is not a romantic or superficial love, but
rather an AGAPE love: a love that seeks the highest good of another
person. AGAPE love does not only come out of our emotions
in the normal way we think about love in culture, but rather out of our mind, our
intellect, and our entire being. AGAPE love is a caring love that is intimately
involved in the needs of the other person, a love that does not depend upon
being reciprocated or being earned. Jesus calls us to a love that is selfless and
that willing takes on discomfort and sacrifices for the good of the other
person. Jesus is the ultimate model of this love, willing
to give up his life on the cross out of his love for us.
Our first reading very much compliments Christ’s
message in the Gospel, as we hear of the Holy Spirit falling on the crowd who
was speaking to Peter, with many Gentiles being baptized in the faith that day
and with many gifts being given to them by the Spirit. As we know, the Early Church felt at first that
one had to first be a Jew before he could enter the way of Jesus, but the
working of the Spirit in the community changed their minds and their hearts,
opening the way of Jesus to many. In two weeks, we will celebrate Pentecost, the
coming of the Holy Spirit into our world in a special way. The Holy Spirit works a lot of ways in our
lives. And I think the Holy Spirit can
work through other people in our lives as well. Being Mother’s Day, I want to tell you a story
that involved my own mother and the Holy Spirit. As most of you know, I come from Chicago
originally. My mom grew up on the North
side neighborhood of Logan Square in a large extended family of German
immigrants. When I was in college, my
mom went to Europe to a lot of her cousins. On Christmas of that year, she gave me a little
remembrance of that trip. I still have
it. I opened the box and there was an ocarina. An ocarina is little clay flute that
originated with the Aztecs and Mayans in the Americas and was introduced to
Spain by the conquistadors. In the box was a little note that said: I bought
this for you from a man selling them on the steps of the cathedral in Santiago
de Compostela in Spain. And I remember my mom telling me about the
pilgrims she saw that arrived at the cathedral after their long journey of
hundreds of miles. Little did she know
that one day I would be a priest and that going on the pilgrimage would be one
of my passions in life. I wouldn’t call it chance or a coincidence – I
would call it the work of the Holy Spirit and a mother perhaps planting a seed
in the mind of her son. I know that you graduates have had a lot of
guidance and nurturing from parents and family members and friends and from
your church community. Sometimes we are
aware of that guidance when it takes places, or sometimes we will become aware
of it many years later. We honor you graduates today, and want you all to
make sure that you know that our love and prayers and best wishes will
accompany you all of your days. Know
that St James will always be here for you.
We hope that you continue to come back here when you visit during your
breaks. Always remember the agape love that Christ calls
us to live out in you lives. It is love
that connects us to Christ. It is the love that our mothers and grandmothers have show us throughout our lives. It is the
love that connects to his Church.
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