JOHN 15:9-17
Dear Friends, Some eleven and half weeks ago, we received the ashes with the command: “Repent and believe in the Good News.” During our common journey through Lent, hopefully, we have indeed repented and have also prepared ourselves to celebrate the great event of our faith, the Pascal Mystery of Christ’s Death and Resurrection. We are now entering the sixth week of Easter. During these days after Easter, we have been invited to embrace the great mystery of the final victory over death and our call to life eternal.
For the first three Sundays after Easter, we have been encouraged to measure our life’s daily experience with the unfolding revelation of Christ in the post-Easter appearances. Last week, we were invited to encounter Jesus, the privileged manifestation of God, as the true vine. As part of the vine, we experience the ever-present stream of God’s grace calling us to the fullness of life both now, and ultimately, in our personal resurrection.
In today’s readings, we have the simple but overwhelming proclamation that God is love. Our life’s goal is to accept that love and let it define our relations with God and our sisters and brothers. “As the Father loves me, so I also love you. Remain in my love.” (John 15:9)
In today’s second reading from the First Letter of John, we have the conclusion of all revelation: “God is love.” (1 John 4:8) In the Gospel, we are called to share that love that is our gift in the Risen Christ.
Today’s Gospel makes clear that first and foremost, we are loved by Christ. This joyful message is repeated over and over again. In this love, we are called to keep his commandments. Jesus is calling us beyond the commandments of the Law. Jesus is asking us to love as he loves. “This is my commandment: love one another as I love you.” (Jn 15:12)
Jesus is challenging us to open our hearts to love in a way that mirrors his total gift of self. We need to keep this ideal before us at all times. It will deliver us from the relentless pull of mediocrity and compromise. It will make our faith pulsate with life.
In the first reading, we are challenged to accept the new horizons of Jesus’ love. It is hard for us to appreciate earth-shattering experience of Peter and his companions when Cornelius and the others received the Holy Spirit. Thousands of years of Jewish privilege and exclusivity as God’s Chosen People were being confronted. It would take the early Church generations of struggle to overcome the ingrained prejudice and sense of privilege involved in accepting the Gentiles into the new Christian community.
The struggle continues in our own day in our Church, in our society and in our own heart. The political divide based on cultural conflict and a sense of exclusive ownership continues to divide and escalate hostility. Issues of race, gender, sexuality, economics and, the always divisive reality of religion, continue to be towering complications to today’s Gospel command: “Love one another.” (John 15: 11) The immeasurable and unconditional horizons of Jesus’ teachings of love will be a never-ending test for our heart’s yearning for clear boundaries and guaranteed comfort. Jesus has given us an extremely high model of love to follow. It is Jesus’ sacrificial love proclaimed from the Cross.
In the wake of God’s call to universal love, the flawed human heart has an equally universal call: “but not those people!” We all participate in a collective prejudice rooted in fear and mistrust. It is propped up with pride, arrogance and wrapped in ignorance. It is called the human condition. It is a long trip for all of us before we can own Paul’s words: “There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free person, there is not male and female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus.” (Gal 3:28)
As we draw to the conclusion of the Easter Season, our task remains: to reflect on the glorious mystery of Christ Crucified and Christ Risen. It is our summons into the sea of mercy and love that is the Triune God revealed by Christ. We will do well to remember the significance of our beginning of this journey: “Repent and believe the Good News.”
For the first three Sundays after Easter, we have been encouraged to measure our life’s daily experience with the unfolding revelation of Christ in the post-Easter appearances. Last week, we were invited to encounter Jesus, the privileged manifestation of God, as the true vine. As part of the vine, we experience the ever-present stream of God’s grace calling us to the fullness of life both now, and ultimately, in our personal resurrection.
In today’s readings, we have the simple but overwhelming proclamation that God is love. Our life’s goal is to accept that love and let it define our relations with God and our sisters and brothers. “As the Father loves me, so I also love you. Remain in my love.” (John 15:9)
In today’s second reading from the First Letter of John, we have the conclusion of all revelation: “God is love.” (1 John 4:8) In the Gospel, we are called to share that love that is our gift in the Risen Christ.
Today’s Gospel makes clear that first and foremost, we are loved by Christ. This joyful message is repeated over and over again. In this love, we are called to keep his commandments. Jesus is calling us beyond the commandments of the Law. Jesus is asking us to love as he loves. “This is my commandment: love one another as I love you.” (Jn 15:12)
Jesus is challenging us to open our hearts to love in a way that mirrors his total gift of self. We need to keep this ideal before us at all times. It will deliver us from the relentless pull of mediocrity and compromise. It will make our faith pulsate with life.
In the first reading, we are challenged to accept the new horizons of Jesus’ love. It is hard for us to appreciate earth-shattering experience of Peter and his companions when Cornelius and the others received the Holy Spirit. Thousands of years of Jewish privilege and exclusivity as God’s Chosen People were being confronted. It would take the early Church generations of struggle to overcome the ingrained prejudice and sense of privilege involved in accepting the Gentiles into the new Christian community.
The struggle continues in our own day in our Church, in our society and in our own heart. The political divide based on cultural conflict and a sense of exclusive ownership continues to divide and escalate hostility. Issues of race, gender, sexuality, economics and, the always divisive reality of religion, continue to be towering complications to today’s Gospel command: “Love one another.” (John 15: 11) The immeasurable and unconditional horizons of Jesus’ teachings of love will be a never-ending test for our heart’s yearning for clear boundaries and guaranteed comfort. Jesus has given us an extremely high model of love to follow. It is Jesus’ sacrificial love proclaimed from the Cross.
In the wake of God’s call to universal love, the flawed human heart has an equally universal call: “but not those people!” We all participate in a collective prejudice rooted in fear and mistrust. It is propped up with pride, arrogance and wrapped in ignorance. It is called the human condition. It is a long trip for all of us before we can own Paul’s words: “There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free person, there is not male and female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus.” (Gal 3:28)
As we draw to the conclusion of the Easter Season, our task remains: to reflect on the glorious mystery of Christ Crucified and Christ Risen. It is our summons into the sea of mercy and love that is the Triune God revealed by Christ. We will do well to remember the significance of our beginning of this journey: “Repent and believe the Good News.”
