Fifth Sunday of Easter C         May 2, 2010

 Acts 14:21-27
 Revelation 21:1-5a
 John 13:31-33a, 34-35

We experience many kinds of love in our everyday living. I love Italian food, I love flying, I love certain movies/TV shows.   I love the parishioners of Saint Patrick.   Why, I have been known to say, I love my brothers.  And yes, I love God above all else.

Not all expressions of love demand “dying.”   As is clear from this litany, most ways we use the word “love” requires little, if any, dying. 

In the midst of the ongoing joyous Easter celebration, it is easy to forget that Jesus gave us this command “to love”  just as Judas was leaving him—on the night before he died, on the night before he showed us the depths of his love.   His is a love that survives betrayal, endures the cross, and breaks the deadening silence of the tomb. WE are called to love like THAT!

This “new commandment” moves us beyond the emotional experience of love.  Previously, the law commanded people to love their brothers and sisters as they love themselves.   But now Jesus says “love as I have loved you.”

Paul writes to the Philippians, and to us, that although his nature was divine, he did not cling to his equality with God, but stripped himself of all privilege to assume the condition of a slave. He became as we are, and appearing in human form humbled himself by being obedient even to the extent of dying, dying on a cross.   Elsewhere Paul writes: Though he was rich, he became poor.

We are missioned to continue God’s love in the world.  I am how God continues to say, “I love you!” to many people. Imagine  that!   God works through me as a baptized person expressing divine love through me.  We are commanded to be sacraments, making God’s creative love a real presence to others.

Like any other deep expressions of  love, it is as frequently expressed in actions rather than in words.   Sometimes we don’t even stop and think about it.  Having a large number of funerals is very new to me.  Didn’t have too many at Saint Thomas Aquinas.  There have been 22 funerals since I have been here.  Following at least half of them, the family commented on the support they experienced from this parish:  people came to pray that we didn’t even know,  they sent cards, they made a memorial, the parish served this wonderful luncheon, everyone connected with the parish was so supportive, etc. 

You see, to love like Jesus, means you do not have to know the other person, or feel emotionally attached to them.  If I love you, I desire what is best, most helpful for you.  I will, as best I can, be present to you.   I will do MORE for you than I would expect you to do for me.   I will do for you without counting the cost to myself.  This “new” commandment surpasses all others.

Our death—dying to self—reveals the full measure of our love for others but it also leads others to a share in the glory of Jesus. 

To the credit of its basically individualistic culture, Americans do “love one another” but in culturally distinctive ways. For example, Americans invented the curious distinction between the “deserving” and the “undeserving” poor. Love is directed accordingly.

In contrast, Jesus urges, “Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another” (13:34). How do we measure up?