MAY 5-6, 2018
4:30 PM (SAT), 7:30 AM, 9:00 AM ORDINARY FORM (ENGLISH) MASSES
Released as a non-album single in July 1967, the Beatles song “All You Need Is Love” was later included on the US “Magical Mystery Tour” album. It also appears in the 1968 animated film “Yellow Submarine” as well as its soundtrack album. Although it was first performed a week before as the British contribution to the “Our World” show which was a live global television link.
The song was written by John Lennon, although it was credited to both Lennon and McCartney. It captured the sentiments of the “Summer of Love” era. While the message is simple, the musical composition is full of asymmetric time signatures and complex changes. There are 7/4, 8/4, 4/4, and 6/4 measures mixed throughout. The song begins with the French National Anthem (“La Marseillaise”) and contains elements from Glenn Miller’s “In the Mood” and Wayne Shanklin’s “Chanson d’Amour.” Other musical pieces that are heard in the fade out are “Greensleeves,” elements of Johann Sebastian Bach, and the Beatles' own “She Loves You,” and “Yesterday.”
In all, the word “love” is said in the song 111 (one-hundred-and-eleven) times.
Today is the Sixth Sunday of Easter.
Our readings today focus on salvation and love.
St. John tells us throughout his writings that God is Spirit, and so we must worship Him in spirit and in truth. He tells us that God is Light, and in Him there is no darkness and no sin. And he tells us that God is Love, and if we remain in love, we remain in God.
Love then, doesn’t define God, but rather, it is God Himself that defines love.
We hear in the second reading:
In this is loveHuman love, is a response to God’s primordial love … a love which pre-dates any other. And is shown forth in time in the Sacrifice of Jesus Christ upon the Cross – the same Sacrifice which we re-present on this altar in an un-bloody way.
not that we have loved God, but that he loved us
and sent his Son as expiation for our sins.
God’s love, then is a higher form of love … a total self gift of Himself poured out in a sacrificial way. This sort of love is not a feeling or an emotion. Rather, Divine Love is an act of the will, and our own ability to love God and to love others as God loves us, requires that we make a choice. And in that choice, our love will be shown forth in what we say and what we do.
That is, while God loves us infinitely always … our love for God and our love for one another is as much … or as little … as we choose to make of it.
Jesus admonishes us to “remain in [His] love” and commands us to “love one another as [He] loves” not so that we’ll be miserable … not to keep us from being happy … but
so that [His] joy may be in [us]and [our] joy might be complete.By remaining in Jesus love, we can experience not only a share of His Divine Life … not only a portion of His Divine Love … but in loving as He loves and by remaining in His love, we experience His Divine Joy to the fullest.
As we approach this altar to receive the Sacred Body and Blood, Soul and Divinity of Jesus Christ, let us pray for the graces we need to remain in His love, to respond to God’s love for us in our lives, and to receive His joy in its fullness.
May the Eucharist we receive today shine forth in our lives this week … as we bring God’s grace, love, and mercy … from this place … to those we will meet in the world.
