First reading, Acts 10:25-26, 34-35, 44-48 explained: One of the early Church’s first struggles was to decide whether God was calling the early Christians to be a sect entirely within Judaism, or one that extended outward and welcomed others who believed in Jesus.  The decision to yoke the Jews and the Gentiles together was a tough one for the Judeo-Christians and a welcome sign for the converts from pagan religions.  In today’s first reading, taken from the Acts of the Apostles, we see the start of the process.  The episode begins earlier in Acts, in Chapter 10, where Peter and the Roman centurion Cornelius (a good pagan), are given interlocking visions.  Acts describes how the Heavenly messenger instructed Cornelius to send to Joppa for Peter.  In a trance, Peter heard a Voice bidding him to eat non-kosher foods. Peter called this unthinkable, but the Voice insisted that what God had purified no one might call unclean. This formerly pagan centurion and his family were to be the first fruits from which the   worldwide Gentile mission was later to begin. The Holy Spirit, guiding the Church, would use the example of Cornelius to prompt Paul in transforming the early Church from an exclusively Jewish establishment to a dominantly Gentile and western European reality.

During his meeting with Cornelius, Peter made a speech giving Cornelius and his pagan household and friends the assurance that everyone “who fears Him is acceptable to God” and “God shows no partiality.”  As they all received the anointing of the Holy Spirit while listening to Peter’s preaching, Peter ordered them to be baptized then and there.  This story teaches three lessons: 1) Authentic changes must be expected as part of the Church’s ongoing mission under the guidance of the Holy Spirit.  2) New directions result ultimately from the Holy Spirit’s guidance rather than from merely human decisions.  3) The ecclesiastical leadership has the right and obligation to teach and carry out Divinely willed new instructions.

SOURCE: Fr. Tony's Homilies / Used with permission

Second Reading, 1 John 4:7-10 explained: This passage contains the greatest single statement about God in the whole Bible, namely, God is Love.  This statement means that (a)Love has its origin in God (1 Jn 4:7).  According to Clement of Alexandria, the real Christian “practices being God.”  God IS love and, therefore, to be like God and be what he was meant to be, man must also love.  (b) Love has a double relationship to God.  It is only by knowing God  (and in this “knowing,” He always takes the initiative, loving us first), that we learn to love Him, and it is only by loving God that we learn to know Him (1 Jn 4:7-8).  In other words, love comes from God first, and His love, received,  leads us back to God.  (c) It is by love that God is known, and the best demonstration of God comes, not from argument, but from a life of love.  God’s love is demonstrated in Jesus Christ (1 Jn 4:9).  When we look at Jesus we see two things about the love of God:.  (a) It is a love which holds nothing back (even giving His Son in sacrifice).  (b) It is a totally undeserved love, because God loves poor and disobedient creatures like us. God’s love also explains many things: (a) It explains creation: God wants to love someone who can love Him back.  (b) It explains the necessary role of free-will.  Unless love is a free response it is not love.  (c) It explains Providence.  Since God is love, His creating act is followed by His constant care.  (d) It explains redemption.  The very fact that God IS love meant that He had to seek and save that which was lost.  He had to find a remedy for sin.  (e) It explains the life beyond.  The fact that God IS love makes it certain that the chances and changes of life do not have the last word and that His love will readjust the balance of this life. This passage also teaches us that Jesus is: (a) the bringer of life, (b) the restorer of the lost relationship with God, (c)the Savior of the world (1 Jn 4:14), and (d) the Son of God (1 Jn 4:15).

SOURCE: Fr. Tony's Homilies / Used with permission

GOSPEL EXEGESIS: We need to choose loving obedience in order to experience the abiding love of God: “There can be no doubt that love is the overarching thread which ties together this Sunday’s Gospel— in various forms, the word is used eleven times in this passage, both as the verb agapaô (“to love”) and as the noun agápê (love). Jesus reminds the apostles that the ultimate expression of love (and especially Christian love, agápê) lies in self-sacrifice for others” (Dr. Watson).   Today’s Gospel reading comes from the middle of Jesus’ so-called “Farewell Discourse,” a lengthy section (Jn 14—17). It is the heart-to-heart, after-dinner “table-talk” of Jesus with his disciples.  Fundamentally, the first half of chapter 15 is about love: the love of God for Jesus, the love of Jesus for his disciples and the love of the disciples for Jesus.  Verse 9 declares that there is no distinguishing difference between the love of the Father for the Son and that which the Son has for his chosen disciples.  But, even though this love is steadfast and sure, it is also a love that may be lost.  Thus, Jesus urges his disciples to “abide” or “remain” in his love.  The “condition” for receiving and keeping this unconditional love is spelled out in verse 10 – “If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love.” The disciples must receive and respond to Jesus’ love by keeping his commandments, if they are to be able to continue receiving Jesus’ love.  There is both respect and freedom for the disciples’ chosen actions implicit in this design.  But Jesus next reminds his followers that he, too, has been free to act in obedience or disobedience to his Father’s commandments, and he has offered himself as a model of obedience and abiding love.  Indeed, the “joy” Jesus goes on to speak of (in verse 11) is the joy that he knows as a result of his absolute obedience to the Father, and the perfect unity they share. Thus, Jesus urges his disciples to choose obedience and to experience his abiding love so that they may also experience this kind of total joy.

 The new commandment: Jesus clarifies the second of His two-commandment summary of the Torah’s Ten Commandments, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself,” as one short sentence “Love one another,” with an added, specific and intimidating parameter, “as I have loved you.” “Love one another” is in the present imperative state, grammatically testifying to Jesus’ moral intent – that this be a continuous, ever-present love.  “As I have loved you,” means a selfless, sacrificial, forgiving, and serving love. It is not the feel-good self-indulgent love that TV commercials push, but a selfless, self-giving love — the kind of love that God has shown for us, the kind of love that led Jesus to the cross for us. According to Dr. Murray Watson, “Love one another as I have loved you”: the Greek adverb “as” can be understood here in two distinct but related ways. It can mean “Love one another in the same wayas I have loved you”; it could also mean “Love one another since I have loved you, because I have loved you.” We can understand Jesus’ love both as our model and as our motivation. If we are conscious of just how much love Jesus has showered upon us, the only appropriate response is to love in return, and to love by following His example. He is both our inspiration and our role-model.

The joy: The theme of “joy” is introduced here in verse 11.  Jesus’ “joy” comes from a relationship of perfect obedience to the Father and the unity that the Father and Son therefore share.  But even this joy can be expanded.  It can be made more “complete.” “Completed” or “fulfilled” joy (also used in 3:29) is accomplished when Jesus’ disciples enter into the obedient, loving relationship between the Father and the Son by their own loving obedience.

 “Bearing fruit that will remain” (John 15:9-17). “Bearing fruit” is an easy image. A healthy branch of a fruit tree will do what it is intended to do: i.e., produce good fruit by being attached to a healthy tree. Using this metaphor, Jesus is saying that a “healthy disciple” must DO what Jesus intends ALL good disciples to do – manifest good “fruit,” the results intended by Jesus that come from being “attached to” Jesus. The example is modeled by Jesus himself: he shared everything with his followers, and even willingly gave up his life for them – the deepest expression of love available to a human. One of the fruits of the Spirit is Love (Gal 5:22-23). The “fruit” that Jesus wants to be seen in the life of every one of his disciples is Love. In fact, Jesus commands his followers to manifest this love at all times, and that love is expressed in the way they care for one another within the community. That is how we “remain on the tree” of life forever! (Bishop Clarke).

Not slaves but friends: Jesus tells his followers that he does not call them slaves anymore but calls them friends.  In the Bible, doulos, the slave, the servant of God was no title of shame; it was a title of the highest honor.  Moses was the doulos of God (Dt 34:5); so was Joshua (Jos 24:29); so was David (Ps  89:20).  It is a title which Paul counted it an honor to use (Ti 1:1); and so did James (James 1:1).  The greatest men in the past had been proud to be called the douli, the slaves of God.  But Jesus says: “I have something greater for you yet. You are no longer slaves; you are friends.”  Christ offers an intimacy with God which not even the greatest of men knew before Jesus came into the world. The idea of being the friend of God also has a Biblical background.  Abraham was the friend of God (Is 4 1:8).  In Wis 7:27, Wisdom is said to make us the friends of God.  In Rome in the first century, the Friends of the king, or the emperor, were those who had the closest and the most intimate connection with him.  Jesus has called us to be his friends and the friends of God.  Jesus has given us this intimacy with God, so that He is no longer a distant stranger, but our close friend.

Discipleship by Divine selection: The unmerited quality of this Divine friendship is further emphasized by Jesus’ declaration in verse 16, “You did not choose me but I chose you.”  Discipleship comes about by Divine choice, not by human merits and actions.  The prescribed outcome of this choice is the disciples’ ability now to go out and “bear fruit,” bear abiding fruit.  The love, the friendship that comes from Christ is tangibly manifested in the disciples’ lives.  Verse 16 concludes that, as friends of Jesus, the disciples have access to virtually unlimited power.  They have only to invoke Jesus’ name, and God will respond.  The phrase “in my Name” denotes a prayer context, as well as suggesting that invoking Jesus’ Name makes manifest the very presence of Jesus himself. Today’s text concludes by setting the stage for the reason that the “world” hates Jesus’ disciples.  Disciples of Jesus do, in fact, love one another.  The power of Christ’s love and friendship in no way negates the reality of this world’s ability to hate.  That is why Jesus closes with a clear command that we must love one another, and even love those who hate us. “UBI caritas et amor, Deus ibi est. Congregavit nos in unum Christi amor. Exultemus, et in ipso iucundemur. Timeamus, et amemus Deum vivum. Et ex corde diligamus nos sincero “(“WHERE charity and love are, God is there. Christ’s love has gathered us into one. Let us rejoice and be pleased in Him. Let us fear and let us love the living God. And may we love each other with a sincere heart”). (From the traditional chant for the Washing of the Feet, Mass of the Lord’s Supper).

 “All you ask the Father in my Name He will give you” (Jn 15:16). This is not “prosperity gospel” (!) because the sentence immediately preceding the one quoted above, Jesus told his disciples that he chose them to “go forth and bear fruit.” So, in this context we are talking about mission work, about continuing the mission of Jesus. By virtue of (and empowered by), our Baptism and Confirmation, we are called to spread the Good News – to participate in the mission of Jesus Christ our Savior. Jesus is promising that every gift we need for this mission will indeed be given to us. In fact, attempts at fulfilling our mission will fail if we do not first seek the help of the Lord. We are talking about spiritual gifts, gifts from the Holy Spirit, the gifts needed to build up the Body of Christ. So, a request for a Cadillac or a Hummer would not fall under the umbrella of that mission-oriented promise of Jesus! Normally our mission is not to leave for some far-off continent to evangelize. Instead, our mission area is our neighborhood, workplace, and home. This is where we spread the Good News of the love and mercy of Christ, which he manifested fully by laying down his own life for our redemption! (Bishop Clarke).

From the traditional chant for the Washing of the Feet, Mass of the Lord’s Supper:  UBI caritas et amor, Deus ibi est. Congregavit nos in unum Christi amor. Exultemus, et in ipso iucundemur. Timeamus, et amemus Deum vivum. Et ex corde diligamus nos sincero. — WHERE charity and love are, God is there. Christ’s love has gathered us into one. Let us rejoice and be pleased in Him. Let us fear, and let us love the living God. And may we love each other with a sincere heart.

SOURCE: Fr. Tony's Homilies / Used with permission