Daily Gospel Reflection
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May 9, 2021
Jesus said to his disciples:
“As the Father loves me, so I also love you.
Remain in my love.
If you keep my commandments, you will remain in my love,
just as I have kept my Father’s commandments
and remain in his love.
“I have told you this so that my joy may be in you
and your joy might be complete.
This is my commandment: love one another as I love you.
No one has greater love than this,
to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.
You are my friends if you do what I command you.
I no longer call you slaves,
because a slave does not know what his master is doing.
I have called you friends,
because I have told you everything I have heard from my Father.
It was not you who chose me, but I who chose you
and appointed you to go and bear fruit that will remain,
so that whatever you ask the Father in my name he may give you.
This I command you: love one another.”
Mothers, at their best, show us how to live lives of love by giving us their love. This reading made me think that mothers are just like Christ in this way. Jesus says, “As the Father loves me, so I also love you… love one another as I love you.” On this Mother’s Day, I hope that I might love others as my mother has loved me, knowing that the source of her strength and love is her faith in God.
Love is something that is passed down from generation to generation in our families. There is a wall hanging that I once received as a gift which reads: “Our family is a circle of strength and love, with every birth and every union, the circle will grow, every joy shared adds more love, every crisis faced together makes the circle stronger.” At first, I thought the text was a bit clichéd and I am not usually one to display these sorts of inspirational sayings. But, the more I thought about it, the more the saying resonated with me. The piece found a place of honor in a half bath on the first floor of my home and I am surprised at how often people comment on how much they appreciate these words.
I suppose the one thing that I would add to this saying is that the circle of love we experience in our families is an open circle, not a closed one. The love that grows within our families is always directed both inward and outward. This is certainly something that I learned from my mother and I hope I am teaching to my children, as well. I think this is the heart of today’s gospel. Jesus teaches us how love moves and grows by using the example of the love between himself and the Father, a fundamentally familial metaphor, but he goes on to show that the circle of Christian love embraces all people. I hope that this Mother’s Day can inspire us to live out Jesus’ command: “Love one another.”
Prayer
O God, you choose us this day to remain in your love as we encounter those we meet. Help us to grow in our ability to love others as fully as you have loved us in giving your life for us. Give us the patience and understanding we need to see the good in others, to see and love in them what you see and love in all of your children. We ask this through Christ our Lord. Amen.
Saint of the Day
Though St. Anthony the Great is credited as the father of monasticism, St. Pachomius was the first to organize Christian communities around a common rule of life.
Pachomius was born in 292 in Upper Egypt, and at the age of 20 he was conscripted to the emperor’s army. He was transported down the Nile river with other recruits for training, and they traveled in terrible conditions. When they stopped at a small river town during their journey, Christians there showed them great kindness. Their charity deeply touched Pachomius.
As soon as he was able to leave the army, he made his way to a Christian church and began learning the faith as a catechumen. He was baptized and dedicated himself to finding every possible way to cooperate with the new grace he had received.
He learned of a hermit living in the desert, and he sought him out and asked to follow him. Pachomius promised the man obedience and they lived under great discipline and austerity—they ate only bread and salt, and practiced praying through the night.
Pachomius heard a call to establish a new monastery in a nearby region, and had a vision of an angel who instructed him on how to organize it. In 318, he constructed a small cell there and began his work.
The first to join him there was his brother, John, and others followed. Soon more than 100 lived together. He led them mainly by example, but allowed everyone to participate in their pursuit of holiness according to their ability.
The movement grew, and he eventually founded eight other monasteries, including one for women, which included his sister. Even in the face of false accusations, he displayed heroic humility and patience, and was known for miraculous healings.
Pachomius died in 348 of a disease that killed a number of other monks. At the time of his death, some 3,000 monks were living in his monasteries. His rule of life greatly influenced St. Benedict, who formed the trunk from which most branches of monasticism grew in the west.
St. Pachomius, you pioneered a path towards holiness through the practice of community, pray for us!
Image Credit: Our featured image of St. Pachomius is available for use under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license. Last accessed March 6, 2025 on Wikimedia Commons.
