5th Sunday of Easter, C, Love, Love, Love
John 13, 31-33a, 34-35 (5th Sunday of Easter, C, The Love “Thing.”)
Focus: The Love “Thing.”
Function: To remind hearers what Jesus meant by the love “thing”.
- Introduction
- Maybe you’re thinking “today’s Gospel is short, so perhaps we’ll have a short homily too?” Well, the Gospel is short on words but it is long on meaning—the meaning of love.
- What about the love “thing”? Yea, the love “thing”? In this reading from John’s Gospel, Jesus Christ spoke about “the new commandment” —the commandment to love. What did Jesus mean by the word “love”? It seems we need to discuss the meaning of the love “thing” according to Jesus.
- Pope Benedict, in his encyclical on love, emphasized how the word “love” had become overused, and diluted of its Christian meaning. The word “love” had been weakened, over-exercised verbally, and under-expressed in Christian service. In common parlance, love is used to express a whole range of meanings from appreciation to wonder. So, in light of today’s Gospel, as Christians, what do we mean when we say the word “love”?
- Love’s Various Meanings
- Do we mean romantic love between lovers, the eros variety? Erotic or romantic love is fun and fascinating; it is the “fasten-your-seatbelt” type, but is alas fleeting. We know that it is impossible to soar the lofty heights of emotional bliss for long before returning to earth for the oxygen of reality! Even so, for those who “fall in love” the weightless ride is fun while it lasts.
- Maybe we mean fraternal or sororal love among friends, the philia flavor? Friendship or companionship love is important and enjoyable; frequently, it is the “sports-buddies-and-beverage” type. Some friendships are passing and ephemeral; we only share part of life’s journey. Yet, other friendships last a lifetime, and we seemingly pickup where we left off—even after years of absence.
- Perhaps we mean family love, love among relatives, the storge kind. Familial or kindred love is genetically natural and socially important, but regrettable sometimes it is dysfunctional, like in the movie Little Miss Sunshine. (Can I tell you a little secret? There is no such thing as the “perfectly” functioning family.) Still, we belong to a tribe, a clan, a family.
- Even though these three types of love are important parts of the human experience, in today’s Gospel, Jesus is not talking about eros, philia, or storge love. He is pointing us toward another kind of love—Divine love. The writer of John used a word with a particular meaning for this kind of love in the Christian life.
- Jesus’ Meaning of Love
- Jesus Christ, the Word made flesh, used the word agape. Agape was expressed in the example of Jesus’ life, death and resurrection. In the case of Jesus, agape love was the outpouring of Divine love.
- The Incarnation—God in human form—spoke an eternal example of agape love—not a feeling, sensation, mood, sentiment, opinion, estimation, emotion, experience, passion, sensation, urge, taste, preference, thought, idea or a genetic disposition.
- The Divine Word was made flesh so that we might learn and live agape love. Agape love became one of us to show us how we can become agape love. Jesus Christ, agape love Incarnated, is us more than a lover, a friend, or a family member, although in someway He represents all three of these loves too. Most of all, He is our Redeemer and our Savior who offered Himself to and for His disciples then—and offers Himself to and for us today.
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The Early Christian Community’s Celebration of Agape Love
- The early Christian community, gathered around a Eucharistic table just as we do today. They shared Scripture (from the Old Testament); they told stories (their personal experiences of the historical Jesus); they broke bread and shared a cup, which they believed was truly Jesus’ Body and Blood. They called this celebration, a living memory of Jesus, an Agape feast—a feast where they celebrated Jesus Christ’s real presence among them.
- Their agape meal celebrated the love that Jesus expressed by His life, death and resurrection. This agape love was the representation of Jesus Christ’s self-sacrificing love of God for humanity, which the early Christians were committed to reciprocating and practicing towards God and among one another. Thus, Jesus Christ was the model of love for them; and He is the model for us.
- Conclusion
The love “thing.”
Agape love –the variety, the flavor, the kind Jesus spoke of in today’s gospel.
He said:
I give you a new commandment: love one another.
As I have loved you: love one another.
To be my disciples: love one another.
This is the Divine Love thing!
Intercessions, Fifth Sunday of Easter, 2007.
For each of us—members of the Universal Church—may the celebration of this Easter Season inspire us to express Jesus’ agape love in the world, [pause] let us pray to the Lord.
For those with political or ethical power, may they seek to promote and protect human dignity from conception to natural death, [pause] let us pray to the Lord.
For each of us, inhabitants of this world and citizens of this nation, may we live the message of our Christian ideals so that Jesus’ agape love might be realized, [pause] let us pray to the Lord.
For those who do not feel welcomed at, or have distanced themselves from, Jesus’ agape feast of love, may we find ways to invite and welcome them, [pause] let us pray to the Lord.
For all those who have made and are making their First Communion at Jesus’ agape feast during this Easter season, especially those from our own community, and particularly today for Barbara Lombardi and Adria Rosebrook, [pause] let us pray to the Lord.
For those who have been injured, displaced or killed because of war and violence, and for those who care for them, who provide for them, or who bury and grieve for them, [pause] let us pray to the Lord.
For those who work to make our community, state, nation and world a more peaceful and just place, may Jesus Christ’s spirit of agape love guide their efforts, [pause] let us pray to the Lord.