2024

May 5, 2024

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6th Sunday of Easter B

This is a lovely synthesis of today’s liturgy. Christian life unfolds in the circle of love, which begins in God, becomes visible in Jesus Christ, is extended to man and goes back to God. Since God is love, in him we find the point of departure of all the movements of love (second reading). Jesus Christ, the incarnation of God’s love, calls his disciples friends (Gospel). God’s love in Christ for men is not exclusionist or limited; rather it is open and universal, because in God’s love there are no distinctions between persons, and everyone can share his Spirit, the power and presence of love in man (first reading).

DOCTRINAL MESSAGES

6th Sunday of Easter B

Love consists in the fact that God loved us (1 Jn 4:10). Love does not originate in man’s heart, but in the heart of God. God is the inextinguishable and only source of love. Apart from him, love is not love. And all genuine love was born from God and goes back to God, like the waters of the ocean that evaporate, feed the rivers and after a long course, go back to their origin. God is at the origin of all love, but Christian love passes through Jesus Christ. In other words, the Father pours all of his love into the Son, and the Son in turn communicates that love to his disciples. As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you. As friends of Jesus Christ, no longer servants, we are empowered to love one another, with the new and uncontaminated love of the Father, who grants us the opportunity of being his Son’s brothers. Given man’s vocation for life and given love’s eternity, love is oriented, already in this world and especially in the afterlife, towards its origin which now coincides with its end: God himself. There, we shall gain true knowledge of God and of all things in Him, which shall be granted to us by the irrepressible power of love.

First of all, this love is undeserved. Love does not consist in the fact that we love God (second reading), or that we have taken the initiative to choose Jesus Christ as the teacher and model of our life (Gospel), or in the fact that Cornelius and his family were worthy of receiving the Gospel and faith in Jesus Christ. If it were so, love would not have its definition in God, but in man. How different, how poor the definition of love would be! But love is defined by God, who grants us that love gratuitously, like existence, the mission, the ultimate destiny of life. If we deserved love, it would not be love but a due reward.

It creates friendship, that extraordinary capability of mutual and disinterested love, like Jesus’ love for his disciples, like the disciples’ love for Jesus. It also creates vocation, both to faith in the message and in the person of Christ (first reading), and to the discipleship and radical following of his style of life and mission (Gospel). Love is universal, because it makes no distinctions on the grounds of temperament, race, culture or qualities. One loves because one loves, and that’s all, without distinction among persons (second reading). Love has the feeling of sacrifice, because no one can have greater love than to lay down his life for his friends, and because love requires obedience to the commandments of the loved one (Gospel). And didn’t Peter have to sacrifice his Jewish mentality when, before the gift of the Holy Spirit to Cornelius and his family, he gave orders for them to be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ? And doesn’t the Christian to whom the first letter of John is addressed sacrifice himself to put love before knowledge (gnosis)? Finally, love is joyful. It is the joy that Jesus Christ in feeling loved by and in loving his Father; the joy of the disciples in knowing that they are loved, and in being able to love with the same love of God. The joy of Cornelius and his family over whom the Holy Spirit was poured out.

PASTORAL SUGGESTIONS

6th Sunday of Easter B

These words conjure up a book written by Karol Wojtyla on human love, especially in marriage and in the family. They are words that in Christian experience are intertwined and need each other: love is responsible, by virtue of its nature; genuine responsibility is founded and preserved only on the basis of love. A responsibility which, in the case of Christian love, is configured first and foremost as a prayer of supplication to God: God, grant me, grant us the gift of love, because there are no people who teach themselves love. We are the eternal apprentices of God, our only Teacher. It is a responsibility which takes on the form of perseverance in love, because it is not contemplated in the mirror of the "loves" of love stories, but in the clear waters of the permanent and faithful love of God. A responsibility in love, which is far from easy, is the favorite object of many attacks by the surrounding world. But it is a responsibility which is thus supported by and fortified in the action of the Holy Spirit, which possesses in itself the power of love. As the Easter period draws to an end, it is definitely a good time for us to engage in a small reflection on love. And then… let’s get to work!

Psychology teaches us that man seeks a center around which his earthly existence may revolve. When he finds this center, which may be very varied, human life takes on stability, meaning and a certain harmony and happiness. When the center around which we revolve is love, everything in life, everything without any exception, is enamored, that is, imbued with love. And then the sun of love shines in the firmament of our hours and days, making them shine with a lasting, rejoicing, rejuvenating and gratifying light. Is there anything that love cannot do, especially if it comes from God himself? One loves at school and at work, in the family and in social life, in sickness and in old age, in the moments of pain and in the times of joy. One loves one’s loved ones, one’s neighbor who is a member of another political party, one’s work colleague who does not go to Mass although he is a Catholic, one’s boss despite his bad character, the bum that each day one meets at the entrance of the subway, the policeman who with the law in his hands and a smile on his face gives us a $200 fine… Do not miss any opportunity to practice genuine love.

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Abiding in God’s Love

6 May 2018 | Saint Peter’s Square

6th Sunday of Easter B

During this Easter season, the Word of God continues to point out to us the styles of life that are consistent with being the community of the Risen One. Among these, today’s Gospel presents us with Jesus’ instructions: “abide in my love” (Jn 15:9): to abide in Jesus’ love. To live in the flow of God’s love, to take up permanent residence there, is the condition to ensure that our love does not lose its ardour and boldness along the way. Like Jesus and in him, we too must welcome with gratitude the love that comes from the Father and abide in this love, trying to avoid being separated from it by egoism and sin. It is a demanding project but it is not impossible.

First and foremost, it is important to realize that Christ’s love is not a superficial feeling, no; it is a fundamental attitude of the heart which is manifested in living as he wishes. In fact, Jesus states: “If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in his love” (v. 10). Love is fulfilled in everyday life, in attitudes, in deeds. Otherwise, it is only something illusory. They are words, words, words: that is not love. Love is concrete, every day. Jesus asks us to follow his commandments, which are summarized in the following: “that you love one another as I have loved you” (v. 12).

How can this love which the Risen Lord gives us be shared with others? Jesus has many times pointed out to us who the “other” to love is, not with words but with actions. It is the person I encounter on the street and who, with his face and his story, challenges me; it is the one who, with his very presence, compels me to leave my interests and my certainties behind; it is he who awaits my willingness to listen and to walk a stretch of road together. Openness towards each brother and sister, whoever they may be and whatever their situation, beginning with those who are close to me in the family, in the community, at work, at school…. In this way, if I remain united to Jesus, his love can reach the other and draw him to it, to His friendship.

And this love for the other cannot be reserved for exceptional moments, but must be constant in our lives. That is why we are called, for example, to safeguard the elderly like a precious treasure and with love even if they cause economic difficulties and inconveniences, but we must safeguard them. This is why we must give all the assistance possible to the sick, even in the final stages. This is why unborn children are always to be welcomed; this is why, ultimately, life is always to be protected and loved, from conception to its natural end. And this is love.

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