"It was I who chose you . . . to go and bear fruit"
John 15: 9-17
The Word for Sunday: http://usccb.org/bible/readings/050618.cfm
The popular Broadway play “Cabaret” has a song with a catchy
tune entitled: “Money makes the world go round.” While the subject matter of the play is
questionable, as always in a Broadway musical, we remember the tunes more than
we may remember the theme of the play.
In a sense, its true that money does make things happen and keeps things
moving forward. We all know that much
good can be done with finances properly spent.
However, there is another power in the world that is far more
significant than money. Our Gospel this
Sunday reveals what Jesus offers to us and the indelible mark of every
Christian and every Christian community – that is love. Jesus advises us: “Remain in my love . . . If
you keep my commandments, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my
Father’s commandments and remain in his love.” What distinguishes the Christian
faith from other world religions is the universal emphasis, and we hear Jesus’
hope for all his disciples, on love and forgiveness. That all, without distinction or prejudice,
are invited to share in the life of “agape” which our Lord offers us. That the love we extend to others comes back
and grows within us which then creates a fellowship, “agape,” of unity and
community.
Even more fundamental to our Christian way of life, as Bishop
Robert Barron comments, is the last part of today’s Gospel. There Jesus tells us: “It was not you who chose me, but I who chose you . . .” If it is
true, then, that God is choosing us first, then rather than thinking that my
actions and choices will “make me holy,” the right attitude is really one of
surrender to God’s will and not to come before God saying, “look how hard I’m
trying, don’t I deserve something for this?” But rather to make myself
available, to allow myself to be found by God and to move with the grace he
offers me.
Our second reading also from John reinforces this great truth:
“In this is love: not that we have loved
God, but that he has loved us and sent his Son as expiation for our sins.”
What could be more reassuring, more incredible than to know we have a God who
is in search for us. The mystery of his
grace moves within us creating a desire for prayer, a hunger for himself that
can only be fulfilled when we surrender to his invitation and allow ourselves
to be found by him.
Why? This is a God who
reaches out and desires to covenant himself with us; to make us not strangers
but his friends: “I no longer call you
slaves, because a slave does not know what his master is doing. I have called your friends, because I have
told you everything . . . “
Like friends to one another, Jesus reminds us that in walking
his way, we create an atmosphere of friendship with him and submit to his
search. He is shepherd, we are sheep; he
is vine, we are branches; he is God and we are called to be his friends. And so with one another to express that bond
in love.
That is the Easter message he leaves us. And in order to cement that for all time, he
offers us a gift of friendship – himself in the Holy Eucharist. Any gift I give to you is a sign of my
respect and love. While God does not separate
gift from giver, he does so by making himself the very gift he gives; his
presence in the Eucharist.
Through that gift of his love we then create a bond of
community between us with Christ himself as the head. That is a unity of oneness. All we need do is take a look around our
parish Churches on a Sunday morning and we see the inclusiveness and diversity
of a Church universal. If you’ve ever
had the experience of attending a public audience of the Pope on a Wednesday
morning in Rome, you see there the universal nature of the Church as people
from everywhere gather to share that moment with the Holy Father.
Are we perfect in all we do?
Of course not. We have sin,
imperfection, prejudice, and other forms of anti-love among us. We have to constantly work at rooting out
what divides us and support and grow towards the agape, fellowship in Christ,
that Jesus desires and offers us.
What is the model for this?
Some of what I’ve mentioned but also his reminder that we must love, and
stay united, as he is with the Father in heaven. His commandments (Mosaic Covenant on Sinai,
the Beatitudes from the Sermon on the Mount) provide us a guide. If we follow them, true fellowship will
happen for then we are united with Christ, primarily at Mass through the Holy
Eucharist, and the kind of “love” Jesus desires will happen. But to receive
that love we must give it away for that is the way of growth in his grace.
As we come soon to the end of our annual Easter season, this is
what Jesus hands on to us. Is there
anything else greater, even money that will make the world go round? I think not since this kind of love, by its
nature, has the potential to bring humanity together.
Grant, almighty God,
that we may celebrate with heartfelt
devotion these days of joy,
which we keep in honor of the risen Lord,
and that what we relive in remembrance we may
always hold to in what we do.
Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,
who lives and reigns with you in the unity
of the Holy Spirit,
one God, for ever and ever.
(Collect of Mass)
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