The First Reading illustrates Peter's supremacy among the Apostles, as Cornelius tries to pay homage to him and it is Peter who reveals the greater understanding of God's Will for the Gentiles.
The Psalmist in the Responsorial Psalm rejoices in the faithful saving hand of God for His People. Through willing and unwilling people, through natural and supernatural events God acts to save His people.
In the Second Reading St. John speaks of true love,
that love that acts first without receiving anything in return.
God created us - knowing all who would forever reject Him,
but loving them anyway and loving all of us enough to both create us and endure the sorrow we would cause Him. Through Jesus we were saved, God acting in love before we loved enough to ask.
Sunday's Gospel could almost be a lecture to our children.
Jesus says what every parent feels for their child -
"I love and give you directions for life only because
I want to help you attain the greatest good
- not because I just want to give you rules or have you do things for me.
And top priority in that is to love one another."
This isn't, "let them walk over me" love or
the love that "gives whatever they feel they have to have."
Instead this is, "What is best for you?" love.
Touching a hot stove, bad. Supplying another fix for an addict, bad. Continuing with someone in an inappropriate relationship, bad.
No matter how much the person feels a need for something,
love sometimes requires denial to open the path to the greatest good. But true love brings with the denial an accompaniment
of compassion and mercy enacted with gentle firmness and
including all the assistance that can be managed
for helping the loved one learn to live beyond the longing.
