Homily Easter 6B: God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him

 Homily for Easter – 6^th Sunday Year B 2021

Acts 10:25-26,34-35,44-48; 1 John 4:7-10 · John 15:9-17

Introduction

Love is one of the most used words.  But what does love mean?  The same word is used to refer to my feelings towards kittens as well as my feelings towards more important things like my mother.  Can they really be the same thing?  And as wait to see the doctor, the magazines in the waiting room will give you a million different meanings of love.

Fortunately for us, today’s readings tell us something about real love.  For both in the second reading and the gospel St. John tells us three things about love.

1.    That God is love.

2.    That God has loved us first.

3.    That we must respond to God’s love in love.

Scripture and Theology

When John says “Whoever is without love does not know God, for God is love,” he is making a very unique claim.  John does not just say that God loves us, but that God is love.  Think about that.  The very being of God is love itself.

When Pope Benedict became pope in 2005, some in the Church were worried.  For his previous job in the Vatican was to be the enforcer of correct teaching, a thankless job.  He had corrected many wayward theologians and priests.  And so, some thought that as Pope he was going to very strict and stern, all fire and brimstone.  But what did he do?  His first encyclical or major document was entitled Deus Caritas Est, which is the Latin for “God is Love.”  The Pope rightly started his ministry with this message, because it is at the core of our faith.

For example, let us turn to the Trinity, which is at the core of our faith.  The Trinity itself is love, with the God the Father as the one who loves, the Son as the Beloved and the Holy Spirit as the shared love.  The three persons of the Trinity share an eternal and endless love into which they invite us.  And so, this means that, unlike us, God can never fall out of love, even when we offend him terribly.  In addition, at the core of what it means to be a Christian is not learning some doctrines or moral truths; it is about falling in love with a person, with God; for God is love is itself.

Moving on to the second message, if God is love, then it follows that he loves us.  But that is not all.  St. John says something more than the fact that God loves us.  He says: “not that we have loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as expiation for our sins.”  John wants us to know that it is God who begins this relationship with us, first in creating us, but now also in redeeming us.  In some Eastern Religions and even some New Age programs, religion is about impressing God, making him love us, even bribe him with our works.  In the Christian religion of the Bible, it is God who seeks us out first.  Even in today’s gospel Jesus says clearly, “It was not you who chose me, but I who chose you.”

In other words, God’s loving us is not something we earn or deserve, but something he freely gives to us. Far too often we forget this truth, perhaps because we use our human love as the standard of God’s love.  With human love, sometimes we must take the initiative to approach our beloved.  But not in God’s case, for he has approached us first; he is the first lover, not us.  And he loved us most when he sent his Son, Jesus, who says, “No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.”  God’s son loved us in this way.

And that brings us to the third point of John.  If God is love and if God has loved us first, then the only logical response is that we must love him back.  And we love him back, not because he needs our love, but because that is what a grateful heart does when someone like God loves you.  You love him back.

That is what Jesus enjoins us to do in today’s gospel.  He tells us: “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.”  Jesus shows us the way.  Just as he responded to the Father’s love by loving him, loving us and keeping his commandments.  So should we.  We should love God back by keeping his commandments.

Many times, when I am travelling across the country, I stop as a guest at friends’ homes.  Surely the expectation is that I respond to their gracious hospitality by behaving myself, like not arriving at an ungodly hour, like cleaning up after myself, like bringing a token gift, like generally being an agreeable house guest.  That is how we too should respond to God’s love for us, by fulfilling certain expectations.  Jesus says, “This I command you: love one another.” He is not asking for much, just what should naturally follow because he has loved us first.

Christian Life

Our world today still needs all three messages about love.

First, we live in world where, unfortunately, God is often associated with vengeance, hatred and violence.  We must therefore remind ourselves and teach others that our God is love.  That means our relationship with him should be based in the knowledge that he is love and not that he is an angry Father out to get us.  Just like a good parent, even when he punishes us, it is because of love; it is tough love.  Knowing that God is love will help love him in freedom, not fear.  For everything we do, will do because we are in love with a lover, God.

I once heard a story about a married couple, who for years went to the opera.  Several years into their marriage, however, it slipped accidentally from the mouth of the husband, that he did not like opera at all.  When the wife asked him, "why then did you go with me all these years?" he said: “I loved the opera, because you love the opera and I love you.”  That is when the wife also said, “I too only went to the opera, because I thought you loved it and since I loved you, I had to love it.”  They cancelled their season tickets and found other mutual pleasures.  We too should love God, because he is love.

Secondly, knowing that it is God who has loved us first, will help us live our lives in gratitude to love, not in an attempt to win his love; for he is already love and loves us no matter what we do.  We live in a country that treasures self-reliance and personal initiative.  But when it comes to God, we must put aside these cultural norms and remember that God takes the initiative, not we.  There is nothing we can do to win his love; rather everything we do is because of his grace and in response to his love.

And that brings us to the third point, which is, how we are to love.  We are to love like God has first loved us in Jesus Christ.  It should be clear that the kind of love that Jesus is asking of us his disciples is not the lovey-dovey, fleeting love of teenagers, but more like the love that entails commitment, such as that of spouses who have stayed together for 40 years, 50 years, 60 years, in sickness and in health, through joys and sorrows.  It is the same kind of love of mothers, who we remember today, on Mother’s Day.  Mothers, even in the animal kingdom, will do everything and anything for the good of their children.  For to love is not just an emotion, but it is an act of the will, to will the good of another person.

Conclusion

May we love as Jesus loved us, loving even us who were his enemies, sinners, exiles, poor, useless, who were nothing!  And why do we love this way?  Because as John tells us: “God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him” (1 Jn 4:16).