Fifth Sunday of Easter
In my homily last week I offered a reflection on the death and devastation at the Boston Marathon. In one of the points in my homily I said, “… that we respond to this gruesome event in the way Christ teaches us to. It means that I do not allow my anger to turn into hate. It means that my desire for justice does not turn into revenge. It means that we do not find relief in triumphalism but rather administer justice with humility. It means that I do not become prejudiced, bigoted and xenophobic. It means that I still believe in love.” However, in the past week the media also exposed us to those who were injured in the terrorist attacks. The stories of those who lost their limbs in amputations are truly gut-wrenching. Among them is 32 year old dancer Adrianne Haslet. Her left foot and part of the leg had to be amputated. She is not letting this hold her back. She is soon to make an appearance on Dancing With The Stars. I tried to imagine what it would mean for me to lose a limb. And then I began to feel the struggle inside me. Yes, I still believe in what I preached last week, but I am also struggling to remain positive, to still believe in love, to refrain from resentment and destructive emotions.
And then I picked up the Sunday mass reading to prepare this homily. And I heard Christ say “I give you a new commandment’ love one another. As I have loved you, so you also should love one another. This is how all will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.” For a moment I felt ashamed. And I found myself asking the question, “What does it mean for me to love?” What does it means when Jesus says, “As I have loved you, so you also should love one another.”
There are two things that I am trying to avoid as far as Christ’s love command is concerned. On the one hand I do not want to dumb down Christ’s command to love. Christ’s knew that Judas was going to betray him, that Peter was going to deny him and the disciples were going to abandon him. Yet he celebrated the Passover with them. So Christians cannot put limits to Christ’s love commandment. In other words, we cannot say that there are situations where the love commandment is not applicable. On the other hand, I want to avoid being simplistic. Life and relationships are complex. Christ’s commandment to love is more difficult that it seems. Everyone has someone or some situation which makes this commandment truly challenging. Sometimes, love remains a mere possibility.
Let me offer three points three practical implications today:
- The Love Commandment is an unconditional demand. The “As I have loved you,” clause of the love commandment brings the unconditional nature of the love command very radically before us. Is Christ not held in such high esteem precisely because his love was unconditional? Do we not offer him worship because he revealed to us God who is love? Do we not offer our utmost to him because he loved us in spite of our failures? Do we not hold in special regard those people who were able to imitate Christ’s love? We are very proud of John Paul II because he forgave the man who tried to assassinate him, are we not? If nothing could deter Jesus’ capacity to love then Jesus is demanding from us that at least on the very basic level we do not put limits on our capacity to love. It is not Christian to be minimalistic with regard to the love commandment. In fact, most of the time we are called to be heroic in our obedience of this commandment. The more heroic we are the more Christ like we are.
- New Evangelization and Discipleship. These days there is much talk in the Catholic world about New Evangelization. The US Catholics bishops’ website states, “The New Evangelization calls each of us to deepen our faith, believe in the Gospel message and go forth to proclaim the Gospel. In a special way, the New Evangelization is focused on 're-proposing' the Gospel to those who have experienced a crisis of faith.” Sometimes new evangelization has been interpreted as Catholics digging in their heels as Catholics. The gospel puts is it in very simple terms. “This is how all will know you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.” Could it be that we need new evangelization because we have overlooked the most basic commandment of all? If our history, our traditions, our rituals and our faith does not bear witness to our capacity to love, then we are missing the point are we not? The mark of discipleship is love.
- Love is a Process. Having said everything I have said, I want to talk a little bit about my struggle last week. What do we do with perpetrators of terror and what do we do with the people who bring out the worst in us? The best way to answer this question is to say that sometimes “love is a process” rather than an act. In other words, a Christian disciple’s fundamental choice needs to be in favor of love. But sometimes, getting to love somebody may take longer than we want to. Sometimes love comes at the end of the road. Sometimes love is a process. Jesus lays out that process in Luke 6:27-28, “Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you.” Reverse the order of this command of Jesus and we have a process. So we could begin by praying for those who mistreat us, blessing those who curse us, doing good those hate us and hopefully that will lead us to love as well. So even though I experience conflicting emotions in me with regard to the Boston bombings, the gospel compels me to stand by what I preached last week: … that I do not allow my anger to turn into hate, that my desire for justice does not turn into revenge, that I do not find relief in triumphalism, that I do not become prejudiced, bigoted and xenophobic, and that I still believe in love. But as I said, sometimes love is a process.
My dear friends, this Eucharist is a celebration of love. It is a feast of love. Let us come forward to receive love from Jesus and take it to our world. Amen.
- Fr. Satish Joseph