DOCTRINE AND FAITH
(Acts 10,25-27.34-35.44-48; 1 John 4,7-10; John 15, 9-17: 6th Sunday of Easter; May 6, 2018 Year B)
In today’s liturgy, in the readings especially, the Church as mother, continues to offer us the post Easter period catechesis (the mystagogical catechesis). One of the major themes of today’s readings is love. In the second reading, from the First Letter of John, there are about nine occurrences of the English word “love” and in the Gospel reading, from the Gospel of John, we have also nine occurrences of the same word. In our linguistic usage today, the word “love” has become a cliché (a phrase or opinion that is overused and betrays a lack of original thought). It has been so over-used and abused that it has lost its depth of meaning. The Evangelist, John in teaching about love was careful with his choice of words. To denote love, he used neither erōs, the passion that seeks some form of possession of the person or object loved, nor philia, which denotes the love of kin or those very closely related. The word used instead was agapē, a word that in itself is very similar to philia but which in John’s Gospel has special theological meaning.Agapē is usually the word used when we predicate the love of God. Agapē, is not merely an expression of the best that the human spirit has to offer. It is neither exemplary piety nor altruistic (showing a disinterested and selfless concern for the well-being of others; unselfish) concern for others. Actually, there is nothing human about it. It is divine in its origin, and only those who have been begotten by God can have a share in it. God initiates this love, and it is best exemplified in Christ’s own selfless offering of himself for others. When Christians are called to live in this self-giving love, more than an imitation of Christ is being required of them. Rather it is because they have been begotten by God and somehow share in the very nature of God that they can be exhorted to live out this divine love as God does and as Christ did. By virtue of our Baptism, we become adopted sons and daughters of God, the beloved (agapētoi) of God. We encounter agapē again in the starting statement of the second reading:
God is love! That God is love is a fundamental theological reality. Love is of God; Love has its origin in God. Love is divine in its origin; God is the true source of this love. This love comes from God the Father and passes through the heart of Jesus and comes to us as Jesus so informs today: As the Father loves me, so I also love you. Jesus himself never pretended to be the source of this love. He was aware of receiving this love from the Father, and of being only a mediator of this love, that is, one who transmits it. Jesus transmitted this love in a very active manner. In the gospel periscope of today, He asserts: There is no love greater than this than to lay down one’s life for the friends. This is what Jesus actually did; motivated by the desire to fulfill the will of his heavenly Father by going through the passion to save not only his disciples but all men. We like Jesus, will not only welcome this divine love but will also have to remain in it as he instructs: Remain in my love. The Greek word ménō rendered here as “remain” and sometimes as “abide”, literally means to stay in a place. It suggests permanence that is associated with God. The union that is offered is not intended to be a passing occasion; it is to be a lasting state of being. It will be accomplished through obedience. In this, Jesus is both the model and the mediator. As he was obedient to the commandments of God, so the disciples must be obedient to his commandments. In fact, it is through their obedience to him that they will be obedient to God. To remain in the love of Jesus and invariably in the love that has God as its source has obvious gains. One of which is that the disciples will abide in the joy of Jesus as well. This is the type of joy that is not diminished by sacrifice, even the sacrifice of laying down one’s life for another. Another advantage of abiding in the love of God is that the disciples become the beneficiaries of the love of Christ as his friends. They are not slaves who obey blindly. Chosen by Jesus, they have heard and accepted God’s will as revealed by him. They have responded freely, like friends would respond. Thus he calls them friends, and because of his love for them he is willing to lay down his life for them. They, in turn, must similarly love one another and, presumably, be willing to lay down their lives for one another.
Indeed the disciples will have to follow the injunction of Christ as he ends the gospel reading: Love one another. The disciple of Jesus then, and we the modern disciples, will have to pass on this good news of love. This agapē, the active love reaching out from God to Jesus, Jesus to his disciples, the disciples to one another must be passed on. It must not stop here with us. This active love must move out beyond the confines of the group of the chosen ones into the broader world. Those who have been chosen for love have also been elected to mission. They must go forth, and their love and obedience must bear fruit in the lives of others.
It must be admitted that one who is the beneficiary of God’ love, abides in Him and one of the beloved (agapētoi) of God, and certainly a friend of Jesus cannot but be a transformed person or disciple. This must have been the case with Peter in the first reading when at the house of Cornelius, admitted that God has no preference, and that God’s project of love was universal - a project that was realised through the paschal mystery of the death and resurrection of Jesus. Jesus, today, challenges us to follow his example in loving one another as he has loved us. Thus, the challenge he posits is not to love our neighbour as we love ourselves. Rather we are to love our neighbour as he himself had done, that is to say, that we are to sacrifice our lives as Jesus did. To be able to take up this challenge, we need to have the heart of Jesus. We will have the sentiments of the heart of Jesus when we allow the Eucharistic Jesus whom we receive often to transform us to his image. It is the transformation that accrues to us through worthy reception of the Eucharist that will enable us, like Jesus, to become mediators of God’s universal and divine love which the liturgy of today’sSunday handles. Happy Sunday! + John I. Okoye
graphics by chukwubike oc
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