Thursday of the Fifth Week of Easter
After reflecting on the 1st reading of today’s mass, how consoling it is to pray the Responsorial Psalm. The universal mission of the Church has never ceased since the Lord directed the apostles to go out and preach the Gospel to all the nations. Nor will it cease until the Second Coming. Today, as we witness the evolution of the Church, we can look back twenty centuries of her history. We thank the Lord for extending his kingdom among the nations.
During the centuries the Lord has accomplished his work of salvation. Why? As Jesus tells us in the Gospel he loves each one of us in the same way that the Father loves him. Reflect on that!
Fidelity in keeping the commandments cannot be lived apart from love. The commandments then are not a series of laws imposed upon us, but they become the invitation to joy. It is the joy that Christ wishes to share with us so that we can bring it to those closest to us and to those we encounter each day. It is the joy of the Resurrected Christ, the joy that has been given to the Church to bring to the world today.