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Fifth Sunday of Easter

Through the years we all have people that we look up to. Sometimes they’re friends or acquaintances that we admire. And sometimes they are mentors, people who help form us and teach us and model certain life stances for us. Mentors can contribute much to the people we become.

Last Thursday I received word of the death of a very important mentor in my own life. He was a Jesuit priest named David Boulton whom I had known for thirty years. For more than those years he had developed and ran a program that taught people how to be priests and ministers and rabbis...not so much in the academic sense of classes in a seminary, but in the practical setting of a hospital. He taught me that all of salvation happens through relationships and that when we minister God works through the relationships we develop. Hence the importance of developing good, clean, healthy relationships with God’s people.

But what I remember most about him were three things: his unending kindness, his patience, and his sense of humor which always kept things in perspective. I saw him for many years as my spiritual director. And I always, always felt loved and cared for by him.

Our lives had moved into other directions in recent years but last October I accidentally ran into him after a long absence and all those wonderful feelings came flooding back – almost like a father and son relationship.

And as I began reflecting on today’s Gospel reading, David Boulton’s face kept appearing in my mind. And I knew I had had the experience Jesus is talking about today: Love one another; that is how they will know you are my disciples if you have love for one another.

That love takes so many different forms in our lives, depending on where life has taken us: as a spouse, parent or grandparent; as an employee or boss in the workforce; as a neighbor or friend in the community; and even as a mentor to younger people.

Today’s first reading from the Acts of the Apostles demonstrates how the apostles carried out that command in the first century after Jesus resurrection: they went from town to town proclaiming the Love of God and the gift of salvation that came from that love. And the message took off because it is the only message that brings peace and healing and hope into peoples’ lives.

Today’s Gospel reading where Jesus gives the apostles that new command of love takes place during the last supper. Jesus is preparing them for the day when they will be alone without him and if they hold onto nothing else, He wants them to hold onto His love for them and their love for one another.

So we do all have people in our lives who have touched us along the way…and their genuine care and concern for us is a reflection of the love God has for each one of us. So let US love one another as God has loved us, wherever life leads us every day.