Love and the Spirit--A Reflection on the 6th Sunday of Easter

Love. The word “love” occurs 9 times in today’s gospel and another 9 times in the epistle. Friend occurs 3 times in the gospel and joy twice. We expect God to love us. We don’t really believe it, but we expect it! After all, isn’t God supposed to love everyone?

One of the most astonishing statement’s in all of Scripture is found in today’s gospel reading. Jesus says “No one has greater love than this, than to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. You are my friends if you do what I command you.” Jesus says that we are his friends. This is the love of God we don’t expect; to be his friends. Not only that, but it is the kind of friendship that lays down its life for others.

But isn’t there a catch? Jesus' friendship seems conditional; if we do what he commands us he will be our friend. That sounds more like a servant or slave than a friend. No, we have it wrong. Christ says that he does no longer calls us slaves, because a slave does not know what his master is doing. Isn’t that amazing? We are not slaves but friends because Jesus has told us what he is doing. He tells us through the Scriptures, the Church and the Holy Spirit.

It was the Holy Spirit who led Peter to understand that even the Gentiles are loved by God, are God’s friends. Peter was shown by the Holy Spirit in a vision that God shows no partiality. He accepts anyone who fears him and acts uprightly. In today’s reading from the Acts of the Apostles, St. Luke tells us that as Peter was still speaking these things, the Holy Spirit fell upon all those who were listening. God gave the Gentiles the same gift of the Spirit that he gave to the Jewish believers. He gave them himself.

Love is so essential because, as John tells us in his epistle, God is love. If we want to be like God were must love as God loves. We must love without partiality. We must accept all those who God accepts and love all those God loves. And we must lay down our lives for them. This is no sentimental love, but the love of God. It is a love, as St. Paul says, that spared not God’s own Son but delivered him up for us all. A love that will freely give us all things.

When my friend Vincent Druding was ordained to the priesthood last week, one of the verses he used on his invitations and holy cards was from today’s gospel, “No one has greater love than this, than to lay down one’s life for one’s friends…It was not you who chose me, but I who chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit that will remain, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name he may give you. This I command you: love one another.”

Vince understood that laying down his life for God’s friends is at the heart of the priesthood. It is also what we are all called to as Christians. In imitation of Christ, we love as he loves. To do this, to have the strength to lay down our lives, we must receive from the Holy Spirit God’s grace, his very life. This life comes to us through the Sacraments, especially Confession and the Eucharist. In Confession, we lay aside every burden and sin that clings to us and holds us back from loving God and his friends. As we receive from this altar the sacred body and blood of God’s Son, Jesus Christ, we will be filled with every grace and blessing. We will receive the strength to love as God loves. As St. John says, “God sent his only Son into the world so that we might have life through him.”

Our Blessed Mother is sets an example for us. Having accepted the Father’s love by saying Yes to the angel Gabriel’s news that she was to be the Mother of the Son of God, she went to see her cousin Elizabeth. In that moment of joy and love and friendship, Mary brought Jesus to her.

Let us pray that the Holy Spirit will fall on us as he fell on the Church in Acts so that, filled with the Spirit, we will know the joy and the love and the friendship of Christ. Then let us bring that joy and the love and friendship of Christ to all of God’s friends.

The Good Shepherd--A Reflection on the 4th Sunday of Easter

If you've ever had a problem with an employee or a contractor, then you know what Jesus means when he talks about the difference between hireling and true shepherds--it's ownership. The hireling works for pay and has no concern for the sheep. To the true Shepard, the sheep are like family. He cares for them because they are his. He knows the and they know him; the sheep know the shepherd's voice and follow him. A good shepherd will lay down his life for a sheep to keep them from the wolf. Jesus says "I am the good shepherd." I suppose that makes us sheep!

Jesus says "There will be one flock, and one shepherd." As our shepherd, he is our unity. He will bring together all the sheep into one flock, even the ones "that do not belong to this fold." When the Church teaches that "outside the Church there is no salvation" she doesn't mean that you have to be Catholic to be saved; she means what Jesus meant. There is one flock and Jesus is bringing those who belong to another sheepfold to the one flock. The Church as the body of Christ carries on this mission: to bring all the sheep together to his one flock.

This is also what Peter is saying in the first reading from Acts that "There is no salvation through anyone else, nor is there any other name under heaven given to the human race by which we are to be saved." Salvation is through Jesus Christ. The Church is his body, but the Church is bigger than just the Catholic Church. It is wherever people are seeking Christ, even if they don't know it is Christ they are seeking! Saint Paul says that God wants all people to be saved.

How will Jesus bring all his sheep together? By laying down his life for them. The cross didn't happen to Jesus, he wasn't a victim. He willingly gave his life for us, his bedraggled, smelly, wandering sheep. He laid down his life in order to take it up again. The salvation he secures for us by laying down his life is described by Saint John. "See what love the Father has bestowed on us that we may be called the children of God. Yet so we are." Calling God our Father is not just a expression of faith. The Father loves us and gives his life to us through the Sacraments. He makes us his children in reality, not just figuratively.

And this salvation procured by Christ is not just for now. As we grow in grace, in the very life of God in us, Saint John tells us that "we shall be like him for we shall see him as he is." Trust the Jesus, the Good shepherd, to bring his sheep into one flock to present to the Father, who will give us his very life in grace through his Church.

Raising Lazarus--A Reflection for the 5th Sunday of Lent

Most, if not all, of us here have lost a loved one; someone we were close to. It may have been a friend, family member or even a pet. We have known sorrow and grief; the pain of loss.

In the gospel of St. John, chapter 11, the evangelist tells us how Jesus experiences to death of his friend, Lazarus. Lazarus and his sisters, Mary and Martha, were some of Jesus closest friend. St. John tells us that Jesus loved them.

When news reaches Jesus that Lazarus is sick, he waits two more days before he leaves to see his friend. In fact, he waits long enough for Lazarus to have died! Jesus tells his disciples that Lazarus’ death from this illness is not the end for Lazarus; that it is for the glory of God.

When Jesus and his disciples arrive at Bethany, where Lazarus, Mary and Martha live, Martha greets him. She says “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.” It sounds almost like an accusation! When Jesus tells her that her brother will rise, she gives the theologically correct answer, “I know he will rise, in the resurrection on the last day.” Isn’t this how we respond to grief? We look for the correct answer.

What Martha failed to understand is that the correct answer was standing right in front of her! Jesus, as he tells her, is “the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, even if he dies, will live and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die.” Martha had her theology right; Lazarus would rise in the resurrection on the last day. But theology, as important as it is, can only take us so far. Theology cannot raise the dead! To raise the dead, it takes the power of “the resurrection and the life”. Notice that Jesus is not only the resurrection, the power to bring the dead to life; he is “the life.” That is, Jesus is life itself. Once raised from the dead, we will live in and by Jesus.

After challenging Martha with to look beyond her theology to understand that he is what she is truly looking for, Jesus asks, “Do you believe this?” Do you believe that I can conquer death and give life? Beyond your good theology, do you trust in me?

Martha answers, “Yes, Lord. I believe that you are the Messiah, the Son of God, the one who is coming into the world.” She answers a best she can, she responds with more good theology. She lists three facts about Jesus. She doesn’t say that she believes Jesus is “the resurrection and the life.” In her grief, she doesn’t rise to Jesus challenge go beyond her theology to believe in him.

When Mary meets Jesus, she says the same thing her sister Martha did. “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.” This time St. John tells us that Jesus, seeing her weeping with grief, becomes “perturbed and deeply troubled.” This time, his response is deeply emotional. He becomes “perturbed and deeply troubled.” He even weeps.

He asks them to roll the stone away from the tomb. Lazarus has been dead four days now. According to the Jewish belief at the time, his soul would have definitely left his body. Decay had begun, hence “there will be a stench.” The stone is rolled away. After a brief prayer for the benefit of the mourners, Jesus cries out in a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out!” Does Jesus think a dead man can hear? When “the resurrection and life” call, they can! Lazarus shuffles to the door of the tomb, still wrapped in his burial bands. Having raised Lazarus form the dead, Jesus asks the others to untie Lazarus and let him go. When Jesus gives new life to our loved ones, we need to free them from their bondage to sin and let them go to him.

Jesus answered Mary and Martha’s prayer. He doesn’t tell Martha “Sorry, but you didn’t answer my question ‘Do you believe that I am the resurrection and the life?’ correctly, so I won’t raise your brother. No, he raises Lazarus. He doesn’t tell Mary that her weeping indicates lack of faith. No, he weeps with her, and then he raises Lazarus.

Lazarus has been raised from the dead. As a result many people will believe in Jesus. The chief priests will plan to kill Lazarus. Stories will be told that Lazarus lives another 30 years, goes to Cyprus and is made bishop of Kition by St. Paul. In any event, Lazarus will die again. But next time, at the resurrection of the last day, Jesus will raise his friend Lazarus and his sisters, Mary and Martha, and all those who believe to the fullness of eternal life, never to die again. We will live in Jesus, the resurrection and the life. Do you believe this? Then believe beyond just sound theology, (as important as that is) and believe in Jesus.