As
we launch into the Sixth Sunday of Easter, our Lord began his exhortation in
the Gospel passage, with the commandment to love and ended with that. We must
not therefore take it lightly. Hence we are called upon to attend and be
attentive to the Lord’s command that we must love one another as he loved us.
Love is actually the fundamental phenomenon that drives the Christian life.
Hence without love there will definitely be no Christianity. The message today
is clear, we must love and not hate just as God continuously and continually
love us.
It
must be very flattering to hear that we are ‘chosen’, especially when we have
Jesus tell us that He, personally, chose us and it was not us choosing
Him. Well, maybe after that first blush,
a certain concern enters our mind. We
begin to realize that, along with the joy of being chosen, there also comes with
it a certain degree of responsibility.
For some of us, following Christ becomes too difficult a choice to
make. We’re just too caught up in the
world, the flesh and the devil and a tension develops between what we know is
right and what we are doing with our lives.
Instead of becoming
joy-filled and joyful Christians, we become withered
on the vine—joyless people. And as Saint
Teresa of Avila has said so eloquently, “Lord, spare me from sour-faced
Christians”.
Some
of us may not particularly care for being ‘chosen’ by Jesus. You see, the bottom line is this. Once we’ve been chosen our options as
Christians become limited. We are no
longer free to do our own thing. And,
being raised in a consumer culture that stresses ‘choice’ in everything, we begin
to resent rules and limits. Even
commercials on TV stress this, e.g. “No rules, just right” (Outback Steak
House) or “Life without limits” (Prince Macchiabelli) or “The rules are for
breaking” (Spice Girls).
It
is very pertinent, therefore, to ask why our Lord was making so much emphasis
on: “loving one another as he loved us” and even making it a commandment not a
suggestion. The reason is not far from the fact that there is a great incidence
of lack of love in our world. Furthermore, the lack of love is brought about by
the increase in the rate of wickedness in the world (see Matt.24:12). Looking
at this closely too, we discover that people become wicked because of self-interest
and selfishness, that is the simple reason why love is fundamentally selfless.
“As the Father loves, me so I also love you.
Remain in my love. If you keep my commandments, you will remain in my love,
just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and remain in his love… No one has
greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friend.” While in the
2ndreading, 1 John, we are also bluntly told, “God is love,” (Deus Caritas
est). John 15.
Practically,
this calls for the breaking down of the walls of enmity, the walls of hatred,
the walls of apathy, the walls of disunity, the walls of xenophobia and the
walls of segregation that has torn families, communities, races, and nations
apart. To love is thus not an option but a grave duty we must perform. In fact
it is a necessity and we have no excuse not to love as without love we have no
business with God.
When
our Lord Jesus Christ said love one another, he was thus saying that we should
stop being wicked, we should stop being selfish. He was saying that we should
adopt utter generosity, care, and kindness to all irrespective of differences
of backgrounds and dispositions. This latter we saw very clearly in the First
Reading (Acts 10:25-26, 34-35, 44-48) when God love reached the Gentiles and
they also received the Holy Spirit: “God does not have favourites’ anybody ‘who
fears God and does what it right is acceptable to him”. (Acts 10:34-35).
It
is not just sentimental love, but God’s love in action through his incarnation,
becoming human in his Son to be with us, teach us, walk with us, eat with us,
preach to us, and heal us. Christ’s love
for his father in turn, is in action through his obedient ministry. Though he
was in the form of God, he did not for once, count equality with God his
father, but emptied himself, taking the form of a servant (Phil 2:6-11).
Throughout his ministry from baptism to the cross he humbly proved his love for
us in changing water to wine (John 2), in encouraging non-believers to believe
(John 3), in reaching out to the poor, the weak and foreigners, the “Samaritan
women,” (John 4) in healing the sick, raising the death (John 6-11), washing
the feet of his disciples (John 13), and marching freely to the cross. In fact,
“no one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friend.”
We
are truly God’s friends no matter where we come from or what language we speak,
or look like! Our friend Jesus expects us to imitate him. Don’t we ordinarily
say, “Show me your friend I will tell you who you are?” If we are God’s
friends, we are expected to remain in him, keep his ethics, morality,
commandments, values, theologies, spiritualties. We are expected to put who our
divine friend is into practice.
We
can do this by bearing witness to him like Peter in today’s first reading.
Peter brought the spirituality of his friend, Jesus to the Gentiles, beginning
with the house of Cornelius, whom he baptized in the name of Jesus and of the
Holy Spirit. We are told, “While Peter was speaking, preaching the word of God,
the Holy Spirit fell upon “all” who were listening to the word of God.
This
God is love and his love is universally in action. It reaches to the Jews and
Gentiles! This is the true love of God. Of course, in our own practical
situations, the test of true love, in fact is not just by what we feel, but by
what we do which affects our neighbors. Do I speak well about my neighbors,
pray for them? Am I able to hold that elevator/ door for my incoming friend or
senior? Am I patriotic! Am I charitable and sensitive especia
The
love we are talking about here goes beyond mere emotion. The love that Christ
is referring to here is a “sacrificial love.” Strong emotions may accompany it,
but it is the commitment of the will that keeps sacrificial love steadfast and
unchanging. This is the mark of a good and true Christian. Hence, sacrificial
love must be patient to bear pains without complaint, shows forbearance under
provocation, and it is steadfast despite opposition, and difficulties.
Sacrificial love is sympathetic, considerate, gentle and kind. This love is not
jealous especially when one is aware that others are being noticed more than
him or her. It works for the welfare and good of the other. This love is not
arrogant even when we think we are right and others are wrong. Sacrificial love
is not selfish and self seeking. Rather, it is an act of the will which seeks
to serve and not be served. That is, a strong commitment to help and appreciate
others unconditionally. It is always ready to give rather than to receive. It
is ready to move out to seek others rather than being sought. The last but not
the least, sacrificial love rejoices with the truth and never fails (1 Cor, 12).
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