Sunday Gospel Reflection, May 22, 2022: Whoever loves me will keep my word...

Whoever loves me will keep my word…

What does it take for us to be God’s love in our world?

   Jesus asks us to remain in his love. In John’s Gospel, Jesus makes it clear how to do this: whoever loves me will keep my word. Knowing his love for us, opening to his love always, that love will teach us everything we need to know and help us to embody that love for our world. Do not let your hearts be troubled, he tells his disciples: if your heart is troubled, you have lost the focus; peace comes of true union with Christ in love. The love that Jesus offers us is so beyond our own comprehension that we can only move toward it, letting him perfect that love in us, that we might be his love and peace in our world. 

   This was the goal of the first Christian community described in the Acts of the Apostles. Learning that other teachers have come through the community and disturbed their peace of mind, Paul, Barnabas and a few others go to remind the community that peace is to be their goal, first and foremost. If they affirm and proclaim God’s activity among them, they will be well-positioned to live in community, to love in community, to be community. Then, as Psalm 67 says, God’s face will shine upon them, showering blessings down constantly. And one day, the Book of Revelation promises, the New Jerusalem – the Church – will gleam with the splendor of God, its radiance like that of a precious stone, with the glory of God to give it light. All this, if we keep Jesus’ word, living in love and embodying that love to our world. 

This post is based on Fr. Pat’s Scripture class. 

Image source: www.wordclouds.com

Sunday Gospel Reflection, May 26, 2019: Whoever loves me will keep my word...

Whoever loves me will keep my word…

How has the love of God expanded your vision?

  In his Last Supper discourse, recorded in John’s Gospel, Jesus tells the disciples that they must act always out of love:  Whoever loves me will keep my word.  If we open ourselves to Jesus, God’s absolute Word of love for us and for all humankind, we will remain open to relationship with him and allow that love to define us.  The Word is love is connection:  as Christ is one in the Father, we are to be one in Christ.  The source of that oneness is the very love in which we are made.  Moreover, if we are drawn more deeply into the love of Christ, we cannot help but see ourselves differently; we can’t hold on to our old identity if we are defined by God’s love.  And our new identity allows us to see ourselves, and others, in ways we did not before.  Jesus opens the disciples to see him with a new vision, to see him and themselves and everything else in a different, better light, so that love can last.  Love connects us to other, and God shines through us when we become transparent through his love.

  Paul and Barnabas have gone out to give witness to that love, and to all that God is doing in their lives; open to the love of Christ, their knowledge of this love as truth expands their ability to see, for now they see with their heart.  As a result, they can work to eradicate false teachings in the communities they visit in the Acts of the Apostles, fostering unity where there might otherwise be dissension.  In all they do, Paul and Barnabas model the love of Christ.  Through them, as Psalm 67 says, God’s way is made known upon earth, and all nations on earth can be glad and exult.  Seeing the prosperity of the psalmist’s community, others come to believe in God; likewise, seeing the fruits of the work of Paul and Barnabas will bring many to believe, again, fostering unity.

  In the Book of Revelation, the angel of God expands John beyond the limits that humans ordinarily set for themselves, giving him a new sense of identity as well.  The angel takes John in spirit to place where John is extended beyond the body, beyond the physical, to a spiritual place where his former vision is expanded and John sees what he did not understand before, because the glory of God gives him light.  As members of the Church, we too are meant to be a body of people living in the union that this light reveals because we allow God’s love to shine in us.

How might God’s love shine in you today?

This post is based on Fr. Pat’s Scripture class.

Image source:  www.wordclouds.com