17 May Friday

Jesus at the Last Supper, fully aware of the death he is about to endure, prepares the disciples with the love commandment. This is because love gives life, and he interweaves these two core essentials of his relationship with the Father and the Spirit, and extends this life giving love to us.

Our love for one another will bear the fruit of sustaining the community and of attracting constantly new membership. Love leads to life. For this reason one of the Bible’s frequent image for this relationship is the love in a bride and groom for one another. It is fruitful because the results of their inter mutual love is children, — life! This nuptial image appears in the reading from Revelations. It’s also wedding season!

All the preparations should engage the couple in joy, not burden. One is tempted out of these readings to talk about marriage and all that.

Speaking of life, some people come to church to be all silent, hush hush, and alone with God. That’s all very nice, but it leads to a kind of exclusivity. Gen X and Y folks don’t seem to gather to be all silent together. More importantly, young parents with children are scared off because some priest made snide comments about taking children out. I’ve always felt that a church without crying babies is a dead parish. There’s no future life. Its not sustainable.