Sixth Sunday of EASTER 28th May 2000

First: Acts 10:25-27.34-35.44-48; Second: 1 Jn 4:7-10; Gospel: Jn 15:9-17

THEME of the READINGS

"Whoever fails to love does not know God, because God is love." 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 MESSAGE

The circle of love. 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.

The characteristics 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.

Love is also creative and universal, it is sacrificed and joyful. 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

Love and responsibility. 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!

In the orbit of love. 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.

Source: http://www.clerus.org/clerus/dati/2004-05/21-13/CICLOB.html by P. ANTONIO IZQUIERDO L.C. (1948-2013)

[참고: 이 파일은 저서명 "가톨릭 교회의 말씀 전례에 따른 성경공부 해설서"(엮은이: 소순태, 출판사: 가톨릭출판사)의 각주의 연장으로 마련되었습니다].