SIXTH SUNDAY OF EASTER - YEAR B

SIXTH SUNDAY OF EASTER – B (Acts 10:25-6, 34-35, 44-48; 1John 4:7-10; John 15:9-17) Theme: Love is the first and the final gift of God to us Reflection - Today is the last Sunday of Easter. Next Sunday we will celebrate the Ascension of Jesus into heaven. All through these weeks we have been reaping the fruit of the Resurrection of the Lord. Also today we reap the greatest and tastiest fruit: love. Each Sunday of Easter has filled us with its effect. Each weekly celebration of this holy time has offered us the delicious fruit. - The fruits we have already tasted in the times passed are: specially, in the beginning days of Easter there was a gift of peace to the frightened disciples in the room; later there was a gift of presence to the escaping disciples on the road to Emmaus in which Jesus has manifested himself in the breaking of the bread; little later, there was a gift of unity offered to all the dispersed disciples and extended to the flock outside, the gift brought and bought by Jesus, the Good Shepherd, by giving his life for his sheep; the same gift of the Risen Jesus, the gift of union and communion, a gift of becoming one body and one head has been offered to us in the parable of the Wine and the Branches; with that the intimate union that is restored with His Death and Resurrection has to take its effect in all those who believe in him. - The same is extended for today also: the gift of love. It was the eternal love which Jesus has manifested to his Sheep by pouring out his whole life for the sheep. It was the Trinitarian love which Jesus has revealed with his intimate union with the Father and with the Spirit. It is the same love, Resurrected Love that Jesus is offering us today. This love is from God and God is love. It is not human love which has boundaries but this love is divine love which meets no confines but moves to the extent of doing anything for the friendship. God’s Love Has No Limits – Mere Humans Cannot Comprehend It - God has no preferences: the first reading of today expresses this truth that God does not show favoritism. All are equal for him. All are his creatures and his children in his love. He is creator and Father to them all. As a Father he does not show any preferences. He loves his children equally. Among his Children, may be few are at home and few are outside; may be few are elder brothers, may be others younger; may be few wish to remain with their Father, may be others wish to try their own free life; may be few are still under the Father’s command, may be others make themselves masters; this is only human logic and human calculation. For God everyone is equal. Distance is not a matter for him. His Fatherly concern is so great that he waits with patience and pardon. He eagerly seeks for all those who are outside, who live their own life, who fail to come to him, who have chosen to go away from him. He does not want that even one is lost in his fate. - He himself takes the Initiative: God knows that man who has gone away from Him is losing his life. God knows that such a man cannot come back by himself because he closes himself in ignorance and in darkness. God also knows that man cannot begin again his return journey by himself unless somebody helps him to see the way, the truth and the life. It is because of this condition of man that God himself makes the first movement towards man. It is because of this situation of man that God himself takes the initiative to recall man back to himself. And it is because of the incapability and incapacity of man to return that God sends his Light: His Son Jesus Christ. - The Way is made ready: God has prepared the way for them to return to the authentic life. The way that God has paved and kept open and wide in front of man is the mystery of His Son Jesus Christ. The way was prepared not so easily but with the very life of His Son who has taken the place of fallen man and thus dying for them and on behalf of them. This way of return is not for some only. It is for all. It is not blocked but kept open for all to embrace it and to follow it. Anybody can find it anytime and can follow it in order to participate in the friendship of the Lord. - Return road is prepared for Cornelius: such a way is made today for a pagan Cornelius. The way of Jesus is revealed to the pagan authority and the representative of Rome. Though he was persecuting the early Christians he was elected by God. When other disciples and the crowds refused to accept the newly converted Cornelius, it is Peter who makes them to see the love of God in calling Cornelius into the community of believers. It is in this context that Peter makes this statement that God does not show partiality and has no preferences but accepts and embraces everyone who fears him and does justice. There is no difference of nation, race and the status. Whoever comes to him He accepts. - Love goes beyond: by calling Cornelius to participate in the life and faith of his people, God has demonstrated his immense and immeasurable love. He revealed the love which crosses the boundaries and confines of human mind. Humans cannot so easily forgive and embrace the offender but God’s love is so wide it can hold anything and everything. The account of Cornelius and the proclamation of Peter manifest this in today’s first reading. Love is the Essence of God: Love is the Knot between His Children - God’s love surpasses all human logic and human preferences. Cornelius conversion and insertion into God’s house-hold is the example put forward for us today to prove this. In the second reading and the Gospel we climb little higher and find out that this love is the very essence of God. Its further claim can be that: God is Love and Love is God (1John 4:721). This makes clear to us that Love and God are not different from each other: they are one and the same. Personification of Love is God and Manifestation of God is Love. One is unimaginable without the Other. One cannot exist without the Other. Therefore, we have two directions that are to be pondered over: Love as the Essence of God and Love as the essence of His Children: first, God’s love for us and our love for each other: One Bond with Two Knots: love of God and love of neighbor. - First – Love is the Essence of God: John, the evangelist of love proclaims this truth in every syllable of his writings. It is with this truth of Love that he begins his Gospel and it is again with the exhortation of this Love that he also ends his Letters. o The one biggest manifestation of God’s love, according to his theology is: In His Son Jesus Christ. His affirmation is that: “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life” (John 3:16) and the same is confirmed later: “God’s love was revealed among us in this way: God sent his only Son into the world so that we might live through him” (1 John 4:9). o Jesus proclaims the mystery of love and it is seen in his discourse of today’s gospel. His gives testimony to that greatest love that exists between Him and His Father. Jesus reveals that the Love of the Father is so immense that it embraces all and all that exists comes under its wings. Jesus announces that he himself is in that love: “I remain in His love” (John 15:10). o It is the love that has its origin and source from the oneness of the Father, Son and the Spirit: Trinitarian love. Trinitarian love is manifested in the total self-giving and total self-receiving of each person of the Trinity. The Father gives to the Son all that he has without holding to himself anything. He empties himself totally by pouring out everything to the Son. In this self-emptying he does not lose anything but becomes rich with the love of the Son. The Son too from his part he abandons himself totally in love of the Father and here too he does not lose anything but becomes rich with the love of the Father and the same happens with the Holy Spirit. He gives himself totally to the Father and the Son at the same time receiving from them his whole existence. o In theology this is called: the reciprocal offering and receiving (mutual donation of the self) between the three persons of the Trinity. This reciprocity happens in the love so that no one loses anything by giving but receives everything from the other. This is the love that Jesus proclaims when he says “I remain in his love”. Therefore, love is a mystery because it is part of God’s nature and it is God himself. - Second: Love is the Knot between His Children: The love of God is contagious. In fact, every love is contagious. It affects those who accept it. It affects also those around it. God’s love did not remain only with God. It has been manifested. The nature of God is revealed in the love he has for his creation and in the particular manner, to the humanity. It is God who poured out his love first. It is God who has demonstrated his love first. It is God who has thrown the net of his love. Unless and otherwise, we humans cannot know it fully and perfectly. o Again John’s theology express this view: he says how the love of God has embraced man even before man can know it: “In this is love: it is not we who have loved God but it is He who has loved us and has sent his Son as the victim of expiation for our sins” (1John 4:10). Again in his Gospel he pens down the words of Jesus himself: “It is not you who have chosen me, but it is I who chose you” (John 15:16). Therefore, it is always God who is in the first place and who is the source for the manifestation of love. What happens if otherwise is that man fails to accomplish it. If man tries to invent for himself love or create it for himself he, in reality, damages it because he is not in capability of fulfilling what it demands. The demand, rather the nature, of love is: total surrender to the other. This total surrender is possible only with and in the Trinitarian God. Man by his very nature is limited. Thus he cannot first of all comprehend the nature of love and even if he understands it he cannot fulfill it because it is beyond his worldly realm. o God know this situation of man. That is why he himself comes down to show what that love is and how that love functions. He has shown it in his very only begotten Son Jesus Christ. Jesus as the perfect man and perfect God has comprised well the nature of love. Jesus has understood well what that love means because it is part of his divine nature. He has also fulfilled it perfectly because he is capable of “total surrender to the other”. He has surrendered himself completely to the Loving Will of His Father and He is also willing to take the place of incapable man. It is in this manifestation of Love that Jesus becomes both perfectly divine and perfectly human. He did not withdraw to himself anything but made himself a servant and offered himself in utter abasement (Phil 2:6-11). o God has fulfilled first the requirement for the revelation of his love: the very life of His Son. The mystery is transformed into the mission and vocation: thus, “Love is the Knot between His Children”. Those who embrace the love of God become part of his love therefore become the children of love. Their only source and nourishment is and should be “Love”. o The exhortation of John is: “we love each other because love comes from God: who loves is generated from God and knows God” (1John 4:7) and Jesus gives the same commandment: “Love one another as I have loved you” (John 15:12). Therefore, love is the knot that binds the believers to one another. If this knot is missing, also the bonded relationship will miss and there will be only division and desperation. o The knot we are given by Risen Jesus is the knot of love. We become on in mind and in heart only in and with love. Outside of this we lose our identity of being Christ’s disciples and followers. Each word and action of ours has to be within the confines of this knot of love. In order to reap the fruit of resurrection we have to be reminded always of this love through which we have to meet our neighbor. And regarding the bond that exists between God and his children and among one another, we can still repeat the same words that Jesus has emphasized: No one can divide what God has united: “What God has joined together, let no one separate” (Mark 10:9). The Way is to Observe the Commandments - Love is not a word. Love is not a linguistic aspect. Love is not a mere emotional feeling. It is a Fact. It is a Truth. It is a Living. It is by observing it that we gain it. Jesus has made it clear when he says: “If you observe my commandments you will remain in my love as I have observed the commandments of my Father and remain in his love” (John 15:10). The only way that is provided to remain in love is to love because all the commandments are comprised into two basic ones: love of God and love of neighbor. - Love does not come casually. Love is not found in the business. Love does not exist in the mechanisms. Love has no place in the technology. Love is a manifestation of total self-surrender at whatever cost it may demand. Jesus has done this by surrendering himself totally on the cross and at the cost of his blood. Therefore, love has to be gained. It is gained only by observing the command of love. Just by listening, by reading, by talking, by making discourses love does not originate. It is only by loving that one can gain and remain in love: be it love of God or be it love of neighbor. - Therefore, let us keep aside the words and feelings of love. Let us instead, start practicing what Jesus has done: offering of the self for the good of the other without seeking for our own good. When there is authentic love, even losing becomes gaining. Jesus promises: one who saves his life for himself will lose it and one who loses it for other will save it. Therefore, the real and true meaning of love is revealed in Jesus Christ: love is only to give. - Joy is the Fruit of Love: If we observe the commandments of Jesus we are remaining in love. If we are living in love we are joyful. Jesus has confirmed: “I have said all these things so that my Joy will be in you and your joy will be full” (John 15:11) and that “you may bear fruit, fruit that will last” (John 15:16). Love makes us Joyful and Joy reveals that we are loving people. - One Heart with Two pointers: We shall conclude with the small analogy. The fountain of love is the heart and we all know it well. If we observe well the heart has two pointers: two points of meeting: one on the top and other on the bottom. Without these two places of meeting the heart is not complete and perfect. Heart is made like this. It was not created/made in the round shape but a shape with two meeting points. Why? The answer could be this: because it is the fountain of love. - The first meeting point that is on the top of the heart signifies the meeting point between God and man. God and man meet in love. The relationship between them is nothing else than the love. - The second meeting point that is on the bottom of the heart signifies the meeting point between man and man (between the human beings). Man and man have to meet each other only in love. It is the nature of creation. The bond that exists between them is nothing else than the love. - What happens if these two meetings do not happen? The heart is not full. The love is not perfect. And as long as we have such a heart we have only one thing to do: to love God and to love neighbor. If we fail to do we fail to give fullness of meaning to our heart which means to our humanity. Therefore, what we are asked to do today and the days to come is to reap the fruit of the Risen Jesus. The question that we have ask ourselves every moment is when we have a True Heart, a heart in which the perfect love originates: because “Love is the first and the final gift of God to us.”