DO YOU LOVE ME?

INTRODUCTION

The title of my homily for this 3 Sunday after Easter - C - is, “Do You Love Me?”

Perhaps the best way of doing this homily would be for everyone here in the church to come up to the microphone one by one and ask, "Do you love me?"

At first some might yell out to the person who asked the question, "Yes!"  

Then as everyone began hearing everyone ask the question, I can hear the answer getting louder and louder and louder: "Yes! Yes! Yes!"

It would take a bit of time, but I guarantee it would be the one sermon you would remember for the rest of your life - not the following homily, I'm about to preach.

Once more, the title of my homily is, "Do You Love Me?"

Today’s readings have various topics and themes to think about - to pray with - to preach about - to be challenged with - too, too many in fact.

SOME QUESTIONS

What do these readings say to you in your life today?

·        Whom do I obey: God, Self, Others?  [First Reading]

·        Am I scared or hesitant to be labeled a Christian - a follower of Jesus? [First Reading]

·        Am I here at Mass to praise God - to sing praise to the Lord, to give thanks to God? [Psalm Response]

·        When I praise God - when I praise the Lamb - do I say a loud “Amen” and see myself saying that with every creature on earth and under the earth and in the sea, with everything in the universe? [Today’s Second Reading]

·        What have I caught in my life or have I come up empty? [Today’s Gospel]

·        Whom Do I feed? Who has fed me? [Today’s Gospel]

·        Do I hear Jesus - and how he has forgiven me the times I have denied him - like Peter denied Jesus? [Today’s Gospel]

·        Do I hear Jesus’ question: “Do you love me?”

ONE TOPIC - ONE THEME

Today I’d like to think about the “Do You Love Me?” question.

It’s a topic and a theme we all deal with all the time - knowingly and unknowingly - sometimes down deep more than other times.

I sense it’s the number # 1 motive in life: to be loved and to love.

Who loves me? Whom do I love?

Remember that was Kojak’s question: “Who loves ya, baby?”

[LONG, LONG, LONG PAUSE]   Who loves you?

A sermon on this topic can impact us.

I can never forget a scene I saw on a late night talk show when Sammy Davis Jr. was asked, “Why do you always say to people, ‘I love you”? And he said that he had a buddy whom he loved, but he never told him he loved him. The buddy was killed in an accident. So Sammy Davis said he made a life resolution: “If I love someone, I’m going to tell them ‘I love you!’”

My mom and dad loved us four kids big time. It was never an issue with me. However,  I didn’t remember them specifically saying that. I know it was a big issue for some people. I used to call my mom every Sunday - my father had died way back in 1970. So that Sunday night after hearing Sammy Davis Jr’s comment on why he said, “I love you!”, I said that to my mom at the end of my phone call, “I love you”, and she paused and then said, “Love you!”

I did that every Sunday - and every Sunday I got the “Love you!” but never the “I” in the “I love you.” 

On the night before my brother was to have his cancer brain tumor operation from melanoma, I called him in the hospital and said, “I love you!” and he said back, “I love you too!” Those were his last 4 words to me - dying the next day after his brain operation.

Who loves you?

After having been on a lot of high school retreats - and having listened to a lot of today’s kids and people, there are a lot fewer comments from people saying, “My parents never told me they love me?” We have improved on that - as well as the hugs.

BIG DISTINCTION: ACTION SPEAKS LOUDER THAN WORDS

When it comes to love, we all know that there is a big distinction between words and actions.

Actions speak louder than words.

In fact, if people say they love us, but rarely show it - or show indifference on lack of caring - the words, “I love you” can become a trigger for anger or frustration.

Moreover, we’ve all heard in many sermons - especially those on today’s gospel - the Fiddler on the Roof commentary about “I love you” - when Tevye asks his wife, Golde,  if she loves him. She can’t say the words. She can only talk about what she does for him. Tevye won’t give up and keeps asking her. At one point in the song - in the play - she sings,

Do I love you?
For twenty-five years I've washed your clothes
Cooked your meals, cleaned your house
Given you children, milked the cow
After twenty-five years, why talk about love right now?

She still won’t say it.

He asks again and she answers, “I’m your wife.”

He answers back, “I know… But do you love me?

She answers - sort of to the audience,

Do I love him?
For twenty-five years I've lived with him
Fought with him, starved with him
Twenty-five years my bed is his
If that's not love, what is?

Tevye says, “Then you love me?”

Golde answers, “I suppose I do.”

Tevye then says, “And I suppose I love you too.”

Then both end the song with these words,

It doesn't change a thing
But even so
After twenty-five years
It's nice to know.

TODAY’S GOSPEL

So Jesus fiddles with his disciple Peter at the lakeside here at the end of John’s gospel and asks him 3 times, “Do you love me?” “Do you love me?”  “Do you love me?”

And three times - Peter answers with growing frustration: “You know I love you!”

And three times Jesus tells Peter to do what Jesus did, “Feed …. Tend …. Feed my sheep.”

CONCLUSION

Obviously the Church, the family, every marriage would work - if everyone loved one another - gave of themselves to one another - totally like Jesus did.

Obviously we who come to Mass to come to communion know this: we come here to be fed, to be loved by Jesus and to then use that energy to love one another. Amen. But it’s also nice to hear it every once and a while.