“As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you.” There is one thing everyone can do: we can love God and his Son Jesus, and we can love our neighbor – that is, any person who is near us – as we love ourselves. God created us to love; He created us so that we might all love each other with only one heart, one soul. God created us so that, one day, we might receive within us his Son Jesus and, through Him, all the love he is in person as God, the Son and image of the Father.

“You did not choose me, but I chose you.” These words of Christ apply to each one of us, we who believe in Him, the Savior of the world. Whether it be by our priesthood, or by our baptism and our confirmation in Christ, each one of us was chosen by the Son of God to be an adoptive son of the Father in the Spirit. Each one of us has a mission to fulfill: that of spreading forth the love of God throughout the world for the glory of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. If we love God and our neighbor, then we will bear fruit and the love of God will overcome evil.

In celebrating the Eucharist today, let us ask Mary, the Mother of Jesus , to teach us how to know and to love Jesus. May Mary make us Apostles of Love, for the glory of the Father!