5th Sunday of Easter Year C
‘Love one another, just as I have loved you’
Almighty ever-living God,
constantly accomplish the Paschal Mystery within us,
that those you were pleased to make new in Holy Baptism
may, under your protective care, bear much fruit
and come to the joys of life eternal.
As Eastertide continues, we can take fresh heart that we are part of God’s glorious plan to bring about a new creation. Jesus’s new commandment to love one another as he loves us is the key to transforming the world.
The exhilarating mission of Paul and Barnabas in the First Reading helps us to see what can be achieved when we allow God to work within us, even as we endure hardships on the way.
The Psalm calls us to sing with the whole creation of God’s mighty deeds; his glory, his goodness and his compassion for us.
The vision of the heavenly Jerusalem in the Second Reading promises a new creation where the bond between God and his people is fully restored.
In the Gospel, Father and Son are together glorified as Jesus prepares to leave this world. Now Jesus gives his friends a new charge: to love one another as he loves us, so we can be recognised as his disciples.
This week I might pray to love others more and more as Jesus loves us, so that I can help play my own part in making all things new.
