FIFTH SUNDAY OF EASTER - YEAR C

FIFTH SUNDAY OF EASTER – YEAR C (Acts 14:21b-27; Rev 21:1-5a; John 13:31-33a, 34-35) Theme: We are United with the Knot of Love because We are Risen with Christ Reflection: Love means “taking the pain” - We are entering into the fifth Sunday of the Easter. The Joy we have received and experienced on the Day of Resurrection is still within us. We carry it in our hearts. The Easter time, indeed, is the time to live and testify the joy of new life, the new life given by Jesus Christ. To live and to testify is the Easter task we need to bring it to completion in our Christian life. In fact, every week we are reminded of the special task we receive from the Lord. If we look back into the past five weeks we can understand it. On the second Sunday after Easter, a special mission of faith entrusted to Thomas: Jesus asks him to be “believing” and Thomas recognizes him as “my Lord and my God”; it is the same mission we need to carry as the consequence of our participation in the resurrection of the Lord: in faith we need to recognize Jesus as our Lord and our God. On the following Sunday, a special mission is given to Peter this time: Peter expresses his ultimate love for Jesus and Jesus gives him the mission of feeding the sheep; it is with the same mission we are sent into the world: to love the Lord and to offer ourselves for the salvation of others. The Sunday that followed also manifest a special attention we need to pay to the Lord’s voice: Jesus knows his sheep and his sheep listen to him; the mission we are given is this: listening to him attentively, knowing him profoundly and following him in obedience. - Today, the fifth week of Easter, we are called to immerse ourselves in the ocean of pure love that Jesus reveals, the love manifested in the passion and the cross. There is no love without pain. Smooth love is not a love at all. Love means giving what we are without any reserve and without any hesitation. Giving what we are means going out of ourselves: pushing back our time, our preoccupations, our energy and our own being and rendering them to the other with whom we want to build up the relationship of love. Thus, this giving out “what we are” requires a painful sacrifice. Unless we are not ready to bear this pain of extending what we are and becoming what the other is we are not really loving. It is here the first person “I” disappears and only “you” remain. The result will be that there is only one being – not two. There is a need to surpass even the “we” in love. Coming together and being together, “I” transforms into “We”, shows the interest of the one for the other and two work for each other. Thus “we” is a more positive and productive attitude of human society. But, in the aspect of love, even this “we” need to be transformed into the “You”. No “I” and no “we”. Exists only “you”. “You” becomes everything for the one who loves. Neither “himself”, nor “us” has the precedence. “You” is the part and parcel of the heart that is in love. Is this kind of relationship, called love, possible in the human life? The answer seems little difficult one. But once there takes place a true and authentic love, one thing is sure: nothing is impossible for love and in love. Not only in the divine sphere but even in the human sphere it is (can be) possible. - Love without a “will to bear a pain” is just superficial and selfish. It appears to be love and it is named as love but in reality, it is not love at all. True love needs to sacrifice. The aspect of sacrifice is not just a requirement in love but it is an attitude of love. There are few common elements that have to be sacrificed. Egoism: “my life and my wish”. Selfishness: “If I am well, it’s enough, I do not need anything more”. Use of the other: “I need you only as long as you are helpful to me and do something for me”. In reality all these elements are common in the everyday human relationship. But love is not just a relationship but it is one step higher: it is a bond in which one BECOMES the other. The question still remains: it is possible? It is not possible in these condition unless one is willing to bear the pain and make a sacrifice to leave behind what is he and what is his. If this is so, then love is possible even in the human sphere. Indeed, the true human life is just for creating and spreading this love. If we still fail to understand it better what it means to bear pain and to make sacrifice in love we have one greatest example: Jesus Christ on the Cross. He has destroyed the seeds of egoism, selfishness and use of the other: he never speaks and does for himself and in every word of his it is only his Father’s will that is expressed. He takes the pain of the man whom he loves and takes his place and thus he BECOMES the other on the cross. All this he accomplishes, and he reveals his true love for the human being, not just in his divine power but in his human powerlessness. Divine glory and divine love take the human form and reach their ultimate revelation in the human nature: Jesus is truly divine and truly human. Readings: Glory and Love are “linked with the event of the Cross” - The Context: In the Gospel passage of today Jesus uses two important words of Christian faith and they are: glory and love. Prior to the entrance into the verses of the passage, it is useful to be situated in the context. The context of the Gospel passage is the last discourse of Jesus to his disciples. His last discourse contains the essential element of Christian life and Christian discipleship. Jesus opens his intimate heart and pours it out to his disciples. Already the Chapter 13 of John begins with the same nature of the departure of Jesus. Many aspects are expressed and many acts are experienced in this last discourse. The aspects expressed are: service, love, unity and prayer. The acts experienced: the washing of the feet and the Eucharistic offering. Today’s short passage is taken from the last part of the thirteenth chapter which always prepares for the discourse of the fourteenth chapter. Few conjunctions that are used here reveal the essence of the reading. “When” (v.31): it is when Judas has gone out to betray him that Jesus starts speaking these words. “Now” (v.31): it is the hour of departure and at the same time it is the hour of completion of the purpose for which Jesus has come. “For little more” (v.33): there is only little time left for Jesus to be present with his disciples and to be in this world and this indicates that he is in his last moments of earthly life. “From this” (v.35): an example that is set and the path that is prepared will the code of Christian existence and this indicates the origin and the basis of Christian testimony. - Glory and Love: The words that Jesus uses – glory and love – are (can only be) understood from this context and from these conjunctive words. o Glory: Jesus speaks of the glory which does not pertain to the human logic and human definition. The glory he speaks is the divine glory. He says: “Now, the son of Man is glorified and God is glorified in him” (v.31). God the Father is glorified in Jesus. God is glorified not just because Jesus has proclaimed beautiful words of the Kingdom. God is glorified not just because Jesus has worked astonishing miracles. The “now” shows the actual action through which God is glorified in Jesus. Yes, God is glorified because Jesus has entered into the hour of accomplishing the will of God through the perfect obedience. Jesus is there to depart and to arrive at his Father by fulfilling all that is planned for the revelation of God’s love to the world. Therefore, Glory comes not in “staying where one is” but in moving from his place (departing) and in completing his mission (accomplishment). o Love: Jesus gives a commandment of love. He says: “I give you a new commandment: that you love one another. You love one another as I have loved you” (v. 34). There are three things to reflect in this. Firstly, it is a New commandment. Secondly, Jesus himself is the Model for this love. And finally, love is the essential character of Christian life. First, the novelty of the commandment: indeed, the commandment of love is not totally strange and new to the Jews because there are various references in the Old Testament also. Then, where is the newness that Jesus brings: love for all. It is not just love for the friends and neighbors and hatred for the enemies. It is love extended to all without any barriers. The hour of hatred, violence, power and prejudice is over. Now reigns only love and love wins everything. The Old Testament love is not abolished but is perfected in the Act of Jesus in his taking the cross and bearing the pain for others. Second, Jesus is the best example of this love: Jesus commands to love one another not with any kind of love but with love he himself lived and revealed. Human imitation is based on the example of Jesus. How did Jesus stand different and new in his love towards the humanity: in Jesus love becomes “self-donation” to the other and in Jesus love becomes a “being-for-the-other”. The ultimate expression of love is here: in giving oneself to the other and becoming the other. Third, love is the fundamental Christian character: love is not just a word but it is an action. In Jesus this action reached to its climax in the sacrifice of the cross. - Both glory and love are connected only with and in the cross: the discourse of Jesus on the glory and on the love is linked with the verse “I am with you for a while” (v.33). After a while, Jesus is ready to confront the most important moment of his earthly life: taking his cross and going towards the Calvary. While he is going away, he does not leave his disciples alone, but keeps them united and for this he gives the commandment of love. Therefore, it is through the cross that the glory is achieved and it is through the cross that the love is manifested. If the cross is removed from the scene, there is no glory and love. The glory and love are the fruits, not of just the cross but of the resurrection. And in turn, the resurrection is possible through cross alone and through the death on the cross alone. Conclusion: No Christian Life without the Cross - Christian life is characterized only by cross. Jesus never promises a bed-roses life in this earthly existence for his disciples. The way that he paved for them is the way of the cross. The truth that he reveals is the ultimate love that undergoes the pain of the passion. The life that he offers is the eternal life – life of other-worldly – that is, the participation in the resurrection of the Lord. If the cross is removed from the life, there is a no Christian life at all, as if there is no Christ without the Cross. - Yet, the cross is not the end of our life. There is a victory. There is spiritual transcendence. We move from the cross and through the cross into the true and eternal life. If we forget this truth we fail to live as an authentic Christian. Christian is none other than “the other Christ”. Christ is present in him and he represents Christ. Christian, thus, has the task of bearing both “the figure and mission” of Christ: being for him and acting on behalf of him. He has in fact done this: he “is” for man and he acted “on behalf” of man. This testimony is possible only with the aspect of love. - The message of love is the characteristic of the Christian life. We may speak of love and we may give lectures on love for hours and hours and if we do not “come down to be and to act” for the other, it is not love at all. The message remains only in the words and is not transformed into concrete action. Jesus did not just say “I love you” but he showed his love by offering his life for the loved ones. Let us go and do the same. Let us spread the message not by words but by being. Let us stop speaking and start acting. However, the acting in the place of the other and for the other has its climax in pains-bearing and cross-carrying. Through this we manifest love and only through this we enter into the glory of the Lord. Therefore, let us remind ourselves that we are united in the bond of love because we are resurrected people in the Risen Christ.