Sixth Sunday of Easter (B)

May 6, 2018

Readings:

First Reading; Acts of the Apostles 10: 25-26, 34-35, 44-48

Psalm: 98

Second Reading: 1 John 4: 7-10

Gospel reading according to John (15: 9-17)

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Homily: “This is my commandment: love one another as I love you” (John 15: 12).

Jesus explained to his disciples the love between him and God the Father and his love for us.  The love (God) that is begets love (Jesus Christ).  As the Father loved the Son, so the Son loved his Father and their love cannot be broken but live on, pass on and extend to his disciples, to us.  Jesus shared this love to us also. “Jesus said to his disciples, ‘As the Father loves me, so I also love you.  Remain in my love’.” (John 15: 9).  Jesus was encouraging us to love him by remaining in his love and to his Father’s love, for there is no other greatest love than his.  He wanted us not to detach or separate from him (cf. 5^th Sunday of Easter, John 15: 1-8, True Vine and the Branches, April 29, 2018).  God loved us first, and not the other way around, for God is love.  He shared this love to us by sending to us his only begotten Son our Lord Jesus Christ who will teach us how to love God by loving one another.  If we love one another, we love God.  The way the Father loves his Son, is the same way the Son loves us.  The Father is ready to send his Son to us and to live with us, like us human beings except sin, so that he can put into action the love of his Father to him and to us. Also, as John said in the second reading, “Beloved, let us love one another, because love is God; everyone who loves is begotten by God and knows God.  Whoever is without love does not know God, for God is love” (1 John 4: 7-8).   We are also begotten by God if we love one another.

Another way of saying, by keeping his commandments, is, then and there we remain in him and in his love.  Like the branches in the vine, we are connected with Jesus.  For the love of Jesus cannot separate us inspite of many trials, tribulations, pains and sufferings as well as joys, and happiness in life.  “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” (John 15: 10).  Jesus keeps and observes the commandments of his Father to show his love towards him.  He is our model in loving the Father by doing his commandments.  The same with us, if we keep and do Jesus’s commandments, we at the same time are keeping also the commandments of God the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.  Every day of his life on earth, Jesus kept his Father’s commandments by doing God’s will and works of love, mercy and compassion to those who needed them most.  Never Jesus broke any single commands of his Father, to show as a model to us. “In this way the love of God was revealed to us . . .” (1 John 4:9). 

Jesus continued saying to us, his disciples, “I have told you this so that my joy might be in you and your joy might be complete” (John 15: 11).  The purpose of his commandments is to share with us his joy in following his Father’s command and that our “joy might be complete.”  There is joy and happiness in fulfilling the command of Jesus, for his commands liberates us from hardship and confusion in life.  Our happiness and joy might be complete if we remain obeying his command, which is love.  “This is my commandment: love one another as I love you” (John 15: 12).  Loving one another also shows our love to him who commanded us to love, not only our friends and neighbors but even our enemies.  It is a reciprocal love, a love that gives and takes.  If we love him and one another our joy is complete; for in loving him and the rest of the humanity, and other creatures as well, there is completion, there is harmony, and “walang kulang, walang labis, walang sobra” (there is no nothing less nor there is excess, it is always enough (basta)).  In the other gospel, it says: “liglig, siksik at umaapaw” (“a good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over . . .” (Luke 6: 38)).  That is how we can describe the love of God towards us, a complete love.  Another thing, “God sent his only Son into the world so that we might have life through him” (1 John 4: 9). 

How can we love others despite of many inspite? How can we show to God that we love one another?  The answer is to help and support in whatever form and in any circumstances our neighbors.  Love them without waiting any rewards or counting any cost in exchange of love we shared.  And above all, we can show our love in Jesus’s way as good example in showing our love.  “No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends” (John 15: 13).  Jesus laid down his life to his friends (disciples) when he offered himself up crucified on the Cross of the Tree to show how much he loved us, his disciples and friends, his brothers and sisters.  “You are my friends if you do what I command you” (John 15:14).  Jesus considered us his friends when we do his command.  And as friends of him, it is natural to obey his command and as friends we have all the rights and responsibilities to do what he has commanded us to do.  At the same time, he guaranteed our friendship by constantly living and accompanying us throughout our lives.  He never abandons us.   

As his friends, he said: “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” (John 15: 15).  A true friend does not limit himself (or herself) by keeping secrets to his friends, rather he is open and if it is necessary to reveal any important part of himself, he can allow his/her friends to know them and to reveal to them.  Like Jesus to his disciples whom he considered friends and not slaves, he revealed to them the secret of the Father and of himself.  He told them what he heard from his Father, and even introduced God to them as his Father who loves; full of mercies and compassion, and not a God who would frighten us and punishes us.  He is the God who is love and to be loved.  The God who is wanted only our good, happiness and joy.    

Another truth and reality Jesus revealed to his friends, he declared “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” (John 15: 16).  He was the first one who searched us and found us and chosen us to become his disciples, followers, apostles and friends. He was the first who introduced his self to us and learned from him as the Son of God, our liberator and savior.  He was the first one who loved us, and not the other way around for we did not know him before, we did not recognize his coming, for we were blinded by earthly and material things.  He was not our priority before.  But after he introduced himself to us, that’s the time we knew him and obeyed him and loved him. For he said and commended us: “This I command you: love one another” (John 15: 17).  When we love one another, we show also to the whole world who we are and what we are – true disciples of Jesus Christ.  Our identity as Christians is the love that reigns in our heart, in our community and in our society.   As friends of him, despite of many sins we have done against God’s will, he can still grant to us whatever we ask from God the Father in his name, for God cannot deny his Son and of his self.  “In this is love: not that we have loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as expiation for our sins” (1 John 4:10).  Let us love one another as brothers and sisters in Christ Jesus.