Fifth Sunday of Easter
What is your faith about? What is at the core of your religion? If someone in an elevator asks you explain your belief system, how would you respond?
Among the many themes that today’s scripture readings inspire, I would like to focus on these words from the first letter of St. John: “And his commandment is this: We should believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and love one another just as he commanded us” (1 Jn 3:23). In so many ways, it seems to me that John gives us our elevator speech. I call this "core Christianity."
Allow me to reflect on the core of John’s writings and suggest some practical implications for our own belief system.
It's All About Love
John’s gospel and the three letters of John have much to say about the practical implications of faith. The foremost among this is the concept of love. It is John who tells us that “God is love” (1 Jn 4:8). It is John who tells us, “God so loved the world…” (Jn 3:16).
But John takes this one step forward. For John there is an intricate connection between God’s love and its implications for Jesus’ followers. No other evangelist makes the implications clearer than John. It is John who tells us about Jesus’ new commandment, “Love one another as I have loved you” (Jn 13:34-35). It is John who points out the need for consistency between love of God and our human relationships. He says, “If anyone says, “I love God,” but hates his brother, he is a liar; for whoever does not love a brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen” (1 Jn 4:20).
There is a clear connection in John between God’s love for the world and the love that disciples must have for one another. One cannot claim to love God without love of one another. Similarly to love one another with Christ-like love one must first be touched by God’s love for us. This is the first practical implication.
But It Begins with Faith
However, the emphasis on love in John’s writings is grounded in a more central theme – belief in Jesus Christ as the ultimate revelation of God. We hear this in today’s second reading. John says, “And his commandment is this: we should believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ…” John begins his gospel with this theme, and he ends the gospel with the same emphasis. Thus, in the very first chapter of his gospel, John says, “He came to what was his own, but his own people did not accept him. But to those who did accept him he gave power to become children of God, to those who believe in his name” (Jn 1:16-17). Towards the end of his gospel John says, “These (the gospel) are written that you may [come to] believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that through this belief you may have life in his name” (Jn 20:31).
Apart from the beginning and the end, John’s gospel is filled with concrete accounts of people who came to believe in Jesus. Nicodemus (Jn 3:1-18), the Samaritan woman (Jn 4:4-42), the man born blind (Jn 9:1-39), the story of Mary and Martha at the resurrection of Lazarus (Jn 11:1-44) are all stories of real people coming to believe in Jesus as the Messiah.
The bottom line is that the love with which Jesus invites us to love one another is inspired by faith in Jesus Christ. Faith inspires love and love is the implication of true faith in Jesus Christ.
Vine and its Branches: Bringing it all Together
The analogy of the vine and the branches is a great way to bring belief in Jesus and the love commandment together. Jesus says in today’s gospel reading “I am the vine, you are the branches. Whoever remains in me and I in him will bear much fruit, because without me you can do nothing” (Jn 15:5).
The above verse means that the fruit that Jesus hopes his disciples will bear is the fruit of love – Christ-like love. But we can only bear the fruit of Christ-like love if our lives are intimately connected to the life of Jesus Christ. In fact, John cautions us that without Jesus not only can we not bear fruit but that we “can do nothing.”
Faith in Jesus Christ and love of one another are two sides of the same coin. Love proceeds from faith but faith is fruitless without love.
I began this homily by asking, “What is at the core of your religion?” John’s answer would be, “We should believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and love one another just as he commanded us.” I hope this is our answer too. For this is core Christianity.
- Fr. Satish Joseph