May 5th 2024. Sixth Sunday of Easter
GOSPEL John 15:9-17
Translated from a homily by Don Fabio Rosini, broadcast on Vatican Radio
Don Fabio’s reflection follows the Gospel reading . . .
GOSPEL John 15:9-17
Jesus said to his disciples:
"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 your joy might be complete.
This is my commandment: love one another as I love you.
No one has greater love than this,
to lay down one's life for one's friends.
You are my friends if you do what I command you.
I no longer call you slaves,
because a slave does not know what his master is doing.
I have called you friends,
because I have told you everything I have heard from my Father.
It was not you who chose me, but I who chose you
and appointed you to go and bear fruit that will remain,
so that whatever you ask the Father in my name he may give you.
This I command you: love one another."
THE GOSPEL OF THE LORD: Praise to you Lord Jesus Christ
SUMMARY
This Sunday we continue reading Chapter 15 of St John’s Gospel. This reveals to us the real source of Christian life and action and encourages us to remain connected to that source. In the first reading, we hear how St Peter goes into the house of Cornelius and declares that his healing powers do not come from him but from God. This prepares us for the Gospel reading and its fundamental instructions for the Christian life. “As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Remain in my love. . . Love one another as I have loved you”. Human love has its limits, the limits of human fragility. How then can the love of God be manifested in us? Our love is always going to be a love of response to God. We do not manage to love because we are capable, or because we apply ourselves so well. Rather, we love because he loved us first. The channel that enables this love to become real in our lives is to enter into a relationship with Christ. All the terms used in this Gospel are intimate ones. We are no longer servants of Jesus but friends, because we know what is in his heart. The fact is that we often fail in our efforts to love because we try to use our own strength and our own initiative. The Gospel is very clear: “You did not choose me; I chose you and appointed you”. This “appointment” refers to being constituted or built up by Christ so that we have the same relationship to him as he has to the Father! Jesus says, “As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you”. How has the Father loved Jesus? With the complete gift of himself. In this way he has shown himself to be Father. And Jesus has loved and constituted us in the same way! Jesus then instructs us to remain in Christ’s love. Every Christian is invited to rest in Christ’s heart, to be rooted, consoled and nurtured there. We look for consolation and nourishment in so many empty places! Let us discover ever more deeply the resting place that is the heart of Christ. Let us remain there consoled and having constant recourse to his mercy. One of the desert fathers said that his greatest motive for not sinning was the wish not to distance himself from the love of God. In other words, the priority is not to conform to norms or to “be good”, but to stay near the sweetness of the love of God. This is the true secret of Christian love.
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