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Sixth Sunday of Easter – Liane Delsuc, SNDdeN

May 5, 2024

John 15: 9-17

John 15:9-17   A Call,a Challenge, a Promise

In today’s gospel, we hear a call, a challenge, a promise from Jesus.  The reading invites us to reflect on the incredible mystery of Love revealed by Jesus and our response to it.

Jesus says, “Remain in my love” and “Love one another as I have loved you.”  He calls his disciples and us to be friends.  Jesus opens himself to the possibility of friendship, trusting, risking. “I have made known to you everything.”  And so we ask ourselves: To whom am I a friend?  How open am I to friendship?  To self-revelation?  How wide is my tent?  Who sits at my table?

Jesus’ own life witnesses to the unconditional acceptance of the other and the immense love of our God. Do I believe I am so loved?  That I am chosen and commissioned?  Capable of the challenge presented by Jesus at the last supper: “Do this in memory of me”?  “A man can have no greater love than to lay down his life for his friends.” We are called to give ourselves, body and blood, for others.  How do I respond to this challenge?  As a spouse, a partner, a friend, a sister or brother, a mother or father, a daughter or son, a volunteer, a pray-er?

Jesus, the Way, the Truth and the Life, shows us that love is the way. He wants us to understand so that his own joy may be in us and our joy be complete.  When have I most experienced this promise of peace and joy?

Life experience reveals that as we love, we are gifted with deep peace and joy, so let us give thanks to our Good God who has embedded this Mystery of Love deep within our human hearts

 

John 15: 9-17

Jesus said to his disciples: “As the Father loves me, so I also love you. Remain in my love. If you keep my commandments, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father”s commandments and remain in his love.”

“I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and your joy might be complete. This is my commandment: love one another as I love you. No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. You are my friends if you do what I command you. I no longer call you slaves, because a slave does not know what his master is doing. I have called you friends, because I have told you everything I have heard from my Father. It was not you who chose me, but I who chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit that will remain, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name he may give you. This I command you: love one another.”

The Gospel of the Lord

 

 

Meet Sister Liane Delsuc, SNDdeN

Sister Liane Delsuc entered the Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur in 1975 after having graduated from the College of Notre Dame, Belmont, CA with a Spanish major and an elementary teaching credential. She taught in a bilingual program in a low income multi-ethnic public school before entering. She had been taught by the SNDdeNs in Millbrae, CA at St. Dunstan School and was impressed with the story of St. Julie in the second grade, where she drew a picture of Julie in the hay cart. Her teaching experience led her to a Master’s program and specialist credential in the area of Education of the Learning Handicapped. For all of her religious life, Liane has chosen to live and serve among people who are marginalized and made poor. Her first mission was to inner city Los Angeles where she developed a Resource Room in two Catholic elementary schools to serve children struggling to learn. That experience led her to create the Julie Billiart Learning Center in East L.A. to serve junior high students with learning disabilities. From there, Sister Liane responded to a call to serve in a shantytown outside of Lima, Peru, where she lived and worked for 16 years. When she felt a call to return to CA, Liane started a Resource Room for struggling students at Moreland Notre Dame School, Watsonville, CA, founded by the SNDdeNs and situated in an agricultural community on the Central Coast. After 16 years there, Liane began her ministry of teaching ESL/Citizenship classes to adults in Phoenix, AZ and presently serves asylum seekers through the International Rescue Committee.