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_{FIFTH SUNDAY OF EASTER
May 6, 2007}

          James McLain was an Air Force chaplain with the American peacekeeping forces in postwar Kosovo.  He said that, among other things, his tour of duty in Kosovo gave him a renewed appreciation of God's grace.  For example, one day he received a large supply of candy from Europe for the kids of Kosovo.

          A Special Forces team volunteered to help him distribute it to the kids.  They had him climb up into the hatch of an armored Humvee.  Riding atop the Humvee, he said he felt like an ancient Roman general returning victoriously from battle.  Only instead of tossing coins to adoring Roman crowds, he was tossing candy to excited kids.

          After they had covered one neighborhood, the Special Forces team moved through a deserted side street to a new neighborhood.  As they did, Fr. McLain spotted a boy walking home all alone from school, his head hanging down heavy-heartedly.  Fr. McLain pounded the roof of the Humvee to signal the driver to slow down so that he could toss a handful of candy to the boy.

          When the boy saw the candy raining down on him, he couldn't believe his good fortune.  The expression on his face changed from total sadness to total joy.  That's when Fr. McLain began to think about grace.

          We are all like that little boy.  There are times when we too trudge down the side streets of life alone with our head hanging down heavy-heartedly.  We wonder if anyone sees us or cares about us.  Then suddenly, out of the blue, God surprises us by raining down on us some unmerited and undeserved grace.  When this happens, the best way we can repay God for this grace is the way the Kosovo boy repaid Fr. McLain for the candy. 

Accept it, rejoice in it, give thanks for it, and use it for whatever purpose God seems to have given it to us.  Unexpected and unmerited graces are God's way of letting us know that someone sees us and someone cares about us!

That brings us to today’s gospel reading.  Its setting is the Last Supper, just after Jesus washed the feet of his disciples.  He returned to the table, sat down, and said: "I will be with you only a little while longer…I give you a new commandment: love one another.  As I have loved you, so you also should love one another."  (John 13:33-34)

Those words of Jesus at the Last Supper served as the Liturgy of the Word, preparing the disciples for the Liturgy of the Eucharist.  It prepared them for the greatest of all graces: the incredible gift of the Body and Blood of Jesus, under the form of bread and wine.

The purpose of this gift of gifts and grace of graces is to empower us to share in the work of salvation that Jesus began in his lifetime.  It is to empower us to share in the Holy Spirit’s work of renewing the face of the earth!

And that brings us to one of the most amazing things about this greatest of all graces, the gift of all gifts.  It empowers everyone, regardless of how uneducated or poor, to share significantly in the work of renewing the face of the earth.  This is because God has chosen to make LOVE the means by which the world is to be transformed.

As Mother Teresa was fond of saying, "God doesn't want our deeds; God wants the love that prompts them."  That means the least important person among us, at least in the eyes of the world, can contribute mightily to the transformation of our world.  They might even end up contributing more than the most educated and wealthiest among us.  For as Mother Teresa, again, was fond of saying, "We cannot do great things, only little things with great love."

Condensing the words of today's First and Second Readings, the one who sits on the throne is making all things new and inviting us to join him in his monumental work of renewing the face of the earth, all the while knowing that we must endure many hardships to enter the kingdom of God.

The graces we receive from the Body and Blood of Christ, God’s greatest gift of Perfect Love to us, will strengthen us to do our part of this monumental work.  LOVE will renew the face of the earth!  Let us always remember what St. Paul tells us about the importance of love:  "If I speak in human and angelic tongues but do not have love, I am a resounding gong.  If I have all faith so as to move mountains but do not have love, I am nothing.  If I give away everything I own but do not have love, I gain nothing."        (1 Cor 13)

God's love of us never fails.  Let us pray that our love of God and love of our fellow man never fails as WE go about renewing the face of the earth!