Sixth Sunday of Easter
One of the greatest challenges of my ministry is funerals. To help families deal with the tragedy, I try my best to make the funeral as meaningful as possible. Especially the homily, I make it an opportunity to let people discover God in the midst of it all. I also focus on celebrating the deceased person’s life by engaging in a conversation with family members about the deceased. Sometimes after the service the family come to tell me how they appreciated what I said about the person and how I connected the scripture to the life of the person. My response often to them is that I did not have anything to do with the homily except to deliver it. I tell them that, the way we live our lives each day, we are writing our funeral homily. The people or the celebrant can only capture the essence of what the deceased person’s life stood for. They can only reflect of how they lived their lives. As the family thanks me, I often ask them to thank their loved ones for the life they lived.
In one sense, John, in today’s second reading is doing that same thing with God. He is trying to capture the essence of God. What John says about God in three words captures the entire scriptures from Genesis to Revelation – “God is Love.” The rest of scripture, as I understand it, is the practical implication of this statement. The gospel reading then, in a two-step process makes a connection between the fact that ‘God is love,’ and us in a two-step process. First, Jesus says, “As the Fathers has loved me, so I love you.” Second, Jesus says, “This is my commandment: love one another as I love you.”
The rest of my homily will try to reflection upon the meaning of that one statement “God Is Love.” Here are my three points for today.
1. God is Love
I want to expand on what I just said about capturing the essence of God. One of the most memorable and life-altering classes I had in during my seminary days was when the professor introduced his class by inviting us to write down our epitaph. “What” he said, “would you want to be written on your tomb stone?” When John thinks about God, the one phrase that captures God’s essence is, “God is Love.” That is what should have been put on the cross of Jesus, on his tombstone and it should be on every church in the whole world. If there is one thing that I am proud about being a Christian, it is this: that my God, is LOVE. My God does not say I have to kill people; my God does not say I to fear God; my God does not say I have to appease God; my God merely says to love God and love other people because “God is Love.” Nothing else matters. Today, I cherish my baptism because God is love, I make it to the sacrament of reconciliation because God is love, I continue to be a priest because God is love, I celebrate the Eucharist because God is love and I am not afraid to die because God is love. Yes, God is love.
2. Love One Another
Because God is love, we now understand that he said to his followers “This is my commandment: love one another as I love you.” Notice that it is not a request or a wish; it is a commandment – “Love one another as I have loved you.” This command to love is more than just a commandment. It is a vision. We see that vision right through Christ’s life. When Jesus taught his disciples to pray, the first petition he makes is, “Thy Kingdom Come.” This is a vision. When the Pharisee asked him which of the commandments was the greatest commandment, he said “Love God with all you heart,” and love your neighbor as yourself.” This is a vision. When Jesus says in today’s gospel reading “This is my commandment: love one another as I love you,” he is once again laying out a vision. If we read today’s gospel reading carefully, this is what the vision looks like
God is love, God loves Jesus, Jesus loves us, we love one another and in one another we love God. When God created the world, I think this is the vision God had.
3. The difficult Commandment
Having said all that I have said, we also know how complex and complicated the living out this vision is. The complexity is most seen right after creation, when man and woman sinned, and then one more time upon on the cross when the price for that sin was paid. For us today, the complexity of the love commandment is played out in our relationships. Love is hard because each of us has our own character flaws. Love is hard because people make wrong choices and because people choose to hurt each other. In this election year, we are bound to have passionate political, economic and religious differences with people. I think the Love commandment does not mean that we have no right to disagree but that we have no right to hate. The love commandment means that even when complexity enters our most meaningful relationships that the operating principle is love. In other words, if we challenge people it should be because we love; if we disagree with people it should be because we love; if we are firm it should be because we love. In every situation our effort should be to keep God’s vision in action.
At the end of our lives when someone preaches our funeral homily, they should be able to say that “He/She was Love.”
- Fr. Satish Joseph