“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”

Welcome to the Fifth Sunday of Easter. This mandate from Jesus is found in today’s Gospel reading. A very simple commandment – love one another. Simple words yet sometimes hard to do. One of our Deacons, Deacon Roger at St. John Nepomucene, once said “you don’t have to like them, but you gotta love them”. Loving others sometimes isn’t easy, but God doesn’t ask us to choose who we love, He asks us to love one another collectively. Maybe it helps to know that God is present wherever love is found. Maybe that makes it easier for us to love those that we don’t like. Think about that the next time you’re with or around someone who rubs you the wrong way. If God can love that person, so can I. 

God Bless