{"version":1,"type":"rich","provider_name":"Libsyn","provider_url":"https:\/\/www.libsyn.com","height":90,"width":600,"title":"Fifth Sunday of Easter, May 18, 2025","description":"2025 May 18 SUN: FIFTH SUNDAY OF EASTER Acts 14: 21-27\/ Ps 145: 8-9. 10-11. 12-13 (see 1)\/ Rv 21: 1-5a\/ Jn 13: 31-33a. 34-35 The word "love" is sort of tricky. We have to consider that we give two main meanings to the word "love." And one of them really is a starting point, whereas the other is the goal. We use the word "love" to refer to a simple attraction, such as, "I love ice cream." And that's what we're saying, that ice cream is an object which is desirable to us. It doesn't do anything for the ice cream, so it's not relational. The ice cream has its own fate, which does not build it up in any way. So we have to consider that that is a starting point. There's nothing wrong with it, but we have to build on it. We find with experience and with, above all, the grace of God, that love is a virtue which recognizes the dignity and worth of all the people in our life. And we respond with love as we say, "Yes, God has given me this dignity, and I want others to respect me and therefore I respect them." And in fact, if I have a responsibility to a particular person, I am utterly committed to that person, and I accept that person even with his or her faults. This is difficult, and we know we need a lot of practice. And we know we need to make mistakes, and the mistakes teach us very well what the opposite of love is. I think of some history that I am listening to right now. This has to do with the civil rights movement, and in particular I was listening to people who were known as "freedom riders" back in 1961. They confronted unjust segregation laws, witnessing to the injustice, but acting with love, non-violently confronting people. And of course, if we think about that, to respond to violence with non-violence is to cause the violent person to have many, many questions. To ask, "What does this mean? That these people are, first of all, standing up to us, and then not even responding to our force with force." This was a powerful witness in those days, and we see that this applies to our own lives and our own situations, even today. This requires a lot of practice and a lot of discipline to be so focused on the virtue of love. And this is what Paul and Barnabas were attempting to do. We read today about their visits to various cities along the Mediterranean Sea. They found that there were many people who accepted the good news of Jesus, and there were those who quite flatly rejected them, but they kept at it. They kept going, and we know that that sort of persistence is necessary for us as well.  We have again a beautiful image from the Book of Revelation of the new Jerusalem coming down from the heavens. We may be puzzled by a statement of John that the sea was no more. We have a reference to this actually in the opening hymn today, which refers to God as the master of the sea. And we may wonder, "Why is the sea no more?" It is because the sea was looked upon as the source, a source at least, of chaos, and it was supposed that there were great sea monsters in the deep. So "the sea was no more" simply means that God is doing away with chaos and threats. And we ourselves must consider what is chaotic or what is monstrous in the ways in which we respond to one another. And as we reflect and as we accept the grace of God, we will find that we can live out this command: Love one another. ","author_name":"Sunday Homilies","author_url":"http:\/\/exsult1.libsyn.com","html":"