Sixth Sunday Easter 5 10 2026 Deacon Louis Zemlick Love, Love, Love

Acts 8:5-8, 14-17 CCC is Catechism Catholic Church CCC699,1288,1316,2121

Psalm 66:1-7, 16-17 No CCC teaching meditate on one Word in your Heart.

1 Peter 3:15-18 CCC632 Christ rescues us from Sin, will you rescue your Family ?

Gospel John 14:15-21 CCC243,687,692,729,788,2615,2671 Come Holy Spirit.

Happy Mothers Day

Our Lady of: everyone Pray for us....DeaconLouisZemlick.com

LOVE

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Hello everyone. This is Deacon Louis Emlich here in the Diocese of Kalmazou. We're glad you're with us here today to talk and read the beautiful scriptures for the sixth Sunday of Easter. And uh we got some nice uh music going from the Dominican Sisters, Mary, Mother of the Eucharist in the background that uh I've got on. And and uh I know I forgot that the last couple of weeks, and um so hopefully that will kind of soften the tone a little bit. That's from this from their Christmas album, too. But most importantly today is Mother's Day. Happy Mother's Day to all the mothers, grandmothers, and spiritual mothers as well. You know, mothers who uh, you know, like the sisters, like the sisters who consecrate, give their lives uh for us. Uh they are mothers. They are uh they are women, right? They are this great gift that God has given us. Um and the greatest gift of all, of course, not only our own mothers, but um the Blessed Virgin Mary, the mother of Jesus Christ, who said yes, who offered herself in total service to Jesus Christ, to God uh and to us as well, too, right? So it's kind of uh it's very shocking. But we're gonna talk about that today in a very special way. Do I give myself to God? Um, do I give myself to others? Do I do I give myself totally to the other? And um this spousal relationship that all of us through our baptism are called to give to God. See, and uh I know for myself personally, I know I'm not a hundred percent there, nowhere near. Maybe I'm 52% of the way there. Um, and that's with a lot of prayer and ordination and and uh uh uh a lot of encouragement from my children and from my grandchildren. And um, yeah, it's so beautiful. So um looking forward to preaching this weekend too, because you know, and and we'll talk about that too. But let me, I got to get to the scriptures. I know I need to read the scriptures, but I got a lot of things that I want to talk about. So Mother's Day, and of course, this week, uh in many other parts of the major cities of the country, you know, Boston and what have they got on here? They got Boston and the provinces of Boston, Hartford, New York, Omaha, and Philadelphia. Apparently they can have a regular Ascension Thursday, but we can't. So it's like, I don't know. So this is a this is a whole nother thing. And actually, it almost would be a preaching point for me, right? And uh that here we are with a discipline, and that's what these things are, is discipline. We make it, we're making a choice whether to go to the basketball game or whether we're gonna go to church, right? And uh it's it's very sad because well what do we choose? We choose the basketball game, you know, or the soccer game or or whatever, instead of choosing God. I I make this mistake too, okay? I'm a human being just like the rest of you out there, right? And what is my dedication to God? And what is the world's dedication to God? And I and I think we kind of almost get caught up into this thing that you know, more people should be going to church. Well, yeah, sure, that would be great, but it's still gonna be a low number. It's still gonna be a low number, my brothers and sisters. And most of the people who are going to church, you know, just like you know, people who go to recovery meetings or AA meetings or NA meetings or gamblers anonymous meetings, you know, they have to go. I have to go. We realize that our very lives depend upon it. Well, yours does too. Your mental health depends on it, your marriage depends on it, your relationship with your children, your relationship with God, and God forbid you become addicted to something. I think we're all kind of addicted to something, right? And to disconnect from that. And how do we do that? The greatest way we just we do we're able to do that is to be of service to the other. See? Whether that be our spouse or whether it be our family or whether it be working at the soup kitchen or serving at your parish or any of those things will do, right? Because you get outside of your own head, you get outside of yourself and you start to think about the other, the other person. What can I do to help? What does God what does what is God calling me to do? And also, you know, praying the rosary, very important. You know, there's there's actually a group of Protestant men out there that are that are praying the rosary, and they're they see a difference. They see a difference. And and then finally, this, my brothers and sisters, you know, I've I've you know, I know May is the month of Barry, but it's also a mental illness month as well, uh, where we really need to start thinking about our mental health. And uh I know recently there's been some tragedies. There's tragedies every day, my brothers and sisters, the people taking their lives. And I had occasion this last week to mention it to uh a young lady that make sure that she had phone numbers of the other uh people, other women, to make sure that if she's feeling down to call, to call one of these other ladies. And uh, a miracle story that I heard on EWTN about a uh a young lady, you know, and she very long illness and such, but then she got better, and then people were like, oh, you gotta be so grateful, blah, blah, blah. And she was still suffering from depression, she's still suffering from suicidal thoughts. It's a big deal, my brothers and sisters. It's a big deal. And sometimes you see the person who's got a big smile on their face. We're gonna talk about smiles too later, but they're not necessarily okay. See? Just like for us, sometimes we put on the happy face, where we put on the sad, we put on a different face, see? And we have to avoid that. We got to talk about that because we need to be honest about how we're feeling, why we're feeling, how we're feeling. And another thing, too, is that staying in the day, staying in the moment, not projecting into the future and not staring at the past. So there's my sermon before my sermon, and yeah, seven minutes. So, yeah, I could probably talk for an hour, but we're not going to do that. So let's go right into the scriptures. This is the sixth Sunday of Easter. Uh, the ascension of the Lord is this Thursday, the 14th, the day after our the feast of Our Lady of Fatima. Woo-hoo! And um looking forward to that too. So we have Acts of the Apostles and also this week a lot of saints, right? Saint Damien, Saint John of Avila, Saint Comigal, Saint Ottumus, uh, the Carthusian martyrs on 511. Uh the king of who the king of England murdered a whole bunch of uh Catholic priests and Catholic men and women. Um and then on the 12th he did it again, killed a whole bunch more, murdered them. Murdered them. Martyrs, right? Because his church was the best, because it's his way or the highway, right? Happened all over Europe, my brothers and sisters. Still happens to today in Africa. Our Muslim brothers and sisters, this uh if it's a religion of peace, they sure are killing a lot of people, and that's not good. If you're a religion of peace, do not murder people, do not murder people, right? So here we go. Uh Acts of the Apostles, chapter 8, verses 5 through 8, 14 through 17. Philip went down to the city of Samaria and proclaimed the Christ to them. With one accord, the crowds paid attention to what was said by Philip. When they heard it, they saw the signs and that he was doing, for unclean spirits cried out in a loud voice, came out of many possessed people, and many paralyzed or crippled people were cured. There was great joy in that city. Now, when the apostles in Jerusalem heard that Samaria had accepted the word of God, they sent them to Peter and John, who went down and prayed for them, that they might receive the Holy Spirit, for that had not yet fallen upon them, and they had only been baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. Then they laid hands on them, and they received the Holy Spirit, the word of the Lord. Thanks be to God. Our responsorial psalm is Psalm 66, verses one through seven, and then verse sixteen and twenty. Hallelujah. Shout joyfully to God all the earth, sing praise to the glory of his name, proclaim his glorious praise, say to God how tremendous are your deeds. Hallelujah. Let all the earth worship and sing praise to you, sing praise to your name. Come and see the works of God, his tremendous deeds among the children of Adam. Hallelujah. He has changed the sea into dry land, though the river they passed on foot. Therefore let us rejoice in him. He rules by his might forever.

SPEAKER_01 10:21

Alleluia.

SPEAKER_00 10:23

Hear now all you who fear God, while I declare what he has done for me. Blessed be God who refuse me not my prayer for his kindness. Alleluia. Our second reading is from first Peter, could be considered our third reading. First Peter verses three, fifteen through eighteen. Beloved, sanctify Christ as Lord in your hearts. Always be ready to give an explanation to anyone who asks you for a reason for your hope, but do it with gentleness and reverence, keeping your cons keeping your conscience clear, so that when you are maligned, those who defame your good conduct in Christ may themselves be put to shame. For it is better to suffer for doing good if that will be the will of God than for doing evil. For Christ also suffered for sins once, the righteous for the sake of the unrighteous, that he might lead you to God, put to death in the flesh, it was brought to life in the spirit, the word of the Lord. Thanks be to God. Glory to you, O Lord. Jesus said to his disciples, If you love me, you will keep my commandments, and I will ask the Father, and He will give you another advocate to be with you always, the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot accept, because it neither sees nor knows him, but you know him, because he remains with you and will be in you. I will not leave you orphans. I will come to you in a little while the world will no longer see me, but you will see me because I live in you, because I live and you will live. On that day, you will realize that I am in the Father, and you are and you are in me and I in you. Whoever has my commandments will observe them. It is the one who loves me. And whoever loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and reveal myself to him. The gospel of the Lord. Praise to you, Lord Jesus Christ. May the words of this gospel wipe away our sins. Well, welcome, my brothers and sisters. My name is Deacon Louis Zemelek here in the Diocese of Kelms in Michigan. We're glad you're with us here today. And um, while some great scriptures, great scripture readings. And uh, as I move around here to try to, you know, the sunshine is really coming in, which is really beautiful. But I'm gonna read those last two lines. I'm gonna probably have to do this at Mass too, because it's back and forth. Whoever has my commandments and observes them is the one who loves me. And whoever loves me will be loved by my father, and I will love him and reveal myself to him.

unknown 14:35

Wow.

SPEAKER_00 14:36

I mean, this is a gospel that should be read over and over and over and over again. And you know, John is very, of course, very spiritual, very, very spiritual, but also to remember how um how beautiful uh these scriptures are, and and and ultimately this to think about this, to not to condemn, which is very easy to do, but to convert, which takes work, right? As we prepare for the ascension of the Lord, Jesus is going to leave us this Thursday, he's going to leave us like he does every single year, and we will be looking up, wondering when he's going to return. But my brothers and sisters, if you have been baptized, if you receive the sacraments regularly, if you pray, if you go to mass, it's so important to go to mass, if you're connected, if you're listening, if you're studying, and if you are loving your spouse, your children, your family, practicing the faith, which means forgiveness. Forgiveness, did you hear that? Forgiveness. By the way, happy Mother's Day. And I know a few people out there, probably even some people who might even be listening, who you haven't talked to your mother in 20 years. Well, I'll tell you, my brothers and sisters, that's not living your faith. And I'm sorry if if you had difficulties with your mom, or if your mom had difficulties when she was growing up and she became, maybe she became a very mean and ugly person. Maybe that's true. But we have to work on forgiveness, my brothers and sisters. And sometimes we hold other people in bondage with these sins, right? The very, the very sins that we become, we become like our parents. We become like the parents that we hate. See? Because we start to hate and we become just like them. Cold, bitter, you know, uh, uh distant from our family, you know. But our relationships, my brothers and sisters, are very important. Very important our relationships and how we and how we handle those things. But let me let me read a few things from the catechism, uh, which I think will help us on our way here. These symbols of the Holy Spirit, even more poignantly, it is the apostles' imposition of hands, and the Holy Spirit is given, right? So it's act from this Acts of the Apostles and this confirmation in the economy of salvation from our first reading, right? From the catechism, we see baptism and we see confirmation. We see both of these sacraments, but we see the love being poured out, right? We also see this you shall not have other gods before me. This is also from Acts of the Apostles. This Simony, defined as the buying and selling of spiritual things, to Simon the Simon, the magician, who wanted to buy spiritual power, and he saw the work of the apostles, and Saint Peter responded, Your silver shall perish you, because you thought you could obtain God's gift with your money. You know, this is another thing, too. We talk about money. And I heard Father Mitch Paco do such a beautiful uh saying on the problem that they had with indulgences way back in the 1500s. And not that indulgences are bad because it's it's good when they're done properly, how the church does it, but when they they mixed indulgences with forgiveness, that's not good. But to understand why it happened, why it happened way back then. And I just want to touch on it real quickly. But it was uh from Father Mitch Pakla's show back on the uh May 6th on EWTN radio, and he was explaining it to um a gentleman who had called in. But it is back in the day, they had, you know, for for for adultery, the the punishment or the the the penance was was 20 years of bread and water, right? 20 years. So what did they find out? Because it was so severe, people wouldn't go to reconciliation. And of course, people wouldn't go and frequent the sacraments either. They wouldn't go for confession, right? So there you you you want to have a heavy penance, but you don't want it to be so heavy that it's unbearable. Now they tried to work this out in the Lateran Council, and uh it didn't work, well, it didn't work out fully, of course, because you know the reformation still happened, and that was a key point. That was part of it. Of course, they're trying to rebuild St. Peter's. Mm-hmm. So we think about that. That how are things in our lives? And it's the same thing that happens in our lives, my brothers and sisters, where we we enact, we enact such a severe punishment upon our family member that they can never come back. They can never come back because you have set the bar so high. You know, you are so righteous that they must do these things, they must perform these penances before you welcome them back into your love. Well, if that's the way you want to do it, that's the way you want to do it. I don't think that's what God wants. I don't think that's what the scriptures are telling us today either, that that's what God wants. And certainly it's not through through through um through all of human history. God wants us to love, pure love. I think this is the number one reason why people don't go to church. This is the number one reason why people don't want to believe in God, is because of, and it's not the rigor of God, it is not the rigor of God, even though we should fear God, but it is it is I want to have the right to destroy my own children. I want to have the right to get married and divorced five times, ten times, fifteen times. I want to do what I want to do. Now, that may sound kind of severe, but this is what human history is, my brothers and sisters. It's very difficult. I'm a human being just like you, right? So here we go with 1 Peter. This was the first meeting, and on our psalm reading, there's there was no catechism. Teaching. So here we go. This is the first meaning given to the apostolic preaching of Christ's descent into hell, that Jesus, like all men, experienced death, and in his soul joined others in the realm of the dead. But he descended there as Savior, proclaiming the good news to the spirits imprisoned there. Of course, that's from our from our reading today. This revelation of the Holy Trinity also, and this believing in the Holy Spirit. This is in regards to our gospel reading. Such properly divine self-enfacement explains why the world cannot receive him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. While those who believe in Christ know the Spirit because He dwells with them. As we wrestle with God, do we not? Wrestle with our families, wrestle with our relationships, wrestle with our ex-husbands or ex-wives, or maybe even ex-children. Children who have decided not to have anything to do with us. Very painful. But there is hope. There is always hope. And do not despair. There is always hope in Christ Jesus. And sometimes the hope is, is you let go. That they don't, you know, in these peace terms, we see the peace terms, we see this peace terms going back and forth between the United States and Iraq. We see this peace terms going on even in our neighborhoods, my brothers and sisters. And really the fact of the matter is, is we refuse to love. We refuse to love because Christ's love shows us. We die to self. We die to selfishness. And I see it, I see it, I see it more clearly now with my grandchildren, and I see it with with other people more clearly now. I see it more clearly now. Because my because of spiritual life, maybe, because of time, sure. I I'm sure because I'm in my 60s now, right? But my brothers and sisters, pray and forgive and love. You will become, and I feel like you know, maybe I'm 52% there, you will become the person you always wanted to be. You will be able to help people. You know, and I and I know there's people who are listening, who have people who are who are addicts, people who are uh uh fallen away from the church, people who are don't pray anymore, people who are angry with you or they're angry with me, politics, Facebook, get off Facebook, get rid of it. Get rid of it. Don't you know listen to something meaningful. Read a good book. Learn how to pray. Pray that our Father, pray of the pray the Hail Mary. But it's Mother's Day, my brothers and sisters. I just want to finish with this last thing about Saint Pope John Paul II. And I kind of finished it kind of rough last week because I didn't understand it, right? I'm gonna try to do this a little bit better. That is the the same man as male and female, knowing each other, Saint Pope John Paul II's theology of the body, each other in a specific community and communion of persons in which they are united so closely that each other as to become one flesh constitutes humanity. That is, they confirm and renew the essence of man as the image of God. This happens every time both of them, man and woman, take up again, so to speak, this image from the mystery of creation and transmit it with the help of the Lord God. The words of Genesis are a testimony to the first birth of man on earth. They enclose within them the same time everything that can and must be said in the dignity of human generation. Treat each other with dignity, treat yourself with dignity, forgive, love. These things are all very difficult, my brothers and sisters. I read that from Saint Pope John Paul II's Theology of the Body, this knowledge of the generation and the cycle of the perspective of death. See, death to self, death to self, to stop thinking about myself so much, to think about the other, see, to think about your wife, to think about your mother, to think about your husband, your children, your boss, your mother, your grandmother, your mother-in-law, your father. Think about where you have failed. Failed, and yet you refuse to pray. You know that you're wrong, and you refuse to forgive. You have locked yourself inside of your own prison, and you have thrown away the key. But Jesus has the key. God has the key and is calling you this very day, this very Mother's Day, five days before the ascension of Jesus Christ, three days before the feast of Our Lady of Fatima. Pick up a rosary and pray it every single day. Change your life. This be the day, right? May 10th, 2026, that your entire life changes, that you try to become the person you've always wanted to be. A child of God, to be healed from your traumas, past, present, and maybe even prepare you for traumas that will be in the future. Because they will come. The difficulties come, the storms come. It's a part of life. So, my brothers and sisters, I wanted to wish you a blessed Mother's Day. May Almighty God bless you all. In the name of the Father, the Son, the Holy Spirit. Amen. God bless you all. We love you. Call your mother, send her a card, pray for her, pray for your whole family, pray for forgiveness, pray for love. God bless you. We love you.