5th Sunday of the Easter Season - May 15, 2022

5th SUNDAY OF EASTER 2022, Cycle C

Acts of Apostles 14: 21-27 + Ps. 145: 8-13 + Rev. 21: 1-5a + John 13: 31-33a, 34-35

Holy Spirit Catholic Church:  May 15, 2022

 

 

The word “new” pops up over and over again in today’s readings.

New heaven.   New earth.  New Jerusalem.   New commandment.

 

But what is new about Jesus’ “New Commandment”?

For we find in the book of Leviticus in the Old Testament the command to

“love your neighbor as yourself.” (Lev. 19:18)

So what is new about Jesus’ commandment to “love one another”?

It’s in the little phrase that Jesus adds to this command:  “As I have loved you.”

Jesus says:  “Love one another as I have loved you.”

 

As Jesus loves, so we are to love.

It is also important to understand what kind of love Jesus is talking about.

The Greek word used in this passage from which we get the English translation of “love”  is “agape.”   Agape!

The English language is impoverished by having only one word for love.

In Greek, there are several words which describe different kinds of love.

 

There is “eros,” which has to do with physical attraction,

but this kind of loving can fade over time.

There is “philios,” which has to do with loving one’s brother

or the members of one’s family.

But this kind of loving is narrow and limited, because it is focused only on one’s clan.

Then there is “agape”, which is unconditional love that does not depend

on external circumstances or internal feelings.

This kind of loving happens even when we do not feel like loving the other person.

 

Agape is self-giving, self-emptying, and concerned only for the good of the other.

It is a love that pours itself out, so it looks like the sacrificial love of Jesus on the cross.

Loving in an “agape” way also looks like how Jesus loves every day

as he seeks the good of others, forgiving and acting with merciful compassion.

Loving in such an other-focused way brings healing to lives that are broken.

 

Now we will have to admit, to love in an “agape” way is difficult, challenging, and demanding.   At times it seems impossible, too much for Jesus to ask of us.

We can rightly ask of him, “How do you expect us to fulfill this commandment?”

The key is found in listening very carefully to the commandment:

Love one another as I have loved you.

We can only love one another as he loves if we have first allowed him to love us.

It is only in recognizing Jesus’ love for us, that he has loved us and continues to love us, and by receiving his love, that we can love others as he loves.

 

When we look in the mirror in the morning, we often see our physical defects

very clearly.

When we look into the mirror of our soul, we often see very clearly our failures

at loving as Jesus loves.

 

But what we are invited to see first of all is the Lord’s love for us as we are.

The Lord pouring out his life for us and into us as we are.

The Lord Jesus does not wait until we are perfect to love us.

He does not wait until we are sinless to love us.

He simply loves us and invites us into a life-giving relationship with Him,

a daily experience of his saving love.

 

Paul and Barnabas are able to persevere in the face of incredible obstacles

because they know how much they are loved by the Risen Lord.   

Paul and Barnabas are able to love those who persecute them.

How do they do this?

 

Because they have experienced the mercy of God in their lives through Christ Jesus.

What Paul and Barnabas have received, they desire to share.

They want to ignite the love of God in others, no matter what the cost,

no matter how challenging and difficult it may be.

 

Paul and Barnabas know that it is necessary to undergo many hardships

in order to enter the Kingdom of God.

But they persevere and they encourage others in those early Christian communities

to persevere.

 

Immediately preceding today’s travel scene in the Acts of the Apostles,

Paul has been stoned and left for dead by those opposing his inclusion of the Gentiles

in God’s saving plan.

Those who are upset with Paul because he opens the door of faith to the Gentiles

try to kill him.

But Paul rises up from this near-death experience and continue on to the next town,

full of joy and the Holy Spirit.

Paul perseveres in living this way because he is constantly drinking

from the well of God’s love, from the living water of the Spirit.

He can love others as Jesus loves, because he knows the love of the Lord in his life.

 

 

The way that we renew the face of the earth is by loving as Jesus loves.

The way we help bring about a new earth is by loving like Jesus.

The way God makes all things new is through this kind of loving, this kind of living.

 

As we pour out our lives in love of others, we become living witnesses of the new life

we share with and in the Risen Christ.

We are not afraid of misunderstanding or rejection or failure—we persevere in the face

of many hardships to enter the Kingdom of God and to bring that Kingdom to others.

By our lives of sacrificial love, by living for others, by our concern for the common good, we bring about the new earth by renewing the face of this earth.

 

 

Even when we feel a bit lost and feel like our efforts at loving as Christ loves

are fruitless, we keep on sharing the compassionate love of Christ with others.

 

As the poet Amanda Gorman says:

Lost as we feel, there is no better

Compass than compassion.

We find ourselves not by being

The most seen, but the most seeing.

(From her book, “Call Us What We Carry,” page 48, a selection from her poem, “Compass”)

 

Seeing the pain of others and responding to them with compassion is the way forward.

Our guiding compass into new life is fulfilling Jesus’ commandment of love.

 

Fr. Joseph A. Jacobi