"Love, love, love. . .All you need is love"  John Lennon and Paul McCartney were on to something.  Something that captures everything about God, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit.  Something that all three of today’s readings are trying to convey to us.
                 
Let’s consider the readings in their historical order.  First, in our Gospel, spoken at the Last Supper after His teaching on the vine and branches, Jesus tries to express to His disciples how much He loves them and how empowering that love is.  He uses the example of God the Father’s relationship of love with Him.  The apostles know how central and sustaining that has been to who Jesus is and to His ministry of love. That same sustaining love is offered to them, to us, when we remain close to Him. 
                 
Second, today’s Reading from the Acts of the Apostles speaks to us about St. Peter’s ongoing relationship of faithful love with God.  It allows Peter to continue to go beyond his limits of vision and belief, so that he is able to tell Cornelius with confidence that God shows no partiality, but rather loves everyone who believes in Jesus and acts in accordance with their belief (in this case, both the circumcised and the uncircumcised). 
                 
Finally, the beautiful poem we hear in the Second Reading from the first Letter of St. John sweeps us up into the love that the other two readings proclaim.  Let us love one another, because love is of God. . . In this is love: not that we have loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as expiation for our sins.
           
"All you need is love." This is our Easter joy.  This is the who, what, and why of the Paschal Mystery of Christ’s life, death, resurrection, and ascension that we participate in each day.   But as we now in life abide in Christ, our death, resurrection, and ascension are not yet complete.  Just as it took Peter continued conversion in his relationship with the risen Lord to receive the wisdom of the Holy Spirit, enlightening him to greater understanding of God’s ways and to expansiveness in his love and acceptance of others, so too we are invited to our own ongoing conversion. 
                 
But what an invitation!  Lennon and McCartney were onto something.  He wrote: "There’s nothing you can do, but you can learn how to be you in time. . .There’s nowhere you can be that isn’t where you’re meant to be.  All you need is love." Jesus assures us, all we need is Love.  He said “ I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and your joy might be complete.  May our joy be complete!

God shows no partiality, but often we do.  Consider this week those persons or groups you may be tempted to exclude from your love and acceptance and pray for your conversion.