Homily originally presented May 6, 2018

Love makes the world go round!

How would you answer the question,   “What makes the world go round?”

One answer you may have heard is:   “Love makes the world go round.”

          Where does that come from?

One place where we’ve heard this would be our music ...

in the lyrics of the songs we’ve listened to through the years.

For example, in the 1960’s, Diana Ross and the Supremes sang these songs:

Standing at the Crossroads of Love,     Where did our love go?    

Love is like an itching in my heart,    Love is here and now you’re gone,

Falling in love with love,      In and out of love,    Love child,   Baby Love,

I’m gonna make you love me,    and   Your wonderful sweet, sweet love.

In the 1970’s , Donna Summer sang these songs:

I feel love,     With your love,    Love to love you baby,    and    Our Love.  

In the 1980’s , Johnny Lee sang :

Looking for love in all the wrong places.

In the 1990’s, the B-52’s sang: Love Shack.

And to this day, the message of love continued to be sung ...

as music transitioned into Rap and House and Techno and beyond

So judging from our Music, love is definitely a huge force at work in the world …  

which would lead people to say that, “Love makes the world go round.”

Now I happen to believe that this statement is true …

that Love does indeed make the world go round …

but the Love that does this is not merely an emotion but God Himself!

You see, way before any of the above music was ever written,

    God revealed in His Book, the Bible, what it is that makes the world go round.

He does!      God is the one who makes the world go round!

And given the way that St. John describes God in our Second reading ... saying

“God is love.”

then it would indeed be very accurate to say:   “Love makes the world go round !”

In our Gospel today, we hear Jesus, who is God say those most desirable words …

“I love you!”

Hearing those words from Jesus far surpasses hearing them from Diana Ross, or Johnny Lee, or the B-52’s and yes… even hearing them from Donna Summer!

Those are the words we’re all longing to hear said to us … and not just in a song … but from a real person ... who we have in Jesus … the Second Person of the Trinity.

Listen and let it sink in as Jesus says today, “As the Father loves me, so I love you!”

Those words are from God … to us!

How sweet and comforting they are!

The love that everyone’s looking for and many are singing about …

is right there in God’s word … the Bible.

In the 4 verses, of our Second Reading, we heard the word love … 9 times!

In the 9 verses of our Gospel Reading, we heard the word love … another 9 times!

It’s as if God is saying, “Do you get it?”    “Do you get my message?”

 “I love you!”   ”Do you realize that I love you?”

“I loved you first.””I loved you into existence and I want to love you in eternity.

“I love you now and I always will.”

The reason that God loves us is because “love” is his very nature.

God is love … which means that all He can do ... is love.

Let me share an experience that may help you understand this.

One day as I was learning to drive my Dad’s car, we were stopped at a red-light ...

but I wasn’t holding my foot on the brake hard enough and the car was creeping forward and would have bumped the car in front of me ... but thankfully my dad yelled stop and I pressed harder on the brake and stopped the car without bumping .

My dad could see I was upset with the car and he said,

“The car was only doing what it was designed to do.”

And he was absolutely right! You see, it wasn’t the car’s fault that it was creeping forward. It was only doing what it was designed to do … it was designed to move unless stopped by the brake.  It was doing exactly what it was supposed to do.

And it’s the same with God.

God loves us because that’s exactly what he’s supposed to do … for God is love!

Now if God is love, then all He can do is love!

That means that God loves us when we’re good and God loves us when we’re bad.

He just loves us, because that’s his nature.      God is love!

So, God loves us just the way we are!

We don’t have to change and be some other way for God to love us.

No, He loves us right now ... just the way we are!

          Did you ever think of that?

You know, I can remember many times in my younger days  ...

praying that God would love me.

That’s the very reason that I wanted to be good, so that God would love me.

I didn’t understand this great truth that God already loves me and He always will!

God’s love for me and you is unconditional … it’s not based on what we do.

The question is, are we experiencing His love?

You know, I sometimes hear people say, “God doesn’t love me any more.”

Is that true?         Are there times where God doesn’t love you?

Let me give you an analogy to help provide the answer.

Let’s say you’re standing outside in a downpour of rain and you’re very thirsty.

So all you have to do tip your head back and open your mouth and the rain fills your mouth with water. You’re drinking the water easily and fully; it’s even overflowing.

Now let’s say that something distracts you so that you look straight ahead.

In this orientation, your mouth is perpendicular to the rainfall so the rain just runs down the side of your face and the only way you get something to drink is if you’re able to lick some of the water as it goes by your mouth.

You’re still thirsty, and it’s still raining, but you’re not drinking much water. 

Let’s say that something else distracts you and causes you to look down at the ground. Now your mouth is completely turned away from the source of the rain so that the rain just runs off your head. The rain is still coming down but in this orientation, you’re not able to get anything to drink. It’s still raining, but you’re not able to drink it in! You’re not able to receive it and appropriate it to use it!

You see how that works? When you look at the source of the rain, you drink deeply. And your thirst is quenched!

But when you turn away from the source of the rain, you get less and less of the water and you could even die of thirst … while standing there in a downpour!

It’s the same way with ... God’s love.

When you look to God, by calling out to Him and following His commands,

you’re able to draw deeply on the love that is constantly raining down from Heaven … the love He wants you to have.

But when you get distracted and turn away from God, then you’re not able to receive His love. He’s still loving you, but you’re just not able to receive it!

Who is God?     God is love.    That means that all He can do is love.

God loves us when we’re good and He loves us when were bad … He just loves us!

If we don’t feel His love, it isn’t because he’s stopped loving us …

it’s because we’ve become distracted and turned away from Him.

We’ve shown Him our backs instead of our faces!

What is it that distracts you from keeping your eyes on God?

It’s the attractions and the allurements of this world.

It’s the temptations of the devil that draw us away from goodness and God

Whatever it is that distracts you from following God’s commandments,

is robbing you of God’s Divine Grace, God’s help and guidance, God’s love …

that we desperately need.

Without the love of God you will die spiritually … and sadly many people do.

They die of sin … while standing in the downpour of God’s renewing love!

That’s why Jesus so wants us to follow His commands.

It’s for our own good.     It’s the only way that we’re able to receive God’s love.

He’s raining it down at all times; and He wants us to receive it!

St. John tells us today:

“ it’s not that we have loved God, but that He loved us.”

and Jesus tells us today:

“It was not you who chose me, but I who chose you.”

In all of this, God is telling us quite clearly, “Hey, I loved you first!”

That’s what God does … He loves!

God loves everyone, which is the discovery that the Jews made in our First Reading from the Acts of the Apostles.     Scripture says,

“The circumcised believers … were astounded that the gift of the Holy Spirit

should have been poured out on the Gentiles.”

The Holy Spirit is the Love of God … and it’s offered to all people.

As baptized Christians, the love of God has been poured out on us

and we’ve been loved right into God’s family.

There’s nothing we can do to make God love us more.

His love for us is already infinite and unconditional.

All we can do is accept it.   It’s His free gift to those who believe.

So what’s the point of being good if we’ve already got God’s love?

The reason to be good is so that we can live in His love.

Being good enables us to receive His love,

it enables us to appropriate or process His love.

Being good enables us to be satisfied by His love.  

In our Gospel today, Jesus says, “Remain in my love.”

“If you keep my commandments, you will remain in my love.”

Today as you come forward to receive Holy Communion, notice the orientation of your head and the focus of your eyes. In order to drink from the Cup of His Blood, you have to lift up your head, only then you can drink of His precious blood.

There’s no way to drink from the Cup if you look down!

It’s the same way with our spiritual thirst; if we keep our minds and hearts fixed on Jesus, our souls will be nourished with His love.

If we take our eyes off Jesus and look away from Him, we will go unnourished and unsatisfied.

Don’t let anyone ever tell you that God doesn’t love them any more!

That’s a lie. God loves us everywhere and always ... for God is love!

Today, let’s give thanks for the truth that we don’t have to earn God’s love?

We’ve got His love.     He loves us in our goodness and in our sinfulness.

But He loves us too much to leave us unsatisfied ...so He calls us to live in His love.           Love is indeed what makes the world go round!

Remember, if God is love, then all He can do is love!      Don’t you love it?

God didn’t send us His Son when the world was perfect.

No, He sent Him when the world was steeped in sin!

In this we see that God loved us even when we were unlovable.

“Children need love the most when they deserve it the least.” (Jim Jernigan)

• This certainly applies to us too as the children of God.

• God’s love is made evident to man in the flesh of His Son,

whom He sent into the world so that we might have life through Him.