A PONDERING
“Love is aggressive.”
Our Christian Theology states that God is Love. Egradior is the Latin word for “going outward or stepping forward”. Aggression, coming from the same Latin root, is different because of the “a” prefix meaning against. So it follows that by God’s very nature of being Love, then God is always, infinitely “going out”. God’s loving is not influenced by our being good or bad. Our openness to God’s out-goingness is influenced by our attitudes and actions. What we do in being humans who love is the continuation of God’s stepping out.
REFLECTION
While reading over the First Reading for this Sunday, I opened the tenth chapter of Acts and read the story related there in. I said to myself, “I wrote about this chapter just recently. Did I write a Reflection for the wrong Sunday?” I checked back and found that the First Reading for Easter Sunday, a few weeks ago, is taken from the same chapter. So to refresh your memory, I place here what I wrote then.
The context for our First Reading is delightful. Cornelius, a devout and prayerful man and a centurion of the occupying Roman army has a vision while praying in his house in Caesarea. In this vision, he is told that his generosity on behalf of the Jews has been accepted by God. Cornelius is then advised to send for Simon, called Peter, in Jaffa.
Meanwhile Peter has a vision while experiencing hunger shortly before dinner. A large sheet presents Peter a menu of various creatures and is told to eat. Peter announces that he does not eat unclean things. The accompanying voice admonishes Peter, “What God has made clean, you have no right to call profane.”
Peter was pondering all this when the two men sent by Cornelius arrived to take him to Caesarea. Cornelius has gathered his relations and friends to listen to Peter’s words. We hear Peter’s proclamation which is a brief summary of the life, death and resurrection of Jesus. Peter assumes that these unbelievers have heard of the events of Christ’s death.
After Peter’s address,, we do not hear this as part of our First Reading, the Holy Spirit descends and Peter announces that all will be baptized. The Jews who accompanied Peter wonder at their being baptized without their being circumcised. Peter’s vision of the unclean creatures then comes into focus. Peter and the early church is to extend the baptism of the Spirit from Jerusalem through out the entire world. All creatures are clean now in the universal love of the resurrected Jesus.
What our First Reading today adds is the actual baptism of those non-Jews upon whom God has sent the Holy Spirit. God plays no favorites, shows no partiality. All are included in the “New Creation” brought about by the life, death and Resurrection of Jesus.
The Roman centurion is, to the Jewish mind, as far from God’s embrace as Rome is from Jerusalem. Peter, remembering his vision of all the various foods, extends the inclusion offered by Jesus to the ends of the earth, including the hated Roman oppressors.
The Gospel is a familiar section from the “Last Discourse” of Jesus to His disciples. In these five chapters, thirteen through seventeen, John presents Jesus as the loving teacher reminding His students of all that He has tried to teach them and what will be on the final exam. He warns them also about dangers and traps which they will encounter on their way to that exam. There are some elements of the Ten Commandments, the Sermon on the Mount, and some wonderful images of Who Jesus says He is and who the disciples are to be.
What we hear today is a simple, straight-forward command, which if observed, will continue the personality and central characteristic of Jesus Himself. “Love one another as I have loved you.” Before saying this, Jesus tells them that He has loved them as deeply and intimately as the Father has loved Him. Remaining in this love will make keeping this one and only summation of all His teachings, possible and meaningful.
We are named “friends” and “chosen”. This is central to our following of Jesus. If we believe who we are; if we take our name seriously, then the actions of loving will follow. Jesus tells His disciples, and ourselves, that “you are a part of Me, as Vine, you are known, loved, and chosen to be fruitful.” The “fruitfulness” is that for which Jesus came. The fruitfulness is ourselves, beginning with the disciples and spreading through the early church to all the ends of the earth, including us.
Two weeks ago Jesus told His disciples about the “shepherd” laying down his life for his friends. Love is not always felt, but is expressed in deeds especially the generous surrendering of greeds, envies, demands, expectations. Always, this loving is easier to talk about than execute. It begins with being loved as a gift and not earned. The disciples were asked to receive their being loved by Jesus as the Father loves Him. Remaining in that love will result in remaining as “sent” and “loved” sacraments. Many books have been written about love and how to be loved and express love.
Each of us is writing that book by how we lay down our lives for our sisters and brothers, but not destructively to ourselves. We are fruits as well who are to remain whole and with joy. I have written this Reflection about love and this is easier than going out of my room right now and into the kitchen where there will be a mess, as always. Loving my brothers is easier to write about than washing, drying, putting away, rapping up; the list goes on. Anybody know what love is that does not call for laying aside our demands to follow His command? If so, you write about it and you will be famous.
“AS I HAVE LOVED YOU”
John, the evangelist, has written a long farewell speech which he put in Jesus’ mouth. In it he has blended together all the fundamental elements of his testament or will, everything he wanted his disciples to remember for many years to come, if they were to be faithful to Him and his project. And this testament is still applied today.
“Remain in my love.” This comes first. This does not only mean to preserve the same religion; but to practice the love that Jesus has for us, the love He received from his Father. Being a Christian is not mainly a doctrinal question, but a matter of love. For many centuries, Christ’s disciples will face uncertainties, conflicts and difficulties of all sorts. What will really matter will be never to deviate from that love.
To remain in Jesus’ love is not something theoretical or without real content. It comes down to “keeping His commandments”, which He himself expressed in His commandment of brotherly love: “This is my commandment; that you love one another as I have loved you.” Every Christian will find many commandments in his religion. Their origin, nature and importance are different and diverse. With the passage of time, rules and norms have multiplied. It is about this commandment of Love that Jesus said: “This is MY commandment.” At any time or situation, the essence of Christianity has been never to deviate from this fraternal love.
Jesus does not propose this commandment of love as a law that has to control our lives and make them all the more hard and difficult; rather, it should be a source of joy: “So that my own joy may be in you and your joy be complete.” When we find this true love lacking among us, then we find a vacuum that nobody and nothing can replace but joy.
Without true love, we cannot offer a Christianity that is open, cordial, happy, natural and friendly in which we can live as “friends” of Jesus, to use the same Gospel expression. Without this friendship, we won’t be able to generate happiness. Unknowingly, we shall continue spreading a Christianity that looks sad, full of complaints, resentments, sadness and pessimism.
At times, there is something lacking in our Christianity: the joy that comes from doing something one loves and lives for. Our commitment to Jesus lacks the enthusiasm of doing something new; and so we experience the boredom of always doing the same thing, without feeling that we are following in the steps of what Jesus wanted us to do.
JESUS’ STYLE
Jesus is bidding farewell to his disciples. He has loved them passionately, just as His Father has loved him. Now he is about to leave them behind. They have not learned to love each other: they continue to discuss among themselves and fight for the first places at table. What will happen to them?
Jesus’ words become serious and solemn. He wants everyone to pay special attention to this: “This is my commandment: love one another as I have loved you.” Jesus does not want that his style of loving his own be lost, because, if one day they forget it, then nobody will recognize them as His disciples.
Jesus would always be remembered for this: “He always went about doing good.” Everyone who had seen Him considered himself lucky. He always tried to do good to others. He helped everyone to have a better life. His own life became Good News. Everyone saw in Him God’s own presence.
Jesus had a unique style of loving. He was sensitive to people’s suffering. He couldn’t go by anyone who seemed to be suffering. Once, when he entered the village of Nain, He ran into a funeral procession: a widowed mother was taking her only son to be buried. Jesus, at once, spoke to her with compassion: “Woman, please, do not cry!” Anyone who can love like Jesus would live wiping everyone’s tears and alleviating their suffering.
The Gospels remind us on several occasions how Jesus was able to read in people faces their suffering. He looked at them and was moved to compassion: He noticed their suffering like sheep without a shepherd. At once, he would start taking care of the sick or feeding them with words of encouragement. Anyone who learns to love like Jesus did will be able to look at the suffering people with compassion.
It is amazing the way Jesus seemed always willing and ready to do good to others. He was never thinking about himself. He seemed waiting for people’s call and set to do anything He could. To a blind beggar who begged for help along the way, Jesus responded with these words: “What can I do for you?” That should be the attitude of anyone trying to live Jesus’ doctrine.
Jesus knows how to find those who need Him most. They do not have to beg Him for help. He does everything he can to heal their wounds, relieve their sufferings and build their faith in God. Of course, He is not going to solve all their problems.
But He will continue to show gestures of goodness to all: He will embrace children in the street. He does not want anyone to feel loveless; He will bless the sick; nobody should feel that God does not care for him; He will touch and comfort the lepers so that they don’t feel excluded. These should be the gestures of anyone who loves us as Jesus does.
YOUR JOY WILL BE COMPLETE
The first generations of Christians gave a lot of importance to their joy. They couldn’t think of any other way of living. The letters of Paul of Tarsus that circulated among their communities, reminded them, time and time again, to “be joyful in the Lord.” The gospel of John has put these beautiful words in Jesus’ mouth: “I have told you this so that my own joy may be in you and your joy may be complete.”
Why, then, should the life of so many Christians today appear sad, hard and routine? What has happened to our rejoicing in the risen Lord? Where has the contagious joy of Easter Sunday gone?
Peace and joy should not something secondary in the life of a Christian. They ought to be a prominent trademark. Christians should be recognized by their adherence to Jesus and their own happiness. We might have taken it for granted so far, but every true Christian should find in Jesus the ultimate source of our joy.
This joy in Jesus’ followers is not the result of an optimistic temperament, or the outcome of an overall wellbeing. It shouldn’t be compared to a life without conflicts. Many of us know better: a good Christian will face the same trials and tribulations like any other human being.
The secret of this joy must be found elsewhere: it is something beyond what we experience when things couldn’t be better. Paul of Tarsus spoke of “a joy in the Lord,” that one feels when one lives rooted in Jesus. John goes still further: “Love one another as I have loved you.”
This Christian joy comes from our intimate union with Jesus. Hence it does not come from the ordinary euphoria or average optimism. It is something that lies deep down in the heart of a true believer. It is a genuine joy rooted in our faith in Jesus.
Such abiding joy of every Christian does not turn its back on the suffering and evils so prevalent in the world today. Such joy rooted in Jesus becomes a stimulus to fight all the pain and suffering around us. There isn’t anything better and more evangelical for us to do than alleviating the suffering of so many people with our contagious happiness and hope.