A Reflection from the Fuel Daily Readings App for the Sixth Sunday of Easter 2021. Click here to read the reading.

How we love those around us develops over time. As a baby, simply smiling at your parents showed them an immense indescribable amount of love. When we go deeper into a relationship with someone we’re dating, it can look like spending time together, acts of service and lots of other little ways to show how you feel. In Marriage, we are called to live and love in unity as a family. I’ll never forget on my wedding day, thinking about how I was called to love my wife as Christ loves the Church.

The call of Jesus for us to love each other by laying our very life down is hardcore! It is this kind of sacrificial love that we need to give, but also to recognise that we have already received it from Jesus.

In today’s Gospel, Jesus gives the commandment: “Love each other in the same way I have loved you.” It’s a double reminder for us. We are first loved by Jesus in the ultimate act of sacrifice, the love of Calvary. From within that love, we too are called to follow this example of radical love in our own life.

Love isn’t just about the nice feelings, it is about a life generously lived in a trusting embrace of God’s promise, loving others as we have been loved. In faith, we too can receive the grace to give this kind of love today.

+ Lord, teach me to love like you. As the ultimate role model, you show us the way of Your heart. Give me the grace and faith to be more like You today. Amen.