Sixth Sunday Of Easter

SIXTH SUNDAY OF EASTER – YEAR B

WE ARE LOVED THAT IS WHY WE LOVE

Introduction

Baal, the great god worshiped throughout the ancient Middle East, was the lord of the rain, the “rider of the clouds” upon whom depended the fertility of fields and animals. They burned incense and bent the knees to him. The Israelites, too, did this thus arousing the Lord’s jealousy and the indignation of the prophets. In the Bible, Baal’s name appears often accompanied by that of a place—Baal-Safon, Baal-peor, Baal-gad…—corresponding to the mountain where the shrine he was revered was located. Like him, the other gods ofthat area also were identified with the name of the place where the devotees rendered them worship.

In this cultural environment, it is surprising that the Israelites conceived their God as the one who binds his own name not to a place but to the people: “I am the God of your fathers—he declares to Moses—the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob” (Ex 3:6); “I am with you—he often said to his people—be not dismayed, for I am your God” (Is 41:10).

Israel understood that the Lord tied his heart to persons and took care of his people, yet she imagined him also ready to punish “the children and their children for the sin of the fathers to the third and fourth generation”(Ex 34:7). Israel contemplated the work of the Lord’s hands, but had not yet seen the face of Emmanuel—Godwith us—and, above all, had not yet discovered his heart.

The disciple who, during the Last Supper, rested his head on the breast of the Lord revealed to us that God is love, only love, and everyone who loves is begotten of him.

To internalize the message, we repeat:

“When I understand Love, I will learn to love.”

First Reading: Acts 10:25-27,34-35,44-48

This incident in Acts happened at Caesarea, the splendid capital founded by Herod the Great.

The Roman procurator lived in this city and a strong military garrison was stationed there. One of the commanders of the garrison was called Cornelius, a centurion, who, like his colleague at Capernaum (Lk 7:1-10), cultivated a deep respect for the religion of Israel. He prayed, handed out alms, and loved the people of Israel; but this was still not enough to be considered one with the heirs of the promises made to Abraham. He was not circumcised and therefore remained impure and deemed unapproachable by pious Israelites and Peter was one of them.

Peter was a traditionalist, proud of his election ( Deut 7:6; 26:19). He had always avoided contact with foreigners and was not one to be led into idolatry. He defended his religious identity, bearing in mind that a clear line of demarcation separated him from the pagans. He had scrupulously observed the prohibitions and requirements that the rabbis had taught him; but, a few years after Pentecost, events began to chip away a this confidence. An increasingly insistent doubt tormented him: discriminations, ritual impositions in the name of God, were they really willed by God?

He did not know what to do and was groping in the dark. To decide is always to sever and, in his case, it meant making a break with the past, with his Jewish mentality, culture, and religion; or should he sever himself from the impetuous newness of the Spirit Who sent him where a family waited for him in prayer.

Peter was not the type to be easily led into transgression. He hesitated, but in the end believed and, with six other disciples, went to Caesarea.

Cornelius waited and met him. He welcomed Peter and fell at his feet in worship. It was the common practice with which one revered a “man of God” (2 Kgs 4:27). Peter reacted: “Stand up—he said—for I too am a human being!” (v. 26). He refused the deference, even if it was just a compliment, a normal manifestation of respect. He remembered too well how insistently and clearly the Master had condemned the search for honors and the mania for first places (Lk 22:24-27). He did not want such ceremonies – so important for the scribes and Pharisees (Mk 12:38-39) – introduced into the Christian community.

Then he continued: “Truly, I realize that God does not show partiality” (v. 34). It was not all clear for him but he began to understand a fundamental truth introduced by Christ: there are not two categories of persons, those pure and those impure; for God all people are pure because all are his creatures, all are his children.

Peter was not responsible for his narrow-mindedness. He was a product of an age-old concept that made him think in a discriminatory way. The Spirit took charge of disrupting the patterns dictated by alleged racial privileges. He showed that he could descend on the pagans even before they were baptized. With his irresistible dynamism, the Spirit bore witness to the freedom of God’s unconditional love which reaches every person, even if one does not belong to the institutional Church.

The embrace between the group of Jews, arriving at Caesarea along with Peter, and the pagans of Cornelius’ family is the meeting of two peoples who, until then, had cultivated reciprocal prejudices and preconceptions. It is the sign of the Kingdom, of the new world in which discrimination will completely disappear.

Second Reading: 1 John 4:7-10

In a heated dispute Jesus has with the Jews in John’s Gospel, they claimed “Our father is Abraham,” Jesus replied, “If you were Abraham’s children, you would do as Abraham did… . What you are doing are the works of your father….” The Jews reacted: “We have one Father, God….” Jesus replied, “The father you spring from is the devil, and you will carry out the evil wishes of your father, who has been a murderer from the beginning”(Jn 8:39-44).

Jesus alone could claim to be the only Son of God. The works of his Father are manifested in full only in him (Jn 9:3). However those in whose faces the appearance of the heavenly Father is revealed are called – and really are – children of God: “those who work for peace” (Mt 5:9), “those who love their enemies and pray for those who persecute them” (Mt 5:44), and those who act as parents to orphans and widows (Sir 4:10). It is God’s likeness, from which even the greatest saint will remain infinitely distant, but for which we must continually strive. In fact, Paul says: “As most beloved children of God, strive to imitate him” (Eph 5:1).

In the first part of today’s Gospel passage (vv. 7-8), the evangelist takes the image of sonship to indicate wherein lies the foundation and source of the commandment of love. It does not come from an external provision given by God, but the manifestation of a new reality, intimately present in man, the divine seed that God has placed in him.

Who is God? We do not even know who we are, so how can we possibly define God? John does not give a definition but explains how He manifests himself: not as a legislator and judge, as the rabbis believed, but as love. “Let us love one another—he says—for love comes from God. Everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. Those who do not love have not known God, for God is love” (vv. 7-8).

Love is the life of God, and it is this love that he communicates to his children. The one who loves, even if he does not belong to the ecclesial institution, has in himself the life of God and is living as God’s son.

In the second part of the passage (vv. 9-10), he explains what it means to love. God’s love is manifested by giving us what was most precious to him, his Only Begotten. He sent him into the world, not as a reward for our good works, but as “propitiation for our sins.” He loved us, not because we were good, but has made us good by loving us gratuitously: “When we were still helpless and unable to do anything, Christ died for us”(Rom 5:6).

This is generous and unselfish love which also manifests itself in the children of God.

One does not receive divine sonship as a reward because one loves, rather it is the presence of this love that reveals who has become a child of God.

Gospel: John 15:9-17

Today’s Gospel is a continuation of last Sunday’s passage. After introducing the allegory of the vine and the branches, Jesus explains what happens to those who remain united to him.

There are fleeting infatuations with Christ, dictated by fleeting emotion and enthusiasm. On the other hand, there is a lasting attachment that no opposing force can break. This strong and decisive adhesion is expressed by John with the verb “to remain” (μενειν (menein) in Greek). It occurs seven times in the parable of the vine and is mentioned three times at the beginning of our passage (vv. 9-10).

Jesus remains in the Father’s love because he is always united to him. He is faithful to the Father and “always does what pleases him” (Jn 8:29). The disciples can become in the world a reflection of this union only if they remain in His love and keep his commandments: “If anyone loves me, he will keep my word and my Father will love him; and we will come to him and make a room in his home” (Jn 14:23).

These words and images, full of mysticism, make one clearly perceive John is appealing to the Eucharist. This is a sacrament where this intimate union with the Lord is celebrated and realized: “Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood, live in me, and I in them” (Jn 6:56).

That is why, before receiving communion, everyone must “examine himself,” to see if he really is determined to remain in the Lord, otherwise his act is a lie and “he eats and drinks his own condemnation” (1 Cor 11:28-29).

In these first verses (vv. 9-10), Jesus does not present his love as a role model, but as a life that continues in the disciples. In baptism, they were inserted in him, thereby becoming his members. So, it is he who acts in them. In the disciples it is Christ who announces the good news to the poor, loves, cares, comforts, dries the tears of the widow and of the orphan. The result of this union with Christ and with the Father – and the observance of his commandments – is the fullness of joy (v. 11).

The word “joy” appears seven times in the Gospel of John. The first to employ it is the Baptist when he says: “The friend of the bridegroom rejoices to hear the bridegroom’s voice. My joy is now full” (Jn 3:29). It is Jesus who insistently repeats to his disciples the promise of his joy.

However, the conviction that remaining in Christ is tantamount to giving up what makes one happy is still to be found in the hearts of some believers. It is not so. Jesus warns, yes, of vain and illusory joys arising from selfishness, the pursuit of pleasure at any cost. He offers, instead, the authentic joy which comes from union with him and with the Father. This only true and lasting joy is obtained by going through suffering: “You will weep and mourn while the world rejoices. You will be sorrowful, but your sorrow will turn into joy” (Jn 16:20).Trying alternative paths, choosing easy and spacious roads means getting lost, being far from the goal.

After speaking of his commandments, as if they were many, Jesus declares: “This is my commandment: Love one another as I have loved you” as if it were only one (v. 12).

It is true, the commandments are many, but they are only clarifications of a single commandment, that which Jesus perfectly practiced: love of people. All moral choices, provisions and laws, must refer to the good of all because it is the only way we have to show our love for God: “How can you love God whom you do not see if you do not love your brother whom you see?” (1 Jn 4:20). Who loves the brother or sister has fulfilled all the law: “for the whole Law is summed up in this sentence: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself’” (Gal 5:14; Rom 13:8-10).

At the Last Supper, after washing the feet of his disciples, he said: “I give you a new commandment: Love one another! Just as I have loved you, you also must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples if you have love for one another” (Jn 13:34-35).

Comparing the two formulas with which the only commandment is presented, one notes a slight but significant difference. Before the commandment was “new,” now it is “his,” as if it were no longer “new.”

There is a reason why the change is introduced. The evangelist writes after the events of the Pass over when Jesus has already passed from this world to the Father. First, Jesus practiced the new command ment: he loved even up to giving all of himself. That is the reason why the commandment is no longer new but has become his, what he has done. The measure of love of neighbor is no longer the one indicated by the Old Testament: “as yourself” (Lev 19:18); but: “as I have loved you”, and with this expression, Jesus refers to the highest love he has shown on the cross.

Remain in him alone who is always willing to “give life” because “there is no greater love than this, to give one’s life for one’s friends” (v. 13) and “Christ loved us and he gave himself up for us” (Eph 5:2).

His commandment is not intended as a demanding, precise, and well-defined law with many details. It is an orientation of life that, in its practical implications, should be determined from moment to moment. It requires constant attention to the needs of the brother or sister at hand; it requires imagination, discernment, and courage to make decisions even at the risk of making mistakes.

Jesus does not call his disciples “servants” but “friends” (vv. 14-15).

This statement is not immediately clear because in the Bible, “servant of God” is a title of honor, given to people such as Abraham, Moses, David, the prophets. The old man Simeon, Paul, Peter, and many others are classified as “servants” and Mary is called “the handmaid of the Lord” (Lk 1:38). Jesus, above all, is indicated by the Father with the words: “Here is my servant whom I have chosen” (Mt 12:18). In the famous song of the Letter to the Philippians, Paul reminds us that he “took on the nature of a servant” (Phil 2:7). Hence the exhortation to become servants of one another (Mk 9:35).

Jesus gives the reason why he does not call his disciples servants, but friends.

The servant is involved only exteriorly in the projects of the master. He is an executor of orders and tasks assigned to him. The friend is instead a confidant. He is the one with whom he cultivates a communion of life, projects, and intentions. The friend is happy when he can perform a favor for a loved one. He does not hide anything from him, and he does not charge any compensation for service provided.

Jesus calls his disciples “friends” because he revealed the plan of the Father to them (v. 15). He called them to collaborate with him on its realization.

The Christian community is made up of “friends.” Superior-subject, master-slave, teacher-disciple rapports are therefore excluded. All the members are on the same level and enjoy equal dignity.

After washing the apostles’ feet, Jesus admits to being “Lord and Master,” but he gives a whole new meaning to these titles: “the first,” one who is “great” in the community is the one who washes the feet of the least. There is no place for one who, instead of serving, aspires to prestigious positions and honors.

The whole passage is a hymn to love. But who is to be loved?

The exhortation is clearly directed only to the disciples and love seems restricted to their group. One wonders then why Jesus did not require a universal love, extended to all, even to enemies, as he did in these r mon on the mount (Mt 5:44).

Certainly, but here Jesus speaks directly only to members of the Christian community and only to them he recommends unity and mutual love. It is a limitation, but there is a reason: Before talking about love and peace directed to others, it is necessary to cultivate love and peace in the Church.

Only a community whose members demonstrate a lively and profound experience of acceptance, tolerance, forgiveness, mutual service, and sharing of goods can announce brotherhood or sisterhood and peace to the world.