6th Sunday of Eastertide

Sixth Sunday of Eastertide 

 (Acts 10:25-26, 34-35, 44-48; 1 John 4:7-10; John 15:9-17)

In the Gospel reading we heard an expansion of what is possibly the most famous, the most appreciated, and surely the least controversial, of all the fundamental statements made in the Bible about God:

            God is love.  (1 John 4:8,16)

However, many rejoice in those words not because they themselves want to rest in, delight in, their meaning and significance for the spiritual life, but to use them as a dialectical springboard that would enable them to assert that all love is divine, and that all earthly forms of loving, including even the most blatantly sensual, are expressive of, and come from, God – which, most certainly, is not true.

Our difficulty lies in the Greek New Testament use of the word ‘agape’.  The original Greek text 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 word, ’charity’ came to take on the unacceptable connotation spread abroad by the saying, ’there is nothing so cold as charity’ -- meaning the charity of Christians who do not really care about the person they are dealing with but are mainly intent on showing off their own supposed virtue -- then our more modern English bibles began to translate ’God is agape, caritas’ with the words ‘God is love‘.  As a result we now have the situation where the almost universally used expression for sex between consenting adult men and women, ’making love’, unavoidably resonates in the translation of divine ’agape’ and ’caritas’.  Whereas, formerly, although ‘charity’ -- for some -- seemed a somewhat cold and unfeeling word, nevertheless it always carried with it a divine implication; now, ‘love’ in the modern sense, is – unavoidably, and for most people -- a word with implications that are too often sordid and unacceptable; and even though, at its best, it can evoke what is noble and beautiful, hardly ever does it, of itself, suggest what is divine.

There is another, not dissimilar, difficulty connected with 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 our modern society, ‘joy’ is no longer necessarily to be understood in a Christian sense, being frequently mixed up with, understood as, ‘pleasure’.  Now, there is no true comparison between those words.  In the Christian understanding ’joy’ is spiritual, whereas ’pleasure’ is sensual: one feels pleasure,  joy can only be experienced; pleasure can be bought or provided, whereas joy is only to be received as a privilege, an elevating privilege, given – in its most sublime form -- freely from above.

Jesus loved the Father; and before leaving the Upper Room to face His enemies and impending death His final words were:

The world must know that I love the Father, and that I do just as the Father has commanded Me.  Get up, let us go. (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’.  ‘Agape’ is the Father, ‘God is agape, caritas’ and the Father’s agape causes Him to give His Son for the life of the world; that agape-inspired gift leads His Son to embrace the Cross for love of His Father and become agape Himself in His human form able to pour out that divine agape into our lives by the Gift of His Spirit:

The love of God (‘agape’) has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit Who was given to us. (Rom 5:5)

In that way the love which originates with the Father -- God is agape -- comes down to earth:

In this is love, not that we 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 inevitability of irresistible love it returns to the Father because the Son is always and eternally -- by agape -- related to, one 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, 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 of sound mind, it is for you, for the love (agape) of Christ compels us. (2 Cor. 5:13-14)

If agape is allowed to compel 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 too:

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.

Jesus’ essential significance for the world’s salvation is summed up in His revelation of the Father, His bestowal of the promise of the Father -- His own most Holy Spirit -- to His Church at Pentecost, and the bequest He made to her of His own most Precious, Eucharistic, Body and Blood at the Last Supper; from these divine sources spring the sublime peace and joy of Christian hope, and the irresistible life and power of agape:

            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.

BE OF GOOD CHEER, I have overcome the world. (John 14:27 and 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 with the tide of divine agape which determines her whole being: sustaining her unwavering hope and faithfulness on earth and preparing her for the eternal joys and glory of the coming Kingdom.  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 the Holy Spirit of agape to rule your life in Jesus, and He will guide you most surely along the way to the Father, bearing fruit for the Father and experiencing something of Jesus’ own joy  and peace here on earth, before ultimately, in heaven, sharing in the eternal blessedness of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, to Whom belong all blessing and honour, glory and power, now and for ever.  Amen.

               

5th Sunday of Eastertide (Year B)

Fifth Sunday of Easter (Year B)         

 (Acts 9:26-31; 1^st. John 3:18-24; John 15:1-8)

Our Blessed Lord in the Gospel reading spoke words that we must continually bear in mind and hold close to our hearts as we seek to live as His disciples:

I am the vine, you are the branches. Whoever remains in Me and I in him will bear much fruit, because without Me you can do nothing.

Feelings of personal superiority over success Our Blessed Lord in the Gospel reading spoke words that we must continually bear in mind and hold close to our hearts in the ‘rat race’, or of pride for coming out ‘on top of the pile’, though human enough to be known, appreciated, and perhaps secretly admired by many despite being experienced by only a relatively small company of ‘winners’, are totally and diametrically opposed to Christian values:

            As it is written, ‘He who glories, let him glory in the Lord.’ (1 Cor. 1:31)

For Christians know that what is of importance is not what they themselves do – for Jesus said, without Me you can do nothing – so much as what they allow Him to do in and through them for love of the brethren – fellow branches of the fruitful vine -- and for God’s supreme glory:

             Whoever remains in Me and I in him will bear much fruit.

Let us look, therefore, first of all at what is meant, involved, by the words, whoever remains in Me.

Many like to think that Jesus is there referring to our abiding in Him by our occasionally calling to mind some of the most lovable aspects of His unique personality, or of our appreciative, though passing, consideration of items of His traditional teachings, somewhat as one might remain attached to the memory of a loved-one, a teacher, or of a friend, who has passed on.

Jesus however is no absent loved-one, no departed friend, nor is He but a remembered and revered former teacher; for He is always available for us, ever present to us.  In addition, the words ‘whoever remains in Me’ speak of our whole being being found in Him, not just our mind thinking on Him, or our heart cherishing His memory.  Indeed, Jesus Himself made no effort to perpetuate His memory in our minds through personal writings, for He wrote nothing.  Nor was He, in His death, surrounded by zealous followers deploring His fate and declaring their hearts’ devotion, for He was put to death in abandonment and His former disciples were, as a whole, quick to desert Him and escape to the safety of obscurity, where they were to be found despairing for the future and unsure of the significance of His work among them.

It was His rising from the dead in the fullness of His glorious humanity that made all the difference: for then He was not only seen, but heard to speak; He was not only touched, but seen to eat, sharing food with His disciples.  His risen presence was, indeed, a true bodily presence, but it was not a normal ordinary presence, because it was a presence evoking worship, a body demanding trust. It was, in short, a glorious body, most gloriously different in some respects, but nevertheless, it was the Body of the Jesus they had known before and followed as His disciples, Who had latterly been crucified, and Who was now – recognizably -- once again truly present among them and for them; and a like mysteriously worshipful, true, and trustworthy real presence is still the manner of His abiding with us today.   Jesus does not just evoke a message to be recalled to mind, He is not merely a memory to be cherished, He is a totally NEW Personal Being to be experienced in humble worship and appreciated through the self-less commitment of love.

‘Whoever remains in Me‘, refers therefore, to one who remains as a whole person, indeed who thus wholly abides, in the whole Jesus, as a living member of His Body and in the Church, living as one made new by the Spirit of Jesus, as St. Paul proclaimed to those he found seeking for God among the traces and shadows of Athens:

He is not far from each one of, for in Him we live and move and have our being.  (Acts 17:27s.)

Abiding in the Body of Jesus we abide in His love, if we keep His commandment to love one another.  We should love all fellow members of the Body of Christ -- that is, concretely put, all our brethren in Mother Church spread throughout the world – so that together we might bring forth acceptable fruit for the Father, for, as Jesus Himself said:            

By this is My Father glorified, that you bear much fruit and become My disciples.

You will remember how Jesus at times took elements from the Law of Moses and  confirmed them by intensifying them:

You have heard that it was said to those of old, 'You shall not murder,' and whoever murders will be in danger of the judgment.  But I say to you that whoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment. (Matt 5:21-22)

In like manner the New Testament command of Jesus to ‘love one another’ is not the same as the Old Testament commandment (Lev 19:18) which declares:

You shall not take vengeance, nor bear any grudge against the children of your people, but you shall love your neighbour as yourself: I am the Lord.

That was a command to love fellow Israelites. Jesus, however, as you know, extended that love to all men in His parable about the Good Samaritan:

“Which of these three -- the respected fellow Israelites, Levite and Priest, or the despised and hated Samaritan -- do you think was neighbour to him who fell among the thieves?"  He said, "He who showed mercy on him." Then Jesus said to him, "Go and do likewise." (Luke 10:36-37)

Moreover, the original Old Testament ‘neighbour commandment’ required loving the other ‘as yourself’, and that, Jesus took up once again at the Last Supper:

As the Father loved Me, I also have loved you; abide in My love.  This is My commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.

Jesus’ ‘neighbour commandment’, therefore does not relate merely to fellow Israelites, it is a commandment for the Body of Christ, which concerns the whole Church, one which involves loving ‘one another as I have loved you’.

Thereby, we can gather some idea of just how much Mother Church should mean for us who aspire to become true disciples of Jesus: she is the only authentic milieu, the truly necessary atmosphere, for the full and vital co-operation of every cell sharing in the life of the Mystical Body of Christ; only through, in, her alone can we ‘contact’ all of those ‘one another’s’ commended to us by Jesus.  That is why she is to be protected, cherished and nurtured by our observance of His  special commandment:

            Love one another as I have loved you.  

Let us now notice how supremely important this membership of, this living in and by Mother Church, was to Paul, the Apostle of the Gentiles:

When Saul had come to Jerusalem, he tried to join the disciples; but they were all afraid of him, and did not believe that he was a disciple.  But Barnabas took him and brought him to the apostles. And he declared to them how he had seen the Lord on the road, and that He had spoken to him, and how he had preached boldly at Damascus in the name of Jesus. So he was with them at Jerusalem, coming in and going out.  And he spoke boldly in the name of the Lord Jesus.

Saul became in the Church, Paul, a preacher whose powerfully independent character was most clearly manifested in confrontations with Barnabas and Mark (Acts 15:37-39), and his famous show-down with Peter at Antioch (Galatians 2:12).  Nevertheless, independent though he was by nature, on becoming, in the Church, the Doctor of the Gentiles, he was concerned and firmly determined to regulate his proclamation of Jesus with that of the original Apostles, above all Peter:

Then after three years I went up to Jerusalem to see Peter, and remained with him fifteen days.   But I saw none of the other apostles except James, the Lord's brother. (Galatians 1:18-19)

After fourteen years I went up again to Jerusalem with Barnabas, and also took Titus with me. I went up by revelation, and communicated to them that gospel which I preach among the Gentiles, but privately to those who were of reputation, lest by any means I might run, or had run, in vain. (Galatians 2:1-2)

People of God, let us too with St. Paul respect, love, promote and serve Mother Church, and in her, love one another in sincere truth and with humble co-operation. However, must never forget that we can and should look up to One alone, He Who is the vinedresser and Father; likewise we should always look at One only, Jesus Our Lord and Saviour, the one True Vine Who establishes her, and Whose word prunes and purifies her; and at all times and in all situations we should look for the One Holy Spirit Who is, first of all, the Father’s Promise and Jesus’ Gift to Mother Church before becoming her life-giving gift to us:

These things I have spoken to you, that My joy may remain in you, and that your joy may be full. (John 15:11)

4th Sunday of Easter

Fourth Sunday of Eastertide (B)

(Acts of the Apostles 4:8-12; 1^st. John 3:1-2; John 10:11-18)

I am the good shepherd, and I know mine and mine know me.

It would seem that the reason why so many in our society and in our world today reject Jesus is because they have, beforehand, in the depths of their hearts, already rejected the Father’s calling-and-teaching voice, His guiding-and-sustaining hand.

No one can come to Me unless the Father Who sent Me draws him.     (John 6:44)

This refusal to be taught by the Father, to be guided by Him, and to trust in Him, is not always or necessarily a religious confrontation, for the Father Who has created all men relates to them in whatever details of their personal lives and daily experience.  One does not need to have heard of Jesus, one does not need to have any religious conviction, to be affected by the Father, for He desires and seeks to guide all humankind from within the depths of their being.  We often speak of His guiding with respect to our human conscience, and that is correct; but we must not imagine that He only speaks to us explicitly about right and wrong, about good and bad.

Jesus said once ‘I am the way, the truth, and the life’, and so the Father speaks --  by His Spirit in our innermost being -- about what way we should travel to attain our ends, about truth in all its beauty and variety, and about life … what is its meaning, its purpose, its end?   He speaks to us about our aims and aspirations: what ideals should we seek?  Gain makes for profit but cannot command integrity,  so what worth Is there in a life where self-seeking schemes are top priority while self-giving aspirations are practically excluded?  The Father of our human family speaks to us about our neighbour: what sort of respect should we show him, can we ignore him, use him, or indeed, perhaps even harm him to attain our own most important ends? And surely, He is the supreme guide for parents and teachers, boys and girls, in their mutual relationships and responsibilities.  Indeed, there are countless ways in which the Father seeks to speak with each and every person made in His image before ever directly involving religion or mentioning Jesus.  And our response to all these most respectful promptings gradually builds up either an habitual attitude of hearing, listening and responding to, that inner voice of One so intimately close to us, and yet somehow, other than and above us, or else an increasingly determined will to entertain nothing other than our own private thoughts and ideas, pursue nothing but our own secret purposes.

There is another contributing cause for modern society’s turn from Christian faith and it becomes clear if we consider again those words of Jesus:

I am the good shepherd, and I know mine and mine know me, just as the Father knows me and I know the Father.

Too often Christians, rather than witnessing to the God with Whom they are intimately one in personal love, appreciation, and commitment, are, instead, inclined to present themselves, their own individual convictions and personal integrity; or else they may point to the Church as a powerful organization with a unique ethos manifesting itself in distinctive social attitudes and practices, a Church calling for obedience in response to its many rules and regulations long before inviting and encouraging us to know and love the One Whom all its rules and practices are meant to proclaim and serve.

Now, the reason why seekers for God, for truth, for meaning and purpose in life, embrace Christianity, is hope for eternal salvation and fulfilment despite the mysterious power and depredations of sin in our lives and in the world around us: an aspiration to knowledge of, and communion with, the mysterious God Whose  reflected majesty, might, and splendour never cease to enthral us in the creation surrounding us on all hands; a yearning for commitment to and love for the Lord Whose goodness is Personal and Who seeks our like response to His sublime wisdom and transcendent love made uniquely manifest in the life and teaching, death and resurrection, of Jesus our God and Saviour, and handed down to us in the beauty and truth of the Christian and Catholic Church which carries His Body and bestows His Spirit.

Today however, few seek to appreciate and understand the Christian Scriptures and Catholic teaching in order to truly love God first and foremost in their lives, with the result that the words and example of Jesus are largely ignored:

            The Father knows me and I know the Father.

The Father knows and loves each one of us disciples of His Son through and through, and He uses His infinite yet subtle power to influence and guide us to the fullness of the possibilities with which He has endowed us and the promises which He has made to us, and it is in our constant dialogue and communion with Him that our destinies are shaped.  Those who refuse to respond to the Father’s influence in the depths of their human experience for whatever reason can know nothing about Jesus.  Whether or not they might have heard of Jesus is ultimately irrelevant: a pagan in the remotest jungle is as capable of rejecting the Father’s call, as is an American in Paris, as was an educated and religious High Priest when Jesus walked in Palestine.

Of course, this individual responsibility is both feared and hated by the world around us.  Always some circumstance -- some unavoidable circumstance, some reason -- some incontrovertible reason, some influence -- some ineluctable influence, is said to prevent individuals from choosing what is good and to excuse them embracing what is bad.  Why God Himself, it is claimed at times, could surely not blame individuals for some of even the most outrageous, horrific, or depraved actions, and would, most certainly, not punish them!!

And yet Jesus’ words are ultimate truth:

            No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him.

It is in that supremely intimate dialogue with the Father -- not always or necessarily recognized as Father -- in the depths of our humanity, that we, each and every one of us, shape and ultimately determine our earthly life and eternal destiny.   And that is why, People of God, for us who are Christians, and above all for us who are Catholics, it is absolutely essential that we should attend, indeed give our most loving attention, to our personal dialogue with the Father in our minds and hearts if we are to give authentic witness to Him and to Jesus.  We would achieve little by faultless observance of the rules of Mother Church, reception of all the Sacraments, unfailing presence at Mass and continuous reading of the Scriptures, if we had no communion with the Father in such moments of intimate worship and silent confession in the depths of our being.

Jesus and the Holy Spirit have been given us by the Father to lead us to that fullness of our being expressed in Mother Church’s words contained in the third canon of Mass; let us therefore humbly repeat her prayer and make it our own:

Merciful Father, gather to Yourself all Your children scattered throughout the world, and, at their passing from this life, give kind admittance to Your kingdom.  There we hope to enjoy for ever the fullness of Your glory through Christ Our Lord, through Whom You bestow on the world all that is good.  Amen.