 love you. I love you with an everlasting love. Our theme is that realization that the Father delights in us. And that's just not a pious thought that's reality. The Father delights in us. Last night I began my reflection with you by quoting Ephesians 3 Ephesians 1 3 to 6 where it says that God chose us in Christ Jesus before the world began to be holy. To be blameless in his sight and in one translation to be full of love. Why does God put that as our goal? Why does God make that his desire for us before the world began? That we be holy, blameless in his sight and full of love. Why did we hear in the Gospel today, be perfect just as your Heavenly Father is perfect? That call to holiness is a call that we've got to be conscious of. And it's not something we say yes to and just go about our business. But it's a consciousness that we want to be aware of every day of our lives. We're called to be holy. And what is Jesus in the Gospel says that love your enemies? Why does love become so important to Jesus? Because we know that God is holy and God is love. And that the whole God and love and God holy is all the same thing. That God is the holy lover. And that God desires us to be holy lovers. As we remember the commands that God gives us, a very simple commands. Love God with your whole mind, heart, and soul. And love your neighbor as yourself. Or as Jesus says, love as I have loved you. And so Jesus makes love the key of our relationship with him. And he says that you love your enemies. Why? Because the Father and I, Jesus, we have loved you who were enemies. Paul tells us that it wasn't because we were friends that Jesus chose to die for us. But when we were enemies, when we were alienated from him, because of sin, he chose to die for us. God so loved the world that he gave us his only begotten son. Greater love has no one than laid down his life for his friends. And so Jesus is saying, I want you to love the way I have loved. And therefore it should not be anything that we find strange or unusual when he says love your enemies as I have loved you. Love and holiness are interchangeable. And there's a process by which we grow into into holiness and love. And it's really impacted by motivation. There's a psychiatrist many years ago that called Piaget. And he said something that struck me and I've reflected on it many, many, many times and I've used it many times. He says there's a process of growth and steps in love and holiness. He says the first step is fear of punishment. I love or I say I love because I'm afraid of punishment. What's in perfect act of contrition? I've sinned. I dread the loss of hell. That's our motivation. We're choosing to act because of this loss of fear of punishment. Or he says the second motivation is a little step higher is a hope for reward. I ask God to forgive us my sins so that I may not lose the lights of heaven. I may not lose heaven. The third motivation he says we act out of obligation. The law says me to do this and therefore I choose to act because the law tells me to do this and maybe if I follow the law then I'm going to be saved. The fourth step he says is I choose to do this because I want to please people. And the fourth the fifth step he says I'm sorry the fourth step he says is I choose to do this out of love. But basically because I want people to love me. I love those who love me. He says the final step is I choose to do what I do out of love of God. That's the ultimate call. That's the ultimate motivation that God is calling us to embrace. But as we know love is a process and holiness is a process. And where does the process begins? It begins as we heard in the first reading if I can find it very quickly. I can't find it very quickly. They gave themselves first to the Lord. They gave themselves first to the Lord. That personal encounter with Jesus Christ is the beginning of holiness. When we really enter into that first initial encounter with Jesus Christ. This is what Pope Francis has been talking about and Pope Benedict and Pope John Paul II have been talking about over these years that we have to have a personal encounter with Jesus Christ. But that is not just a one time event that because of that personal encounter that something stirs within us that we want more and more. And if you look at Peter's life journey we see how that those encounters in Peter's life made a difference in his life to the point where he came to know that he knew that he loved Jesus. Do you love me Peter? Yes I do. Do you really love me Peter? Yes I do. Do you love me more than others? Yes I do. Peter has come from a long distance of encounters with Jesus, failures and and shortcomings and putting his foot in his mouth but he kept growing and growing in this relationship with Jesus Christ and to the point where he said I love you. And when he came to that point Jesus says now follow me. Now follow me because your love is going to take you to embrace the cross. The thing that you fear the most. The thing that you ran away from. Now you're going to embrace it because of love for me. And so we are reminded ourselves do we love God the way we're called to love God? Are we growing in this this this love of God? Are we growing in holiness? Remind me of a couple of stories. One story you probably heard me say but it's one of my favorite stories about about holiness. The story goes that there was a young man who wanted to be a holy and he found this Abba in the desert and he says Abba I want to be holy as you are holy. And the Abba just looked at him and walked away and the young man was stunned that the Abba didn't didn't respond to him and as the Abba walked about 20 feet away he turned and he beckoned to the young young man to follow him and they walked for many miles not talking just walking and they came to a large body of water lake and they stood at the edge of the lake and Abba looked at the young man and the young man looked at the Abba and the Abba just walked right into the water and when he got to chest deep he turned around and he beckoned the young man to follow him and the young man followed the Abba into the water until he came next to him chest deep and all of a sudden without warning the Abba grabbed the head of the the hair of the head of the man and he shoved it into the water and held it and of course the young man was not expecting this and therefore he was he didn't have that much air in his lungs and he began to struggle trying not to drown and breathe in water and after a while the Abba lifted his head he would and he took his hair again and he shoved it down and held it a second time even longer and the young man thought he was gonna drown and when he came to the almost that point he the Abba just lifted this head a second time and he went a third time he went under this time he held it longer until bubbles start coming out of the nostrils and the mouth of the young man and finally the Abba lifted and let it go and the man what are you trying to do you're trying to drown me and this is the moral he says when you desire God as much as you desire the breath in your lungs then you will be holy when you desire God as much as you desire the breath in your lungs then you will be holy that's what God is calling us to he's calling us to desire him because he has desired us already you're my beloved son in whom I'm well please I've given you my life I've given you everything do you desire me as much as I desire you do you want to desire me as much as I desire you do you want to be perfected as I am perfect do you want to be holy as I am holy that's the question that's the question and how do we know we were there how do we know we were coming close to that to that moment we don't we will not know others will know others will see but we can't see as long as we're trying to grow deeper and deeper and deeper into this oneness with God into this union that God calls us into into this love that God calls us into others will see that leads me to my second story second story is that mother was in church with her daughter who was about six years old and she was explaining the stained glass windows in the church of the different saints and the little girl said mommy what's a saint and the mother so it was taken aback and she was trying to figure out how can she tell a six-year-old what a saint is and she's stumbling for words and all of a sudden the the sun is shown right through the stained glass windows and she says mommy mommy I know what a saint is a saint is one through whom the sun shines through to the son of God shine through you and me can people see God in us can see can people see God's love in us can people see the the presence of God in us if they can the son of God is shining through us be holy as I your God am holy