Tag Archives: The Cross

“Where Is The Love?” Homily For The Fifth Sunday of Easter

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“I give you a new commandment; love one another. As I have loved you, so you also should love one another. This is how all will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”


“…all will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”


I will be honest with you, when I look out at this commonwealth; this country, this world. I wonder how many would recognize individuals as disciples of Jesus. In some of our major cities, and in some of our smaller one’s, there is more violence in our streets than I seen in awhile. War, disease, gang violence, domestic violence, it is out there. We see it on our screens; the wars and the conflicts, the intensity of which really frightens me. And I see also a hate among all peoples, white, black, Hispanic, and Asian; It is hate I have never seen before; and that frightens me also. And what comes to my mind is a question, actually a demand, where is the love?


I have heard that question asked before, but I could not remember where; so I turned to that source of all knowledge, ….Wikipedia. There were two songs issued under the title,”Where is the Love?” one song was written by the rap group The Black Eye Peas, released in 2003; re-released in 2016. They felt the question still needed to be asked; where is the Love? …..(pointing to the Crucifix). There is the Love. For God so loved the world that He sent His Son, Jesus. Jesus Christ, loved us so much, that He was willing to suffer death, death on a cross, so that we might be saved from sin and death; that by His Resurrection, we are freed from death, and will have eternal life. He calls on us to share this Good News, not just by words, but by example. Within our own families; towards people we will meet on the street, in the office, the factories, the stores; if we treat both friends and strangers with real respect and charity, we are showing where God’s love is. If we stand with the poor, the infirm, the crippled, the refugee; meeting their needs, an arm around a shoulder, letting them know they not alone; that is showing where the love is. If in any discussions, or debates we might be a party to; if we recognize that the other person is a brother or sister in Christ; we respect that person, even if we cannot accept the positions they hold.


The world is out there, a wounded world, inflicted by hate, war, despair. How well we love one another, how well we respect and love our neighbors, our city, our country, will give the answer to the question; an answer that everyone longing for, “Where is the love?”

Good Friday in Beverly – 2015

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TGood Friday Crosshis is the first chance I have had to write some reflections on part of what I have been doing during this Holy Week, 2015.  Yesterday, Good Friday, I assisted at the service that was held at St. Margaret of Scotland parish in Beverly, MA.  The small church was built in the late 1800’s, and has a very unique design.  The interior has a dark wood ceiling, which sort of adds to the solemnity of the liturgy we were about to celebrate.

The Good Friday service commemorates the Passion and Death of Jesus Christ, it is the most solemn liturgy held during Holy Week.  Wearing red colored vestments, the Pastor and I silently processed into the church.  Entering the sanctuary, Father, I and the cantor kneeled in the sanctuary, and the service began with readings from Scripture.  I, the cantor, and our music director chanted the Passion of Jesus Christ according to the Gospel of John.  After the prayers of the faithful, I went to the rear of the church, picked up a plain wooden cross, and began to process down the main aisle, back to the sanctuary.  I stopped three times; each time intoning: “Behold the wood of the Cross, on which hung the Savior of the world!” to which the congregation responded: “Come let us worship.”  After Father and I had each venerated the Cross, members from the congregation came forwarded to also venerate it.  Some kissed the wood, others knelt and touched it, and others just bowed before it.  When everyone had come forward, Father and I set the Cross on a side altar, with two candles on either side.  A communion service followed, then Father and I processed out and we did in, in silence.

After greeting members of the Catholic community as they left the church, I went back in; back to the side altar with the Cross.  As I stood, looking at that bare wooden Cross, it came to me, how an instrument of public execution, has become a symbol of triumph, Christ’s triumph of death.  I think though we forget what suffering Jesus went through, for us, for our salvation.  We need to recall what was written by the prophet Isaiah:

“Because of his affliction he shall see the light in fullness of days; through his suffering, my servant shall justify many and their guilt he shall bear.  Therefore I will give him his portion among the great, and he shall divide the spoils with the mighty, because he surrendered himself to death and was counted among the wicked; and he shall take away the sins of many, and win pardon for their offenses.”  (Isaiah 52)

Tonight, we commemorate, we celebrate Jesus Christ victory over sin and death; we celebrate the peace and joy that is still being experienced by so many of us.