6th Sunday of Easter How is God...How are we?

We humans were created by God so as to be as God.
Eastern Christians, Catholics and Orthodox, call this “Divinization”.  
We are not to be God. We are creatures and will always remain so
We are created to be as God, or to be “How” God is.
We know “HOW” God is through Scripture and most explicitly in and through Jesus Christ.
“How” God is is relational.  God is Trinity, Father Son and Holy Spirit.  
God is Love, as John’s letters remind us.
If we truly want to experience God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit; if we want to truly understand God and therefore our own self, our own “How” must be love.
This is our Gospel Today.  Jesus is not giving us a quid pro quo method, or conditional method that if we love Jesus, then we get the Spirit;
Jesus is inviting us to participate in the How of God; to love
Remember though, “Love” is to see the goodness.  It is not necessarily the affection that equate love with.
Love sees the goodness in an another and within ourselves.
God loves us; God sees the goodness and potential goodness that resides within all of us.
This is Gospel Truth.
To love Jesus, is to see the Good that he is; the good that he gives.  When we believe that goodness, then we keep his commandments.
Not because we have to, but because we want to.
But, this love cannot be this esoteric activity, something only we say and think, it must be concrete.
Jesus preached Love, but he also gave love.  He saw the goodness in those who were sick, those were sinners, those who were outcast….and he cured, forgave and welcomed them.
Love must be real in our own lives.  
We Love in that respect we give to others, by holding off judgement, holding off our tongues.  
Love shows in our willingness to sacrifice for others; whether it be of our money, time, or our ego.
Love exists when and where we forgive those who have hurt us.  
Love sees beyond the politics, beyond the surface to the person.
You get the point.  It can’t be merely a mental exercise, or superficial.  It must be real.
Just as Christ’s love was made real, God’s love made real, in the Cross and Resurrection, made real in the bread and wine that become his living person given to us.
I have had this experience that people come to me and they say they don’t feel connected to God anymore.  So I probe to understand more.  Really it comes down to Love is not in their lives:  they hold onto a LOT of anger; or are overwhelmed by sadness and fear.  
All of which has caused them to fold onto themselves, like a star collapsing under its own gravity and become a black hole.
Love pulls us out of that hole, Love places us into relation with others, and with God.

How are we today?

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