EASTER-VI: Acts 10:25-26, 34-35, 44-48; 1 Jn 4:7-10 ; Jn 15:9-17

In 1941, the German Army began to round up Jewish people in Lithuania. Thousands of Jews were murdered. But one German soldier objected to their murder. He was Sergeant Anton Schmid. Through his assistance, the lives of at least 250 Jews were spared. He managed to hide them, find food, and supply them with forged papers. Schmid himself was arrested in early 1942 for saving these lives. He was tried and executed in 1942. It took Germany almost sixty years to honor the memory of this man, Schmid. Said Germany's Defense Minister in 2000, saluting him, "Too many bowed to the threats and temptations of the dictator Hitler, and too few found the strength to resist. But Sergeant Anton Schmid did resist."

This is the central of theme of today's Gospel. "No one has greater love than this, to lay down one's life for one's friends." The hero Schmid went beyond what even Jesus encouraged. He laid down his life for strangers. 

Jesus had the perfect right to demand this commandment from his followers, because he had exhibited it by living a life of love and sacrifice. He laid down his life and taught: "No one has greater love than this, to lay down one's life for one's friends." This sacrificial love was imitated by many great men, like Schmid, Maximilian Colbe, and the other noble martyrs.

Jesus called us to be his friends and the friends of God. In order to make us worthy of this, he had taken away our all blemish. French writer Henri Barbusse (1874-1935), tells of a conversation overheard in a trench full of wounded men during the First World War. One of the men, who knew he only had minutes to live says to one of the other men, "Listen, Dominic, you've led a very bad life. Everywhere you are wanted by the police. But there are no convictions against me. My name is clear, so, here, take my wallet, take my papers, my identity, take my good name, my life and quickly, hand me your papers that I may carry all your crimes away with me in death."

This is what Jesus did. He took away our identity as sinners and offered himself in our place and made us righteous with God and made us friends of God. That is how he loved us.

God created us with the capacity to love and to be loved. We learn to love one another because we first have been loved by God. Love is an experience before it is an expression. One reason we are such feeble lovers of others is because we have yet to really grasp or experience the depth of God’s love for us. If we are going to love one another, the first thing we need to do is to abide in God’s love. Loved people, love people. Wounded people wound people.

To be loved is to have a friend. Jesus is not just a friend of saints. He's a friend of sinners too. To Judas, who is about to betray Him; to Peter, who is about to deny Him; to the other ten, who are about to desert Him; Jesus says, “I do not call you servants any longer; the servant does not know what his master is doing. I have called you friends" (John: 15).

A friend is that unique person who asks “How are you?" and then stays around long enough to hear the answer. A friend is that rare person who comes in when the rest of the world is going out. St. Augustine said, “A friend is someone who knows everything about you and loves you anyway."  God does not love his children every now and then. He loves us with a love that will not end. God's love is everlasting, unconditional, and unending.

Christian love, while unconditionally offered, is at the same time intolerant of love's enemies in the lives of those whom we would love. Unconditional love does not equate to a blanket acceptance of all behavior.  An older gentleman paid regular visits to his physician, but between visits he was not always good at following his physician's directives. At times the physician would become exasperated and say to the man: "Larry, I love ya'! But you gotta stop doing that!" 

Christian love is just like that. It's what Paul calls "speaking the truth in love" (Ephesians 4:15). Like that doctor, we will say: "John, I love you, but you have to part company with alcohol because you are addicted to it." "Martin, I love you, but you've got to stop riding roughshod over people's feelings; think before you speak." Love is a decision, not a feeling. A mother loves with affection, encouragement and moral guidance to her children. Without these love of her children won’t be mature and balanced.

Today/ tomorrow is mothers’ day. For anybody in the world, a mother takes the place of God, the visible God for Children. At both ends of one’s life, one appreciates the love and role of a mother than any other time in life.

Today we thank God for Christian mothers. No other force in a child’s life is as strong as his mother's influence. "The future destiny of the child "Napoleon said, "is always the work of the mother." 
Abraham Lincoln, said, "All that I am or hope to be I owe to my angel mother."
As we honor America's 50 million mothers on this day we should remember the role that motherhood has played in shaping history, especially our own personal history.

This week: think of one small thing you can do to ease the burdens of your mother. Jesus didn't explain the meaning of true love just with words; he also explained it with his deeds, with his own suffering and death. Today, this week, let's promise to remain in his love, by loving others, especially those in our home, as Jesus showed us to love.