We open our Masses this weekend singing that word ‘Alleluia’ which won’t be heard after today until the Easter Vigil. Sing it out with all your voice, heart and soul!
We are given our call to Sainthood today in the Gospel: “Be perfect just as your heavenly Father is perfect.” (Matthew 5:48) Enough said? Maybe we need some help in doing that!? We are also told: “love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.” OK. Big orders there.
At offertory, we sing about the qualities of ‘love’ as in love your enemies in “Love Goes On”– a word we hear so much in our world, and not always in the true sense:
Love is patient, kind, never ending, slow to anger, rich in mercy,
faithful, true, ever joyful, ever forgiving.
Love’s our journey; love’s our goal.
There are three gifts that remain when all other
things have perished.
Only faith, hope, love enduring, and the greatest give is love.
“Blest Are They,” which we sing at Communion, is the ultimate show of love: the Beatitudes. We sing these words so often, and yet have they become part of who we are?
“You Alone,” our second Communion song, echoes back to the first reading as well as the Gospel. In the first reading, we hear:
“Be holy, for I, the Lord, your God, am holy” (Leviticus 19:2) In this song, we sing:
You alone are holy, you alone are Lord.
You alone are worthy to be honored and adored.
Mercy you have given, kindness you have shown.
Love is you alone.
We are sent forth from the Mass singing “City of God”. Of course, the only way to love and to follow God’s commands is to take it out into the world in which we live. Let us remember these words:
Let us build the city of God.
May our tears be turned into dancing!
For the Lord, our light and our love, has turned the night into day!