In our first reading we heard what is possibly the most famous,
and surely the least controversial, of all the fundamental statements made in
the New Testament about God:
God is love (1 John 4:16)
That statement of just three words from St. John’s first letter, are
unique to St. John, they cannot be found elsewhere, not even in St.
John’s own Gospel!! And yet, as I have
just said, they are the most commonly appreciated words of
the New Testament, in fact they encapsulate
Gospel teaching for both those
who care not-one-jot for the rest of God’s Good News, and for those who
appreciate them not commonly, but with the deepest Gospel appreciation and Jesus-bonding
love.
For many, multitudes indeed, commonly rejoice in those
words not because they want to delight in, learn more about, their meaning and
significance for their own spiritual life in the service of Jesus before the
Father, but to use them as a springboard that enables them to assert that all love is divine,
and that all earthly forms of loving, including even the most blatantly sensual
and at times disgusting, are acceptable; and indeed are authentic, expressions of God’s
love – which, most certainly, is not true.
Such opponents of Christianity, such searchers for ‘freedom
to sin’, latch onto a popular difficulty
for the correct doctrinal understanding of those words I have highlighted:
God is love.
The original Greek text in the New Testament says that God
is agape; the Latin Vulgate, old and
new, always translates that with ’God is caritas’; and, for their part, our
older English bibles translated that into ’God is charity’. However, when the clarity of the word
’charity’ was clouded by the saying, ’there is nothing so cold as charity, then
our English bibles began to translate ’God is agape’, with ‘God is love’. As a result, we now have the situation where another
worldly expression ’making love’ -- used almost universally for
sex between adult men and women, not excluding, of course, these days’ sex between
gays, lesbians, and others -- unavoidably resonates St. John’s words ‘God is love’. So that, whereas formerly, although the word ‘charity’
was maliciously characterised as cold and unfeeling, it, nevertheless, always
carried with it an aura of divine involvement.
Now, ‘love’ in the modern translation, inevitably brings with it
implications that are both sordid and unchristian; and even though -- at its very
best -- it can occasionally evoke
what is beautiful in human relationships, hardly ever does it suggest what is divine.
There is however, another, not dissimilar, difficulty
connected with the popular understanding of our Gospel reading today. Jesus, as you heard said:
I have told you this so that My
joy may be in you and your joy might be complete.
In modern parlance, ‘joy’ is frequently -- indeed normally
-- mixed up with, understood as, ‘pleasure’ or even ‘excitement’. Now, there is no true comparison between
those three words. In the Christian
understanding ’joy’ is spiritual, whereas ’pleasure’ is sensual; and excitement
can be anything leading to frenetic emotion: one feels pleasure, one is carried-away
by excitement, one can only peacefully experience joy. Pleasure can be bought or procured, whereas joy
is only to be received as a gift, a privilege, given – in its most sublime form
-- freely from above, evoked in such words as, ‘Thanks be to God’.
Jesus loved the Father; and before leaving the Upper Room
to face His enemies and impending death His final words were:
That the world may know that I
love the Father, and as the Father gave Me commandment, so I do; arise, let us
go from here. (John 14:31)
He desired above all to lead His disciples to a relationship
with the Father like to His own. Jesus’
love for the Father was and is ‘agape’, and the Father’s agape caused Him to send
His Son on earth to free mankind from the deadly burden of their sins. That agape-inspired gift of self-sacrificing
love on the Father’s part led His Son to embrace the Cross for the redemption
of our sinfulness , and thus pour out that divine, agape-inspired-love into our
lives by the Gift of His Spirit:
God’s love (‘agape’) has
been poured out in our hearts through the Holy Spirit Who has been given to us.
(Romans 5:5)
In that way the love which originates with the Father comes
down to earth:
In this is love, not that we have
loved God, but that He loved us (with
agape) and sent His Son to be the
propitiation for our sins. (1 John 4:10)
However, though come down to earth in and through Jesus,
agape is never earthly, it remains divine; and, by the unique inevitability characteristic
of divine power, it ultimately recalls, brings back, restores, the Son to oneness
with His Father:
(Father) all
Mine are Yours, and Yours are Mine. (John 17:10)
Thus, the whole aim of our Christian life, the whole
purpose of Catholic spirituality, is to allow that full tide of agape -- brought
down, and given to us, by Jesus through His Holy Spirit -- to rule in our
lives, as St. Paul testifies:
If we are beside ourselves, it is
for God; or if we are in our right mind, it is for you, for the love
(agape) of Christ controls us. (2
Corinthians 5:13-14)
If agape is allowed to move us likewise, it will draw all, who
are one with and in, Jesus, back to the Father; and that will be for our most
sublime joy, for Jesus’ relations with His Father were characterized, as He
said, by joy, and
He wanted that joy to be shared by His disciples also:
As the Father loves Me, so I also
love you. Remain in My love. 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. I have told you this so that My joy may be in you, and that your joy might
be complete.
Notice there, dear People of God, when so much emotional
waffle is swilling around in presentations of Catholic faith and Christian
discipleship in a vain search for easy religion and a popular Jesus, that Jesus
-- in the words quoted from today’s Gospel -- associates LOVE, COMMANDMENTS, and
JOY; where the link-word holding true love, divine love, ‘agape’, and
humanly experienced Jesu-joy (‘My joy’), is the word ‘commandments’, and
the obedience it calls for.
Jesus’ essential significance for the world’s salvation is
summed up in His revelation of the Father, and in His gift of the Holy Spirit Whom
He bequeathed to His Church; from these, spring the joy and fulfilment of Christian
life and the irresistible power of Christian agape so definitely witnessed-to in
some of the most essential aspects of the Gospel message:
Rejoice
Mary, the Lord is with you.
The angel said, "Do not be
afraid, for behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy which will be
to all people. For there is born to you
this day in the city of David a Saviour, who is Christ the Lord. (Luke 2:10-12)
Peace I leave with you, My
peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your
heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid. (John 14:27)
Be of good cheer, I have
overcome the world. (John
16:33)
Dear People of God, in order to experience the beautiful
truth, the unutterable joy, and the supreme power of the Christian way of life,
that is, in order to benefit from the fullness of revelation and grace in
Mother Church, we must learn to swim in and along with the tide of divine agape
which determines her whole being: sustaining her unwavering hope and preparing
her for eternal glory. We must come to
know and love the Father; and, as you are well aware, no one can draw near to
the Father except through Jesus, because Jesus alone gives us the Spirit, Who
is the bond of agape between Father and Son:
There are three that bear witness
in heaven: the Father, the Word, and the Holy Spirit; and these Three are One.
(1 John 5:7)
Embrace therefore, People of God, the Gospel proclaimed by
Mother Church, that, knowing the Truth and delighting in Jesus, you may receive
the Gift of the Holy Spirit Who can fill you with that unique love which is
divine Agape. Allow that Holy Spirit of
agape to rule your life in Jesus, and He will guide you along the way to the
Father, bearing fruit for the Father and experiencing something of Jesus’ own peace
and joy here on earth, before ultimately -- in heaven -- sharing in the eternal
blessedness of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, to Whom belong all glory,
praise, and honour, now and for ever.
Peter said, ‘God shows no
partiality: in every nation anyone who fears Him and does what is right is
acceptable to Him.’
Jesus says, ‘If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love, just as I have kept My Father’s commandments and abide in His love.’
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