Sixth Sunday of Easter
As I read passages like today’s gospel, something within me craves for the simplicity that they express. For that matter, the entire gospel is rather simple. They are about simple things accomplished simply. ‘If you love me,” Jesus says in today’s gospel, “You will keep my word.” It is as simple as that. There is a possibility that you may not like his words and do not want to keep it. And that is OK. But if you do love him and keep his word, Christ offers a new world. Today’s homily is a “back to the basic” kind of homily. Based on today’s gospel, Christianity is about three simple things: Love, Relationship, and Peace.
Christianity is Love. First and foremost, Christianity is about our love for Christ. Christianity is not about power, ideology, rituals, tradition, history or numbers. Christianity is about a person who committed his life to love. Before he sacrificed his life, he said to his followers, “If you love me, you will keep my word.” Our faith, our religiosity, our history, our traditions, our economics, our politics and our daily life are supposed to be an expression of Christ’s commandment to love him. In the history of the church and in our own lives, sometimes, we forget what Christ and Christianity are all about. Our history, our traditions, our rituals, our ideologies and our pettiness seems more important. Today, Christ is pulling us back to the basics. “If you love me you will keep my word.”
Christianity is Relationship. When Christ died, rose and then ascended to heaven, there was very little he left his disciples that they could hold in their hands. There were no notes, no directions or written literature they could cling on to. In fact, spoken words are all they had. “If you love me, you will keep my words.…” However, the fruit of “keeping Christ’s word” was a relationship. “If you love me, you will keep my words and my father will love him and we will come and make our dwelling with him.” In other words, the focus of Christ’s mission was an indwelling presence, a living relationship. More than anything else, Christ seeks a relationship with us. Both as individuals and as a community, first and foremost, Christ seeks a relationship. Hopefully, each of our life is the location, the place, the heart, the soul where Christ can make a home.
Christianity is Peace. “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give it to you.” Jesus clearly separates the peace that he gives and the peace the world gives. What could be the difference? The peace the world offers comes from an absence. The peace that Jesus offers come from a presence. The peace the world offers is the absence of conflict. The peace that Jesus offers comes from our experience of the fullness of God’s presence. Here is how it works. If we are conscious about Christ dwelling within us and we ourselves dwell in Christ, the result is contentment. When we are conscious of God dwelling within us our natural craving for importance, power, and possessions decline. We begin to be contented people inside. The fullness of Christ’s presence brings us contentment and peace. This peace is different from the peace the world gives.
As we come to receive Jesus in holy Communion today, let invite Christ to come a make his home in us. With Christ in our hearts, we embrace peace.
- Fr. Satish Joseph