6^th Sunday of Easter (B);  May 9, 2021

Acts 10:25-26,34-35,44-48.  Ps 98.  1 Jn 4:7-10.  Jn 15:9-17

Deacon Jim McFadden

            Today’s Gospel—John Chapter 15—brings us back to the Last Supper, which contains our Lord’s  final, lengthy discourses.  Next to the Sermon of the Mount contained in Matthew’s Gospel, it’s the lengthiest account in the entire New Testament, which is why theologians and spiritual writers have paid so much attention to it.  To grasp the dynamics of these discourses is to grasp the heart of Christian spirituality, which behooves us to pay attention.

            There is a particular line in today’s Gospel, which unlocks the genius of Christianity.  What Jesus says to us is this: “It was not you who chose me, but I who chose you” (Jn 15:16a).  This statement runs contrary to much of contemporary spirituality, especially the New Age variety.  The latter emphasizes our search for meaning, our longing for peace, our self-realization.  We seek, we find, we climb the holy mountain.  Now, there’s nothing wrong within this quest because it is was spiritual seekers have done from time immemorial, which is shown in Mohammad withdrawing into the caves of Mecca or Siddhartha leaving his castle.  But this spiritual quest represents something qualitatively different from Christianity.

            Jesus puts us on an utterly different course.  What really counts is not our spiritual climbing the holy mountain, but that it is God seeking us out, God who pursues us up and down our lives; he relentlessly hunts us down like the Hound of Heaven so boldly depicted  by Francis Thompson.  It’s not so much that we have chosen Jesus, but that we are chosen.  To get that straight is to understand what Christianity is about, which means everything changes how we approach life.  Rather than figure out how I am going to discover God in my life, I’m going to cultivate  an attitude of radical surrender.  Put simply, I’m going to allow myself to be found.

            Until we do, we’re still living outside the Garden of Eden in which we immerse ourselves in our projects and plans in which we behave that “I am the center of my life, my life is about me, and I am in control.’   According to 20^th century German theologian Urs von Balthasar, we create a scenario  in which I am the architect of my life drama, in which I direct, produce, and write the play.  Egoically, I script everything in which I am the main player and I then work God into the play.  Even our spiritual quest fits this template.

            God is going to deconstruct this conceit.  When I encounter the real Jesus, the Risen Christ,  not my egoic projection, then I will slowly begin the process of surrender in which I allow God, the great I AM, to take me places where I am not the center, where my life is not about me, and where I am not in control.

            This the ultimate game-changer.  Rather than try to figure out how God fits into my life I am going to allow myself more and more to be found in my ordinary experience.  Our lives really begin to get traction when we allow God to write our story in which he calls us to play a certain part according to his purposes. In a very telling conversation Jesus had with Peter after the Resurrection, our Lord said, “…when you were younger, you used to dress yourself and go where you wanted; but when you grow old, you will stretch out your hand, and someone else will dress  you and lead you to where you do not want to go”

 (Jn 21:19).

            That’s the shift from the Ego-centered drama to the Christ-centered one.  Before that can happen we have to go through a process of individuation, in which our projects and ambitions have top priority.  But, when we embark on the second half of our lives, we will allow someone else to dress us, to lead us into unknown lands just as he did with Abraham.  When we make that transition, then we’re ready for the real spiritual adventure. 

            The readings from this week show us the consequence of making this shift from our Ego to God.  What does it look like?

            Being chosen by Christ is simply to be sent on a mission, which began when we were initiated into the Church at our Baptism.  The Lord says to us, “I have appointed you to go and bear fruit that will remain” (Jn 15:16b).  I’ve called you to do something with your life in my name; I’ve called you to do something, which is to “…make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit” (Mt 28:19).  Unlike New Age spirituality, Christianity is not about self-actualization. Rather, one becomes fully human by being Mission-oriented, when we order our lives according to God’s purposes, which is really the Way of the universe in Christ.  According to Balthasar, “We really don’t know who we are until we discover God’s mission for us.”  In other words, we don’t really know our name, our deepest identity, until we know what God wants us to do.  God has chosen us; then he sends us to promote his mission, which is to bring his salvation to the world that has been won through Jesus’s Death and Resurrection.

            Once we make that shift, then we know that the mission will always be about Love because Love is what God is, which we heard in the 2^nd reading from John’s First Letter: “God is love” (1 Jn 4:7).  Love is not an attribute of God, but that’s what God is—his very nature, which is revealed in the Holy Trinity: the Father is the Lover, the Son is the Beloved, and the Holy Spirit is the Loving that is shared between them.  That’s what God is—that’s the essence of God and we are made in the image of God, Who is Love.

            Therefore, we’ve been chosen by Love for the sake of bearing Love to the world, which means we are bearers of Christ who is Love Incarnate; that’s why the Church is constitutively  evangelical as we share his Good News.  We do so not because we feel like doing it or that it’s convenient to do so.  No, Love is not an emotion or sentiment, but Love is willing the good of the other as other.  So, we willingly cooperate with Jesus’s mission, which is uniquely tailored to our vocation and ministries.  However, we live out being a missionary disciple, will always take the form of Love.

            There is a very simple litmus test whether we are living as missionary disciples: “No one has greater love than to lay down one’s life for one’s friends” (Jn 15:13), which is, of course, how Jesus lived.  We’ve got to find a way to give our lives away—not necessarily as a martyr does, but to see our lives as self-gifting in every dimension of our existence.  Love is fulfilled in our everyday life, in attitudes, in deeds.  Otherwise, it’s only something illusory.  Love is concrete, every day, directed to specific persons who cross our path; Love, in short, is directed to our neighbor.  Jesus calls us to live this way, which is summarized in the following: “…that you love one another as I have loved you” (v. 12).  Once we do, then we’re on track to be in right relationship with God.

            Furthermore, being chosen by God and accepting his invitation means we become God’s friend.  Friendship always involves opening up the self to the other.  We become someone’s friend when we open our heart to them and he or she does the same to us.  This is precisely what God the Father does in his beloved Son, Jesus.  Jesus, reveals his Sacred Heart to us; he invites us into intimacy, into an ‘I-Thou’ relationship that is meant to endure forever.  Therefore, Jesus can say to us, “I no longer call you servants, but friends” (v. 15).

            How do we really know that we are a friend of Jesus?  The Jesuit paleontologist/theologian Teilhard de Chardin once wrote, “Joy is the most infallible sign of the presence of God.”  The whole purpose of the Christian enterprise is to make us happy, which comes about when we say “yes” to the Father’s will.  When our will is congruent with that of our heavenly Father, then we will be joyful—how can we not be when we are living in God’s presence?  People of God, we are happy in the measure we become God’s friends, in the measure we are conformed to his Love, in the measure we are living out of his mission, in the measure we allow ourselves to be chosen.

            As the Easter season comes to a close, allow yourself to prayerfully reflect upon the Last Supper discourses.  And, you’ll realize that it’s not you who have chosen Jesus but that Jesus has chosen you.  Amen.