First I want to wish all the Grandmothers, Mothers, Godmothers and spiritual mothers a Happy Mother’s Day.

We all have the ability to be loved and to love as we see from the examples of our mothers. This ability is innate in us and written in our hearts from conception. We believe in this love and have over the course of history tried to explain it and quantify it. The media we consume today says that this love is a physical love that can only be expressed in a sexual nature.

The readings we hear today contradict this way of thinking and describe the type of love we are actually called to participate in. When we are baptized we receive the Holy Spirit in our heart and have the ability as we grow to listen to that spirit in all that we do and believe. The spirit is given to us by God freely. We are also free to ignore it or to listen to it. How many of us listen to the Spirit that is within each of us?

If we listen to the spirit and follow it we will be forming our own individual relationship with Christ and his Father. Then we are called by him to not keep this to ourselves but to share it with those around us. We can do this in many ways, but one way we hear about in the Gospel today is that we should have joy in our lives. As Jesus tells us if we keep his commandments we will remain in him and he will remain in us. This is so we can have the Joy he speaks about.

We do not always see this carried out in the world, in our homes, our neighborhoods or in our church. We can forget at times that just as the Jewish people who were with Peter watched the Holy Spirit descend on the Gentiles, God wants to send his Holy Spirit on all of his people. The Jewish people would have found this unsettling because the Gentiles were not being asked to follow all of the laws of Moses including circumcision. Through this God was showing all of us we are to treat all people as Jesus treated others.

This struggle of treating people with love and respect is an especially hard thing for me to do at times. I know when I heard about the troubles in Baltimore, my first reaction was not one of love and compassion for all those involved, but to think of those who were destroying their neighborhoods as thugs and thieves. While what they did was wrong and there should be repercussions for their actions, my second reaction was would I be able to help them see God’s mercy, love and joy.

This is what we hear in John’s letter today, that God is love, and if we love one another then we will have God within us. It is the greatest challenge we face in our world today, showing God’s love to others. Since we are called to show this love to all it means we are called to show this love to the terrorists in equal amounts with their victims. We are called to love the people who destroy property in equal amounts to those whose property was destroyed. We are also called to love those who believe differently equally to those who believe as we do.

We as a society have begun to separate ourselves into separate groups. We have the Democrats and Republicans, liberals and conservatives, extremists and appeasers. These labels are given by man, not by God. If we want to see the Holy Spirit descend on the world we need to show the Joy that comes with knowing Christ on a personal level. This can be extremely difficult at times especially in the heat of an argument over something that seems very important at the time.

If we look at each of these labels from above we will certainly find differences, but if we take the time to listen to each other instead of trying to talk over one another we will find out that most if not all of us are looking for the same outcome. How many here would like there to be no more war, famine, poverty, loneliness and alienation? From all of the people I know in and outside this parish, I have not found one person who does not want an end to all of these things.

The issue comes up when we get so close minded that we will not listen to another person or group’s idea. This does not mean that we all have to cave in to the others ideas, because all that would cause is a reversal of who is on each side. There is a common ground to be found and we can find that in God’s plan.

We hear in all the readings today an example of what can be accomplished with God’s love and that we can all be part of it simply by walking the path he has set forth for us. I have seen this love in action and it can accomplish many things. During my formation as a deacon I could feel the love shown by not only the parishioners here at St John’s, but also from the others who were walking this journey with me. The example I go back to was Deacon Dave Dwyer, who passed away last year after a battle with cancer. He showed God’s love in everything he did and in every interaction he had.

He was always joyful and full of spirit, which allowed him to touch all who came in contact with him in a profound way. We had a shining example of this in our own parish who also recently passed away, in Diane Babral,  whose legacy lives on in her husband, children and grandchildren who show the type of love that knows no limits.

We each have also seen this type of love in our own family by the examples of our mothers who regardless of how far we stray are standing there waiting for us when we come back. The type of love our mothers have for each and every one of us comes from the Holy Spirit shining through them. That does not mean there were never any corrective measures taken, but they were done from love not from spite or anger. Don’t get me wrong this is not an easy task to follow or complete, but we are all called to show the love of Christ to one another regardless of how we feel about each other.

Are we all ready to show the love of our mothers to all those around us, regardless of our thoughts about what group we have them pigeon holed into? It is not easy but it is the path we are all called to follow.