Go and proclaim: Empowered to Obey

The gospel of John today teaches us about love, and it is really perfect timing that it falls also on the celebration of Mother’s Day. But Father Jun in his homily, emphasizes the following about love:

First, sincere obedience can only come from true love. Jesus said, “If you love me, you will keep my commandments”. To keep means, “to hold dearly”. If you love God, you will value Him by obeying Him. Prompt obedience is a character trait of true love. There is a necessity for us to love God hence there is no life that will happen if we don’t obey His commandments. But how can we? when it’s really hard to obey His commandments? We have to nurture our love for God first to obey Him. The realization and understanding of God’s love makes it easy for us to love Him. We will not struggle in obeying Him if we know and understand how much He loves us.

We should take time to contemplate and realize His love for us. Our genuine love will cause us to obey God sincerely; our obedience is the sign of our love for Him, not just a compliance.

Compliance is a sin, whereas obedience is love.

Second, love is not just an attitude or character of God; it is the other name of God. Today, we need to understand as we celebrate Mother’s Day, that a mother’s love is a good picture of love. Why? Because a mother nourishes life, a teacher at the same time, and the one that sacrifices a lot. Even Jesus as a human being had to learn love from a family, be nourished by Mary who became His first teacher.

Lastly, Father Jun urged us in the church to love our mothers in three ways: serve, respect and honor them, and give them assurance – these are the best gifts that we can give them.

Recap by:

MERCY DE LA CRUZ-ESPIRITU