Homily for the Sixth Sunday of Easter (Cycle B)
Based on Jn 15:9-17 (Gospel), Ac 10:25-26,34-35,44-48 (First
Reading) and 1 Jn 4:7-10 (Second Reading)
From the Series: “Reflections and Teachings of the
Desert”
NO
GREATER LOVE
“A
man can have no greater love than to lay down his life for his friends” (Jn
15:13)
The heart that loves is always young.
(Chinese saying)
What is the
human phenomenon called ‘love’? Could it be an attitude? Or a behavior? How could love be Christianized”?
Love is one of the emotional states and “refers
to a variety of different feelings, states, and attitudes that ranges from
interpersonal affection ("I love my mother") to pleasure ("I
loved that meal"). It can refer to an emotion of a strong attraction and
personal attachment. It can also be a virtue representing human kindness,
compassion, and affection—"the unselfish loyal and benevolent concern for
the good of another". It may also describe compassionate and affectionate
actions towards other humans, one's self or animals. Love in its various forms
acts as a major facilitator of interpersonal relationships and, owing to its
central psychological importance, is one of the most common themes in the
creative arts. ” (From Wikipedia Encyclopedia (Online, accessed 3 April
2014).
But what kind of love is it? Among
the ancient Greeks, there are four kinds of love, viz.:
a.
Filial love - kinship or familiarity (in Greek,
storge);
b.
Fraternal love - friendship (philia)
c.
Erotic or carnal love - sexual and/or romantic
desire (eros);
d. Christian
love- self-emptying or divine love (agape). Another term for divine love is platonic love,
which is a type of love that is chaste
and non-sexual.
Today’s gospel
narrative is part of the wider farewell discourse of Jesus Christ, part of the
new commandment of Jn 13:34-35 - “I give you a new commandment: love one
another, just as I have loved you. You also must love one another. By this love
you have for one another, everyone will know that you are my disciples.” Hence
the sure sign of a disciple of Jesus Christ is Love.
A Christian’s love for one another should be
sacrificial love, a love to the point of sacrifice, or a self-emptying love as already
said above. Christian love is expounded in today’s gospel narrative when it
says: “A man can have no greater love than to lay down his life for
his friends” (Jn 15:13).
Let us now go verse by verse of
today’s gospel narrative, including the parallel texts and accompanying
footnotes of these verses, if possible:
Verse 9 says: As the Father has loved me, so I have loved
you. Remain in my love.
Parallel texts for this particular verse are:
a. Jn
3:35 – The Father loves the Son and has
entrusted everything to him.r Footnote
r says “ God has communicated his power over life to the Son, 1:4;
5:21; 10:18+, and now the Son gives life to whom he wills, 5:26; his gift of
the Spirit, 3:5-61:33+; 15:26, establishes
‘all flesh’ in incorruption, 1:14+; 11:25+;17:2,3. Thus, by the Father’s
decree, all things are ‘in the hand’ (or power) of the Son, 3:35; 10:28,29;
13:3; 17:2;cf. 6:37-39; Mt 11:27; 28:18; on this is based the sovereignty,
12:13-15; 18:36-37; that he will solemnly assume on the day of his ‘lifting
up’, 12:32+; 19:19; Ac 2:33; Ep 4:8; and
on that day, the ‘Prince of the world’ will forfeit his kingdom, 12:31.”
b. Jn
10:14-15 – I am the good shepherd; I
know my own and my own know me.g Just as the Father know me and I
know the Father; and I lay down my life for my sheep. Footnote g- says “In
biblical language, cf. Ho. 2:22, ‘knowledge’ is not merely the conclusion of an
intellectual process, but the fruit of an ‘experience’, a personal contact (cf.
John 10:14-15 and 14:20; 17:21-22; cf. 14:17, 17:3; 2 Jn 1-2); when it matures,
it is love, cf. Ho. 6:6 and 1 Jn 1:3+.”
This footnote
may be illustrated to give us a theoretical (conceptual) framework of love and
unity, viz.:
 |
maturation
A THEORETICAL (CONCEPTUAL) FRAMEWORK OF
LOVE AND UNITY
c. Jn
13:1 – It was before the festival of the
Passover, and Jesus knew that the hour had come for him to pass from this world
to the Father.a Footnote a
gives us the etymology of the word “passover”. It says “According to a Jewish tradition the word “Passover” (pesah; cf. Ex.
12:11+ ) means ‘a passing, or crossing over’, referring it to the crossing of
the Red Sea, Ex. 14. Christ (and we with him) will pass from this world, which
is enslaved by sin, to the Father’s company, the true Land of Promise. Cf. Jn
1:21+.”
d. Jn
17:23 - With me in them and you in me,
may they be so completely one that the world will realize that it was you who
sent me and that I have loved themp as much as you loved me.
Footnote p says “Var.
‘that you have loved them’”.
The fourth element of the theoretical
framework of love is union or unity.
Verse 10 says: 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.
Parallel texts for this verse are:
a.
Jn 8:29 - Because I have come from heaven, not
to do my own will, but to do the will of the one who sent me.
b.
Jn 6:38 - He who sent me is with me, and has not
left me to myself, for I always do what pleases him.
Verse 11 says:
I have told you this so that my own joye may be in you and your joy may be
complete. Footnote e for this verse says “The perfect happiness of the messianic era
which is communicated by the Son of God.”
What
kind of happiness of the messianic era is this? It is the same kind of happiness
that is felt by everyone when they attend a marriage feast or banquet. Similarly,
the kind of joy that Jesus Christ will eventually give according to this verse
11 is the joy when we participate in the marriage feast of the Lamb with his
bride, the Church in the presence of the heavenly Father in God’s kingdom. The
same joy is also the kind of joy that is felt by the couple during childbirth. These
ideas are now fully explicated in the following parallel texts for this verse.
Parallel texts for this verse are:
a.
Jn 3:29 - The bride is only for the bridegroom;n and yet the
bridegroom’s friend, who stand there and listens, is glad when he hears the
bridegroom’s voice. This same joy I feel, and now it is complete. Footnote n
- says : “The OT uses the marriage metaphor to express the relationship between
God and Israel, Ho. 1:2+. Jesus applies it to himself, Mt. 9:15p; 22:1f;
25:1f; cf. also Paul in Ep. 5:22f; 2 Co
11:2. The Messiah’s coming has brought joy to the world, Jn 3:29, cf. 1:29,
36-39, 2:1-11, consequently the marriage feast of the Lamb, Rev. 19:7; 21:2,
has already begun.”
b.
Jn 16:21,22 - A woman in childbirth suffers, because her time has come; but when she
has given birth to the child she forgets the sufferingj in her joy
that a man has been born into the world. So it is with you: you are sad now,
but I shall see you again, and your hearts will be full of joy, and that joy no
one shall take from you. Footnotes f
- By revealing the hidden depth of the
mystery of Jesus, the Spirit makes his glory known. Jesus, in his turn,
manifests the glory of the Father, 17:4, from whom comes everything he
possesses, 3:35; 5:22,26; 13:3; 17:2. The Father is the source of the
revelation communicated by the Son and brought to completion by the Spirit who
in his way glorifies both Son and Father. There are not three revelations but
one.
j - Traditional biblical metaphor for the
suffering which will herald the new, messianic age. Cf Mt. 24:8+.
c.
Jn 17:13 - But now I am coming to you and while still in the world I say these
things to share my joy with them to the full.
Verse 12 says: This is my
commandment: love one another, as I have loved you.
Parallel
text for this verse 12 is Jn
13:34, already cited above, which says: I give you a new commandment: love one
another, just as I have loved you. You also must love one another.
Next verse, Verse 13, says: A man can have no greater love than to lay down his life for his
friends. According to this verse, a Christian ought to love his friends.
Parallel texts for this verse 13 are:
a.
1 Jn 3:16 - This
has taught us love - that he gave up his life for us; and we, too, ought to
give up our lives for our brothers. According to this verse, a Christian should
love his brethren.
b. Rm
5:6-8 - We were still helpless when at
his appointed moment Christ died for sinful men. It is not easy even to die for
a good man - though of course for someone really worthy, a man might be
prepared to die - but what proves that God loves us is that Christ died for us
while we were still sinners. This is
the kind of God’s love for us, when he allowed Jesus Christ to die for us when
we were yet sinners. Therefore, a Christian’s love should extend also to sinners,
our supposedly enemies.
The true mark
of Christian love, one which is a sacrificing, or self-emptying love, is the
love for enemies, not only to a friend or to a brother who are both easy to love,
but to enemies, who are impossible to love. And this kind of self-sacrificing love
is impossible for anyone, Christian or not, to do or fulfill, except to God
alone.
c. Ga
2:21 - I cannot bring myself to give up
God’s gift:p if the Law can justify us, there is no point in the
death of Christ. Footnote p – says: “By returning to the Law, cf. 3:18.” God’s gift to mankind is the
death of Christ for sinners,.
Verses 14 and 15 say: You are my friends, if you do what I command you. I shall not call you
servants anymore, because a servant does not know his master’s business; I call
you friends, because I have made known to you everything I have learnt from my
Father.
Parallel text for this verse 15 are the following:
a.
Rm 8:15 - The spirit you received is not
the spirit of slaves bringing fear into your lives again; it is the spirit of
sons, and it makes us cry out, “Abba, Father!”I Foot note i-
says: “The prayer of Christ in
Gethsemane, Mk 14:36.”
b.
Ga 4:7 - And it is this that makes you a
son, you are not a slave anymore; and if God has made you son, then he has made
you heir.
c.
Lk 12:4 - To you my friends I say: Do not
be afraid of those who kill the body and after that can do no more.
d.
Gn 18:17 - Now, Yahweh, had wondered,
‘Shall I conceal from Abraham what I am going to do…’
e.
Ex 33:11 - Yahweh would speak with Moses
face to face, as a man speaks with his friend. Then Moses would turn back to
the camp, but the young man who was his servant, Joshua son of Nun, would not
leave the Tent.
Parallel texts c to e gives us the characteristics of one who is a
friend, viz.:
a.
A friends
is not afraid of those who kill the body;
b.
A friends does not conceal secrets from the other; and
c.
A friend speaks face to face with the other.
Verse 16 states: You did not choose me, no, I chose you; and I
commissioned you to go out and bear fruit, fruit that will last; and then the
Father will give you anything you ask him in my name.
Parallel texts for verse 16 are the following:
a.
Dt 7:6,8 - For you are a people consecrated to Yahweh your God; it is you that
Yahweh your God has chosen to be his very own people out of all the peoples on
the earth.
b.
1 Jn 4:10 -
This is the love I mean: not our love for God, but God’s love for us when he
sent his Son to be the sacrifice that takes our
sins away.
c.
Jn 15:2,5 -Every branch in me that bears no fruit, b he cuts away, and
every branch that does bear fruit he prunes to make it bear even more. (V. 2). I
am the vine, you are the branches. Whoever remains in me, with me in him, bears
fruit in plenty; for cut off from me you can do nothing (v. 5). Footnote b–The
‘fruit’ is that of a life of obedience to the commandments, especially that of
love, vv. 12-17. Cf. is 5:7; Jr 2:21.
d.
Mt 13:23 - And the one who received the seed in rich soil is the man who hears the
word and understand it; he is the one yields a harvest and produces now a
hundredfold, now sixty, now thirty.
e.
Rm 6:20-23 - When you were slaves of sin, you felt no obligation to righteousness,
and what did you get from this? Nothing but experiences that now make you blush
since that sort of behavior ends in death. Now, however, you have been set free
from sin, and you have been made slaves of God, and you get a reward leading to
your sanctification and ending in eternal life. For the wages paid by sin is
death, the present given by God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
f.
Jn 14:13 -Whatever you ask for in my name I will do, so that the Father may be
glorified in the Son.
g.
Mt 18:19 - I tell solemnly once again, if two of you on earth agree to ask
anything at all, it will be granted to you by my Father in heaven.
Verse 17 states: What I command
you is to love one another.
Parallel texts for verse 17
are:
a.
Jn 13:34 -
I give you a new commandment: love one another, just as I have loved you. You
also must love one another.
b.
1 Jn 3:23 - His
commandments are these: that we believe in the name of his Son Jesus Christ and
that we love one another as he told us to.
c.
1 Jn 4:21 - So
this is the commandment that he has given us, that anyone who loves God must
also love his brother.
The Second Reading for this Sunday is Ac 10:25-26,
34-35, 44-48, under the title Peter
visits a Roman centuriona.
Footnote a states “For Luke, Cornelius’ conversion has a wide application. Its
significance for the Church at large appears from the narrative itself and from
its emphasis on the vision of Peter and of Cornelius but especially from the
way the author deliberately links this incident to the decision of the ‘Council
of Jerusalem’, cf. 15:7-11, 14. There seems to be two separate lessons here.
First, God himself had made it clear that the pagans are to be received into
the Church without being forced to obey the Law, cf. 10:34-35,44-48a;
11:1,15-18; 15:7-11,14; and Ga. 2:1-10. Secondly, God himself has shown Peter
that he must accept the hospitality of the uncircumcised . The problem of
social relations between the Christians converted from Judaism and Christians
converted from paganism underlies the narrative, cf. 10:10-16, 28-29; 11:2-14;
and Ga 2:11-21.”
This episode is a practical application of the todays’ gospel lesson.
Jewish Christians are told to love their gentile Christian brethren.
Second Reading for this Sunday is all about the admonition
of the Apostle John to love. This reading is taken from 1 Jn 4:7-10. It says: “My dear people, let us love one another
since love comes from God and everyone who loves is begotten by God and knows
God. Anyone who fails to love can never
have known God because God is love.d God’s love for us was revealed
when God sent into the world his only Son so that we could have life through
him. This is the love I mean: not our love for God, but God’s love for us when
he sent his Son to be the sacrifice that takes our sins away”
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