17/05/2009 - 6th. Sunday in Easter Season - B
1st. Reading Acts 10,25-27.34-35.44-48 Psalm 97 2nd. Reading 1Jn 4,7-10 Gospel Jn 15,9-17

"Hallowed by your name". Saying these words, one needs to ask what does it mean "hallowed" and which is the "name" of God, our Father. It means that it is addressed to God, the only one who is holy, something or someone. "I sanctify my self" Jesus said in his prayer during the last Supper. He wanted to offer himself to the Father, with an obedience that know no limits. What could the 'name' of the Father be? We know that the high priest used to pronounce the name of God in the temple of Jerusalem, once a year, in the holy of holies, in way that no one would hear it. Which is the name of God? The "name" is a word by which we identify someone or something. Can our God and Father be identified by a simple word that we can pronounce with our mouth? God thought of making himself known not through words, but through the person of Jesus. He lived the fullness of the divine love, the fullness of mercy and of forgiveness, and therefore God makes himself known through him. That is why st. Paul always say "God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ". The true name of the Father is therefore the face of Jesus: it is through him, the Son, that we know the Father and can come to him. Saying: "Hallowed by your name", we therefore want to say that it is our desire that Jesus is recognized by all as the one who show the true face of God, according to his same revelation: " who sees me, sees the Father". With this prayer we join the desire of Jesus himself who publicly expressed himself after he announced his own death: "For this hour I have come! Father, glorify your name" (Jn 12,27-28). The Father will hear this prayer and will glorify his Name giving the Son for the salvation of humanity. When we say "hallowed by your name" we join in this desire of Jesus!
It was a great surprise for the Jewish Christians to witness that even the pagans were glorifying God for the death and resurrection of Jesus! They too have received the Holy Spirit, and therefore they were considered brothers and they needed to be baptized so that they could be part of the same Church. The one who accepts Jesus in his life becomes a new creature, becomes son of God, and therefore, able to love with the same love of God the Father. It is about the love of the Father placed in our hearts that both Jesus in the Gospel and John in his First Letter, talk about. Jesus enjoys being loved by the Father. All his life is the Father's love! Therefore he himself believes that it's his task to pass on this love to his disciples and teach them to do the same. The disciples, loved by him, will make out of his love "the place" of their own lives, a place where they will se "to stay". Jesus invites them to persevere and to live in his love, because it is the only way by which one can enjoys the joy that we all would like to have. To remain in the love of Jesus one needs only "to obey his commandments". The commandment of Jesus is only one, and it's that love that has become part of our lives through him. To love one another like and because Jesus himself has loved us. Why Jesus loves us? It's not because we are worthy, it's not because we are good, but because we need his loved! How did he loved us? He loved us "till the end", till the end of his life, till the end of his infinite possibilities to love. In the same way, grace is given to us to love one another. We can accept the love of the brothers even if we are not worthy of it, we accepts the gratuity of their love, and we can love them because they need it, and not because they are ok or because they have been good to us, neither because they are to pay us back. Thank God, we have a witness of examples from the life of the saints. Who does not know of the kiss st. Francis of Assisi gave to the leper? And the care of difficult and ungrateful sick persons of st. Camillus de Lellis, st. Vincent de Paule, of st. Joseph Cottolengo, st. Damian of Molokai? And the loving care of st. John Bosco, and his mother Margaret, to the young, even when these were stealing from him. And this is not only through the canonized saints of the Church, because for sure, we too have seen and heard, and for sure enjoyed, of the love of a brother or a sister, a love without borders and limits. An example: kids that ring door bells. The sister goes and sees thinking there is someone, but the kids ran away! Therefore, she blesses them and prays for them at they can come to know Jesus. It's not a big deal even those this might repeat itself several times during the day, but the love is great and it is to be exercised through little things to be worked in other tough occasions. St. John picks on the teaching of Jesus and reveals to us new prospective. The one who loves shows that he is generated by God, that is, he is a son of God: God is Love! The love of God is his Son, is Jesus, who came to heal us from the effects of sin. We were and are sinners, that are rebellious against God, worthy of Hell, but he thought to give us the possibility to be again his friends, to take back our place in his heart: this is divine love, truly without borders! Accepting Jesus and his Word we are saved. Therefore "let us love one another, because love is from God"!

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