John:
15:9 – 17
Jesus said to his disciples: “As the Father loves me, so I also
love you. 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. I
have told you this so that my joy may be in you and your
joy might be complete. This is my commandment: love
one another as I love you. No one has greater love than
this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.
You are my friends if you do what I command
you. I no longer call you slaves, because a slave does
not know what his master is doing. I have called you
friends, because I have told you everything I have heard
from my Father. It was not you who chose me, but I who
chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit that
will remain, so that whatever you ask the Father in my
name he may give you. This I command you: love one
another.”
Today we hear from Jesus, a message about love,
and perhaps we might be inclined to think: “Now love is
something I can sure relate to.” After all, there are
expressions of love all around us throughout our life.
The joy and wonder of the love that a newly wedded
couple have for each other, and how such a love can
sustain them for many years to come; the tender love a
mother and father have for their newborn child, a life
born because of their love for each other. There are
expressions of love for parents, grandparents,
grandchildren, brothers and sisters, and the friends we
have in our life. We enhance our love up with Christmas
trees and presents, with Easter baskets and chocolate
bunnies, with red roses and chocolates hearts on
Valentines Day, Mother’s Day and Father’s Day,
Secretary’s Day, Birthdays and Anniversaries; all of
which include expressions of love like a hug, a kiss, or
a warm embrace, or perhaps a gift.
As wonderful as these expressions of love are,
they are expressions born out of our deep feelings
associated with love. But sometimes these feelings can
just come and go. They may not always last unless they
are rooted in the level of love that Jesus talks about
today in this reading. He talks about remaining in his
love by keeping his commandments, for that’s how he
remains in his Father’s love, by keeping His
commandments, which result in Jesus giving up his life
for us. His expression of love was then, born out of a
commitment, a decision to love, a conscious decision to
lay down his life for all of us, which reflected his
love for us, because he called us his friends.
And now love is associated with the expression
of love for his disciples as friends. We too, are his
disciples, his friends. And so how do we love?
Certainly with all the previous mentioned expressions of
love. But on a level that really means anything more?
That really sets us apart as friends, by keeping his
commandments? For, therein lies the challenge. We are
asked to put ourselves on the line for the sake of
friendship, to be willing to give our all so we can
remain in Jesus’ love, to love one another, to decide to
love one another despite differences, races, creeds,
weaknesses, strengths; to love one another because
deciding takes the most effort and is not based on a
feeling.
How we feel is
who we are at any given moment, and that is the real us
at that moment, but how we react to those feelings
determine if it results in a decision to love, despite
those feelings. The love that Jesus has for us and that
the Father had for him is a "perfect" love. We are not
capable, as human beings, to achieve such a love on our
own merit, if ever. We are only asked to strive to love
in such a way as best we are able to. My best may be
less than another’s best, but the fact that I try to
love, as Jesus calls me to love is all that is
important, and so it is with each person, only to be
understood and defined by that person if that person is
living the commandments that Jesus taught.
Our
human love must be a response to the commandments that
Jesus taught. That is not to say that our response will
necessarily come from our own direct understanding of
those commandments, for there are many ways that our
Lord’s commandments are taught, or that people have come
to know His love by. For example it may be because of
another’s person’s own knowledge and understanding.
Certainly, as a child, I did not have such
understanding, but through the guidance of my parents
and by their love that was made possible, until an age
that I was able to understand. And it has been a life
long journey of understanding. And perhaps, aside from
the scripture message itself, our life experience
continues to give us more and more opportunities to
realize those commandments. In the end as Jesus himself
showed us, living out the call to love is the greatest
way to share it.
Deciding to love as Jesus decided to do . . . is living
out that commandment to love!
We will only
know and achieve "perfect love" in Heaven.
(C) Deacon Steve A. Politte
May 17, 2009
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