As we continue to reflect on the meaning of Easter and the New Life which it brings, the Church through the Gospel reading of this the sixth Sunday of Easter, leads us to an understanding of the dynamics of love, and the result of true love in our lives.

The passage is taken from Jesus’ final teaching to his disciples and begins with a fundamental truth: we can only love if we have experienced love ourselves: “As the Father loves me, so I also love you…” 

How important it is to understand this truth in the situation in which our societies find themselves. Love has always meant seeking the best for the other in spite of every obstacle. So often however, persons have no time for the other, parents do not have time for their children, relationships are entered into for what one can get out of them, and self-centredness seems to be for many the most important characteristic of life.

If interpersonal relationships are characterised by the above the same can be said of national and international life, resulting in a loss of harmony at all levels, be this the personal, national or international.

Jesus however gives us the solution to this loss of harmony. “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.”

If we keep the commandment that Jesus has given to us which is to love one another or said differently, if we truly seek to do the best that we can for each other, not entering into relationships for what we can get, nor being self-centred or egoistical, then “Christ’s joy will be in us and our joy will be complete.”

Just in case, however, we do not understand what love means, the Gospel continues to instruct us. Again we are told; “love one another as I love you.” And this love is shown in the laying down of one’s life for the persons we consider our friends.

The problem however is that we have differing ideas of friendship. There is only one answer as to what Christian friendship means, and Jesus provides us with the answer “I have called you friends, because I have told you everything I have learnt from my Father.” Jesus calls those to whom he has revealed the Father’s love, his “friends”.

All may not have accepted his friendship, Judas we know betrayed him as did Peter. Jesus did not withdraw his friendship from them however, he continued to love them.

In the same way, all those to whom we reveal the Father’s love are our friends and since our vocation in life, the Christian vocation, is to reveal the Father’s love to all whom we meet, all whom we meet have the potential to be called to be our friends. Our friendship towards them revolves around our ability and willingness to reveal the Father’s love to them.

Finally we are reminded of a very important truth, a truth which must fill us with gratitude but also make us aware of the tremendous responsibility which we all bear. “It was not you who chose me, but I who chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit that will remain.”

Christ has chosen us individually and as a community to cooperate with Him in building the civilisation of love. The final words of this passage are “This I command you: love one another.”

It is through our ability to lay down our lives for each other, to dedicate time and energy to doing the best that we can for each other, that we will create families and communities of peace and harmony and so little by little build the civilisation of love.

Prayer

All powerful and ever-loving God, we thank you for all the signs of your love in our lives. May this experience of your love help us to love others in return, may the experience of your love help us to lay down our lives for our friends.
We thank you, Father for the powerful examples of your saints, those who dedicated their lives to the betterment of the poor, the abandoned, and the marginalised. We thank you for persons like Mother Teresa, and Nelson Mandela, for groups like the St Vincent de Paul, who dedicated and dedicate time and energy to building the civilisation of love. We ask, Father for the grace to imitate them so that all together we may create a tsunami of love. We ask this through Jesus your Son and Mary our Mother who teach us what it is to love. Amen

Gospel Meditations for May are by Fr Joseph Harris, CSSp, a former parish priest and rector of the Regional Seminary, Fr Harris now works on the Archdiocesan Marriage Tribunal.