Welcome to Resurrection Parish as we celebrate the 6^th Sunday of Easter.  Of course, there is another reason for us to celebrate today – it is Mother’s Day.  So, to all the Moms here, I pray that you have a very special day, and thank you for all that you have done and continue to do for your children.
            It is fitting that today is Mother’s Day, because we are now starting our 6^th week of our Easter message series, “Love Lives.”  In this series we have been looking at how we can love the people in our lives the way we truly want to love them.  It all begins with God, for God is Love.  And because he loves us totally, he sent his only son, Jesus, into the world to show us what love in action looks like.  To truly love the people around us, we need to see them as God sees them.  We have talked about loving when there is a rift in our relationship, and how love leads us to service.
            Today we are going to look at another central aspect of love, and one that mothers demonstrate in spades.  Love is sacrificial.  This means that if we truly love someone, we are willing to sacrifice ourselves for them.
            To explore this, we are again going to look at the marvelous First Letter of St. John, from which we heard in today’s second reading.  He writes, “Beloved, let us love one another, because love is of God” (1 John 4:7).  St. John is reminding us that love is not just something that God does or has for us.  Rather love is what God is, it is his very nature.
            This is important because it colors the way we should think about God.  The pagan gods did not love human beings.  They were often angry and vengeful.  But the true God that Jesus revealed to us is love.  When we think of God, we should not imagine a judge or teacher or disciplinarian or even Santa.  When we think of God we should think about love in its fullness.
            Building on what he just wrote, St. John continues, “Everyone who loves is begotten by God and knows God.  Whoever is without love does not know God, for God is love” (1 John 4:7-8).  Just as you can’t think about Italian food without thinking about pasta, or summer at the shore without the smell of sunscreen, you cannot separate love and God.
            St. John then writes, “In this way the love of God was revealed to us:  God sent his only Son into the world so that we might have life through him” (1 John 4:9).  There is a temptation to take this statement for granted.  Yeah, we know that Jesus is God’s only son, and he came to earth to suffer and die for us, and on Easter he rose from the dead.  On one hand, it is good that we know that by heart, but on the other hand it is bad because we don’t really think about how awesome that fact is.
            Think about that ocean we see at the shore:  how big it is, the power of its waves.  Maybe you are more of a mountains kind of person.  So, think about how many thousands of years ago they were formed.  How many of you have been marveling at the pictures being sent back from Mars by the Ingenuity Mars helicopter and Perseverance rover?  Just think about how many millions of miles those pictures are coming from, and the technical marvel of sending those probes to Mars.
            Well, God created the oceans, the mountains, Mars, and the other planets.  God created everything, even the universe itself.  Our big and powerful and perfect God, who is worthy of adoration and worship and infinite glory… chose to leave heaven’s perfection, to make himself so small, to enter into our universe and galaxy and solar system and to be born on earth as a baby in a manger.  He denied himself of his rights and privileges, his authority and power and control to become man, to get headaches and stub his toe, to feel pain and suffering.  Why did he sacrifice all of that?  Why did he demonstrate such sacrificial love for us?
            St. John has already told us the answer, “…so that we might have life through him.”  But there is even more, “In this is love:  not that we have loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as expiation for our sins” (1 John 4:10).  Jesus died to pay the price for our sins.  He denied himself what he deserved for our good.  That is the ultimate definition of sacrificial love.
            Unfortunately, our second reading ends one verse short, in my opinion.  St. John has described the sacrificial love that God has for us, but he also writes how we are to respond, “Beloved, if God so loved us, we also must love one another” (1 John 4:11).  If we are going to be God’s beloved, then we need to BE LOVE to those around us.
            Since it is Mother’s Day, just think about all the ways that your mother has made sacrifices for you and your siblings over the years.  When I was around 5 years old, the first Apollo mission landed on the moon.  Of course, it was on TV, pretty much 24-hours a day.  I, unfortunately, also had a very bad case of chicken pox.  I was miserable with the fever and itching.  I could not sleep.  Mom could have just put the lotion on me, and left me miserable watching the astronauts, and gone to bed.  Well, no she couldn’t because she was a Mom, so she denied herself sleep to stay up with me and did everything she could think of to make me comfortable.  It is memory of sacrificial love I remember and treasure.
            Today’s Gospel reading confirms what St. John wrote about sacrificial love (well, actually St. John was repeating what Jesus taught) when Jesus says, “No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends” (John 15:12-13).
            Beloved, be loved, and then be love.