6^th Sunday of Easter (B); May 5, 2024

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.  After having compared himself to the vine and us to the branches, Jesus then explains what fruit is borne by those who remain united to him, which began when we were initiated into his very mystical Body, the Church, at baptism.  This fruit is love.  He then repeats a key verb: abide.  He invited us appropriately to exercise our freedom by intentionally abiding in his love so that his joy may be in us and that our joy be full (cf. vs 9-11).  This, brothers and sisters, may be the heart of Christian spirituality.

            Let us ask ourselves: what is this love which Jesus tells us to abide in to have this joy?  The dominant consciousness of our society tells us that love is a very strong emotion, sentiment that we fall into or out of depending upon the shifting sands of our life.  But, for Jesus, love originates in the Father, who is the Creator of all being.  That means, that “God is love” (1 Jn 4:8).  Love is not an attribute of God because love is what God is—his very nature, which is revealed in the Holy Trinity: the Father is the Lover, the Son is the Beloved (which we heard at Jesus’ baptism and Transfiguration), and the Holy Spirit is the Loving that is shared between the two.  That’s what God is: that’s the essence of God and we are made in the image of God, Who is love. That means we are meant to be in love now and forever!  Amen!

            You see, brothers and sisters, the love of the Father flows like a river into his beloved Son Jesus and through him comes to us  through the  loving dynamic of the Holy Spirit.  What Jesus experiences with his Father, he shares with us:  “As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you” (Jn 15:9).  The love that Jesus gives us is not a faint approximation of the original, but is the very same with which the Father loves him:  pure unconditional love, freely given love.  This love can’t be earned, bought, or bartered.  It can only be received.  By giving us the love he shares with the Father and Holy Spirit, Jesus wants us to share what he has been experiencing eternally.  Just as he is beloved by his Father, Jesus relates to us as his friends, which is why he involves us in his same mission for the life of the world.

            Wow!  This is a lot to absorb at one time.  The question then arises: how do we abide in this love?  The answer is straightforward in its simplicity: “If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love” (v. 10).  Jesus then summarizes his commandments in a single one: “that you love one another as I have loved you” (v. 12). To love as Jesus does means to do what he did on Holy Thursday: to wash each other’s feet: to offer ourselves as service to our brothers and sisters without qualification or exclusion.  For this to happen, we have to detach ourselves from our egoic conceit that I am the center of my life, that life is about me, and I am in control. We have to deconstruct his illusion, this False Kingdom, in order to open ourselves to others, especially those in greater need.  It means making ourselves available where we are with our wounds and brokenness, and to share our time, talent, and resources.   Put simply, this means to love not in word but in concrete action. 

            To love like Christ means saying “no” to other “loves” which the world has to offer: e.g., love of money, love of success and adulation, vanity, and power.  These deceptive paths of “love” distance ourselves from our Lord’s love and they will eventually destroy our soul because, as the Psalmist reminds us, we become identified with the idols that we worship: “their makers shall be like them, all who trust in them”  (Ps 115:8).  Such a path leads to anxiety, frustration, depression, and self-loathing because it distorts love,  abuses others, and makes our loved ones suffer.  Such unhealthy love leads to the objectification and commodification of others, to dehumanizing others, sometimes  reducing them as “animals,” and to tolerate violence: psychological or physical. 

            People of God, this is not love and we need to be careful the voices that we listen to.  To love as the Lord loves means to appreciate the people God has put into our path: that means to respect their inherent integrity, to love them as they are, not as we want them to be.  Ultimately, Jesus asks us to abide in his love, to dwell in his love, not in doctrine, ideology, or conspiracy theories; not in our self-worship.  Instead, he wants us to open our hearts to others, which means to be trusting, giving ourselves to others just as Jesus does with us.

            Brothers and sisters, where does abiding in the Lord’s love lead?  Jesus tells us: “That my joy may be in you, and that your jo  may be full” (v. 11).  That’s it!  The Lord Jesus wants that joy he possess, because he is in complete communion with his Father, also to be in us, insofar as we are united with Jesus.  The joy of knowing that we are loved by God right here and right now just as we are enables us to go forth confidently to love others through the power of the Holy Spirit.  As we leave our gathering at Holy Mass, we are called to be true witnesses by living this joy, because joy is the distinctive mark of a true disciple of Jesus.  As Jesuit paleontologist/theologian Teilhard de Chardin (SJ) once wrote, “Joy is the most infallible sign of the presence of God.”

            May the Blessed Virgin Mary help us to abide in Jesus’ love and to grow in love for everyone, witnessing to the joy of the Risen Lord. Amen.

Reflection Questions:

1.  Do you relate to Jesus as a friend?  Why or why not?

•  How do you abide in His love?

• What other “loves” in your life that you need to say “no” to before you can say “yes” to Jesus’ love?