Word to the Wise
Sunday, May 10, 2015 - 6th Sunday of Easter - B
[Acts 10:25-26, 34-35, 44-48; 1 John 4:7-10; John 15:9-17]"As the Father loves me, so I also love you. 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." [John]
In the bible-belt South U.S.A., one sometimes sees billboards sponsored by local churches that read: "Have you accepted Jesus as your personal savior?" I think we Catholics are often uncomfortable with that question. We tend to think more in terms of the Church and our membership in it. The practice of infant baptism removes the "personal decision" from us early on, so the "acceptance" is more or less done for us! Yet, the question on the billboard is really the question that the Gospel of John asks over and over.
Pope Benedict XVI, in the part of the encyclical, LUMEN FIDEI, that he wrote in cooperation with Pope Francis, says that faith is a response to a love that is overwhelming in its power and yet inviting. Jesus says that he loves us just as his Father loves him! This is a powerful love. Can we accept it? Does it feel "invasive?" Would we prefer that Jesus love us that way without telling us about it which would mean we have to love him and our neighbor in a powerful way?
Love is a reciprocal thing and requires mutual action. God's action is not in question here. It is our action that is in question. Earlier at the washing of the feet of the disciples, the evangelist John speaks of Jesus as "having loved his own in this world, he loved them to the end." Today Jesus says, "No one has greater love than this, to lay down one's life for one's friends." Can we accept this challenge? Can we accept Jesus personally? AMEN
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