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Jesus
says to us what he said to his
apostles: 'If you love me, keep my
commandments.' We can't truly call
ourselves his disciples if we
don't listen to his words and make
an effort to five by them.
We know we fail, and our
fives are the poorer for that.
We need the Lord's help to
do better.
First
Reading (Acts
8:5-8.14-17). We learn about the
joy and enthusiasm with which the
Samaritans received the Gospel.
Second
Reading (1 Pet
3:15-18).
Peter encourages Christians
to remain steadfast under pressure
in their attachment to Jesus.
Gospel
(Jn
14:15-2 1).
To love Jesus is to listen
to his words and, with the help of
the Holy Spirit, to put them into
practice in our lives.
The
parting of friends is never easy.
But some partings are
harder than others.
The most painful parting of
all happens when someone dies.
What makes this parting
different from all others is the
finality of it.
It was the night before
Jesus' death.
For some time he had been
giving the apostles hints of his
death.
Now he talked to them
openly about it.
Except he didif t speak of
death in the way we tend to do -
in the sense of life ending.
He spoke of his death as a
going away, 'going to the Father'.
But all the apostles heard
was the fact that he was leaving
them.
He
was indeed leaving them.
But there are degrees of
leaving.
There is a leaving which
implies abandonment.
Sadly, now and again we
read in the newspapers about
babies that are abandoned at
birth.
To be abandoned is the most
painful and damaging thing that
can happen to anyone, particularly
in the case of the very young and
the elderly.
In the Gospel we are not
dealing with this.
Jesus is not abandoning the
apostles.
Jesus
did not leave his apostles
orphaned or desolate.
By their faith they were
able to see him, and through their
obedience to his commandments,
they were drawn into a grand
relationship with him.
Nowhere do we feel so close
to him as when we receive him in
Holy Communion.
Here he nourishes our
hearts with his love.
The food of the Eucharist
gives us the strength to do what
Jesus asks and to live as his
disciples.
We
are born in exile and die there
too.
As soon as we set sail on
the great voyage of fife, we begin
our return.
We spend our fives dreaming
of a homeland we have never seen.
Like homing birds that are
released in a strange country, and
know no rest until they return
home, so it is with us.
When we die, we do not so
much as go to God as return to
him.
You have made us for
yourself 0 God, and our hearts
will never rest until they rest in
you.
STATION
MASSES:
At Dan and Nora Desmond's on
Friday, the 13th of May, for the
town-lands of Dangan, Cripple Hill
and Danganmore, at 8.30p.m.
At
Finbarr and Eileen O'Briens on
Saturday, the 4th of June, at
10-30a.m. for the town-lands of
Kilbeg and Ardnacarrage.
RECENT
BAPTISM: Daniel
David Andrew Lynch, Allen square,
Bandon.
RECENT
DEATHS Eilish
O'Sullivan, Cork Road, Bandon.
Niall Cosgrove,
Knocknagurrane, Bandon and Cape
Clear Island.
Denis Aherne, Derrycool,
Bandon.
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