Today is the fifth Sunday of Easter.
Today’s Gospel has one of the most important of the commands of Jesus – “love one another as I have loved you”. There are a lot of things Jesus says in the Gospels, and all are important, but this has to be at, or near, the top of the list of His commands.
Bishop Barron talked about the different kinds of love in his online homily this week. He asked the question of what does Jesus mean when He says the word love? Here is a link to Bishop Barron’s comments: https://www.wordonfire.org/videos/sermons/the-love-that-jesus-commands/
I think we all know the different Greek words used in the Bible for love, Eros, Philia, and Agape, and we know it’s Agape that is the kind of Love Jesus is talking to us about today. Just a couple of weeks ago I wrote about Jesus asking Peter if he loved Him (Jesus) and how he changed the word used from Agape to Philia. This idea of loving others is so central to Christianity that we hear about it a lot. In fact, we might sometimes be inclined to say, Okay, I get it. now let’s move on. To that I say, look around our world and see how we’re doing collectively at living out this command.
We say it and we try to do it but sometimes the world, and our fallen nature, gets in the way. We want to apply conditions to our love. I’ve heard people complain about having to love their neighbor when the definition of neighbor contains pretty much everyone. Now, to be fair, some of the problem with loving others is , as Bishop Barron points out, an incorrect understanding of the definition of love. I like to define it as wanting what’s best for the other person without regard for what’s in it for me. If we can truly do that I think we’re meeting the requirement of today’s command in the Gospel.
There’s a certain detachment from self interest required when loving others. It’s a part of getting over ourselves. In my view that detachment is related to pride. Pride is all about us. What I think, what I want, what I believe…and what’s best for me.
So, let’s think about the ways our focus on ourselves is getting in the way of how we love others as Jesus loves us and let’s try to get over ourselves a little more. Like the sacraments, the change doesn’t usually happen all at once, but over time, it can happen.
By the way, as I’m writing this on Saturday morning there’s been a lot of bad weather up your way. I hope you and yours are well. St. Louis certainly got clobbered and some other places in the area got hit too.
That’s it for now. Thanks for reading.
I hope you have a great week.
Peace, Bob
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