SUNDAY, april 28, 2024

Liturgy Corner

“Children, let us love not in word or speech, but in deed and truth”

Sometimes I find the command of our Lord to be so broad and abstract that I am confused by the very directness of his approach: “Love one another,” “Pray constantly.” And what am I doing to follow these principles? People who work in full-time ministry often find it difficult to remember to follow our Lord’s simple request, “follow the law of love,” just like everyone else tries to do in their own lives. We are commanded to pray. At the end of a very long day, have we ever stopped and thought, “I’ve been so busy all day, I haven’t had time to pray”? Or, despite all the ways you are present to others, have you ever questioned your love for your neighbor? Certainly, we can always listen more attentively and respond with more compassion. But the reality is that we are loving the people of God through our faithful service.

This weekend’s second reading reminds us that real Christian love is active and lived out most fully in the generous giving of ourselves. It is in the active, day-to-day work of our vocation that Christ reveals his living heart to us – and to others.

And let’s look at what I think is the message in today’s Gospel. The Gospel today speaks of this “divine force” of love in nature through the images of vines and branches that bear fruit. “Remain in me, as I remain in you, just as a branch cannot bear fruit on its own unless it remains on the vine, so neither can we bear fruit (good works) unless God remains in us. Whoever remains in me and I in him will bear much fruit,” so we are told in the Scriptures. Without a connection to God and what God cares about – justice - we too will dry up like a withered leaf.

When we remain connected to God, we are allowed to bear fruit beyond what we could imagine possible. A great Saint once said, “Humankind, full of all creative possibilities, is God’s work. Humankind alone is called to assist God. Humankind is called to co-create. With nature’s help, humankind can set into creation all that is necessary and life-sustaining.”

Let us be at peace with this life of service to which each of us is called. Give yourself to this work of love. All our labors are a means of love and prayer, a gift offered in thanksgiving and gratitude. When we offer everything we do, and all that we are as prayer, we are lovers in deed, truth, and justice.

Ask yourself, what in your life might need pruning away? What could you detach from in order to bear more fruit for God?

Jim Murray
Director of Liturgy