Happy Mothers’ Day to all our mothers. On a Mother’s Day car, a six-year-old girl wrote her Mother: “Dear Mom, I’m going to make lunch for you on Mother’s Day. It’s going to be a surprise. P.S. I hope you like pizza and popcorn.” In a recent comic strip, For Better or for Worse, Elly a young mom, had a horrible day caring for her two toddlers who were sick. Looking for sympathy, Elly called her own mother, looking for an understanding ear. She told her mom what a horrible 24 hours she had, getting up every half hour during the night and caring for her toddlers all day; first one, then the other. She said to her mom “you don’t even get a chance to think about yourself.” Then she added, “I guess you went through all this with me and my brother, didn’t you?” There wa a pause, then Elly said to her mom, “Er, Mom, did we ever thank you?” “thanks” is in order constantly, but especially today. Thank you, mothers for your love and unselfish dedication and patience. Without you the world would come to a screeching halt. We need to know that even though God can’t help loving us, because God is love, we will never know the joy he wants to share with us, unless we follow the path he has marked out for us. In today’s gospel he tells us, ‘’I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and your joy might be complete.’’ But just like the clouds can block the light of the sun, our sins, our indifference, our neglect can get in the way of God’s love that is there for us. He has told us what we need to do. He summed it up in his new commandment: ‘’Love one another as l love you.’’ This is called a new commandment because previously he told us to love our neighbor as ourselves. That’s possible for any of us to do, but being able to love as Jesus does, to ‘’love one another as l have loved you,’’ that’s really asking a lot. Jesus is God. Can we love like God does? We can, but only with the help of his Holy Spirit who dwells in us and who seeks to transform us into being like Christ. One of the ways he has loved us is that he laid down his life for us. Can we do that for someone? Many people do. We read about heroes all the time who have risked their lives for someone else. There are people who have dedicated their lives to a job or a vocation where they are less interested in getting rich than they are in doing good for others. I asked some parishioners yesterday ‘’who would be willing to give up their life for another person?’’ Only one person raised her hand. When I asked them if you saw a friend crossing the street and there was a car coming, they didn’t see it, would you risk your life to run into the street to push them out of the way? Quite a number would. I think many of us are more Christ-like than we imagine ourselves to be. I can’t help but mention those who sacrifice their time and energy to serve those who are the most vulnerable in society, the poor, the aged and the unborn. We have to know that when Jesus talks about ‘’love’’ he’s not talking about the mating instinct, which is good, but which is too often exploited in the media as the only kind of love that has any importance. Jesus is talking about giving of ourselves for the benefit of another as he did for us. When he talks about ‘’love’’ he’s not just talking about warm fuzzy feelings, which come and go, but he is talking about dedication and commitment to serve God and others. When he’s talking about ‘’love,’’ he’s not talking about always speaking of love; he’s talking about action: ‘’Not everyone who says to me Lord, Lord will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my heavenly father.’’ Words are important and I think married couples should tell each other they love each other, and they should do it all the time, but love is more than words. Love is the key to everything: it explains why God created us, it explains why Jesus came to earth, it explains why God wants us to live with him forever, it explains the Mass we celebrate, and it explains how we are to act toward one another. Amen.