Fifth Sunday of Easter
A child who grows up in a loving family is likely to hear the statement that they are loved often: the statement, “I love you,” can (rightly) be a refrain in family life. But as important as these verbal affirmations of love are, it is even more important that a child experience love through the deeds of their parents: through acts of affection, through their care and solicitude for the child’s well-being, and through tough love and challenges that spur growth and maturity.
Love for God, too, is not shown merely in words, and so we hear in today’s second reading: Children, let us love not in word or speech but in deed and truth. When love is rooted in God, when we remain in Christ like branches on a vine, then love will bear much fruit, showing its effective and transformative character. So it was with Saul, whose encounter with Love in the person of Jesus Christ transformed him and bore fruit in his preaching, his missionary activity, and his care for the churches he founded. So it is with each Christian who seeks to respond to the invitation of God to dwell and live in love.
Today, let us ponder the effectiveness and fruitfulness of God’s love, which shows its power not only in word and speech but even more in deed and truth. Let us examine the ways in which our lives bear fruit in love, and pray that we might grow in the fruitfulness of love.