Sometimes
the three readings at Mass work quite well together, sometimes not. Sometimes I can’t find a single common thread
among the three, and sometimes it’s quite obvious. Today is one of those times when it’s not so
obvious, to me at least.
Yet
upon closer review there is a word that appears in all three readings. Once in the first reading, four times in the
second reading. Once again in the
Gospel. Did you catch it?
New.
I,
John, saw a new heaven and a new earth.
I saw a new Jerusalem coming down out of heaven from God. I give you a new commandment. Behold I make all things new.
OK,
I cheated a little with the first reading – Paul and Barnabas proclaimed the
good news. But the whole reading
is about all the new churches throughout the region – just like the magnolias
blooming all around us, so too were these new Churches budding and buzzing with
the excitement of the good news of the salvation of Jesus Christ, proclaimed to
the gentiles by the Apostle Paul and his companions.
New. The Lord makes all things new. So the obvious question is – what exactly is
so new? And the answer is the same, no
matter whether it’s the new heaven and new earth, or the new Churches buzzing
with excitement, or the Lord’s new commandment – the answer is love.
A
new kind of love. A new definition of
love.
You
see, when the world hears the word “love,” it usually thinks of an intense
emotional feeling, one that brings satisfaction, pleasure or happiness to
oneself. It may be an outward-focused
feeling toward another, but at the end of the day it’s really kind of inwardly-focused,
about what I’m getting out of the love relationship, or from the object of my
love.
I “love”
ice cream because it tastes delicious. A
young couple might say they love each other because of how wonderful it feels
when they’re together.
Jesus
has a different meaning altogether. A
new meaning to His world, and still new to ours. This Gospel, you see, takes place after
supper on Holy Thursday, right in between His washing His disciples’ feet and
His heading out to the garden, to His inevitable arrest, passion, and death.
And
so it’s important to note that His commandment isn’t only to love. It’s to love one another as I love you, Jesus
says. It means as I have just loved you
by washing your feet. It means as I’m
about to love you – on the cross, in total self-giving.
This
is the meaning of the Greek word “agape” – used by St. John in this
passage. The highest form of love. The love of God. The love relationship of the Father and the
Son – a complete pouring out of self for the other. The love God has for you and for me. It’s the same word used by St. Paul in his
letters to the Colossians and Ephesians when he compares the love of a husband
and a wife to the love of Christ and His Church.
It’s
this self-less agape love that is what’s “new” proclaimed in all three of our
readings. A love that is
counter-cultural to the self-seeking feeling that this world thinks of when it
hears the word “love.” It’s what we
should think of whenever we look upon the ultimate symbol of love, the Holy
Cross.
But
truth be told, how many people these days look on the Cross of Christ and see a
symbol of love? We live in what some are
calling a “post-Christian” world. A
nation in which fully one quarter of the population claims no faith in
God. So much of our nation, and our
community, has no frame of reference to see agape love in the Cross of Christ.
No,
sisters and brothers, the only way they’re going to see Him, and learn of the
agape love He has for each of us, is by the love we have for each other, and
for them.
This
is the love a Christian husband and wife pledge to each other on their wedding
day. That they give themselves to the
other completely and selflessly, through thick and thin. It’s the love a priest devotes his life to –
a fully selfless love of God’s people, his flock. It’s the love each one of us signed up for on
the day of our baptism, when we were counted as His disciples, obedient to His
commandments.
We
are blessed to have the example of so many saints who, despite their
weaknesses, despite their sinfulness, chose to love selflessly as He
loved. Saint Frances Xavier Cabrini,
missionary to immigrants in the United States, or Saint Katherine Drexel, who
gave up her family fortune to devote her life to caring for native Americans in
the west and southwest. We all know of
our contemporary, Mother Teresa, who will be canonized a saint this summer.
But
don’t we all also have examples in flesh-and-blood people we know, who day in
and day out exhibit selfless, agape, Christlike love? The selflessness of my mom, and my wife, come
to mind as examples of selfless love.
Chris
and MaryBeth come to mind. They were a
regular, happily married, middle-age couple raising their two daughters. MaryBeth had been diagnosed with Multiple
Sclerosis fifteen or so years ago, but some powerful new medicines were keeping
her MS symptoms pretty much at bay and she was able to live a pretty normal
life.
That
is, until a couple years ago when the drug she was taking triggered a rare
viral brain infection that nearly took her life, and left her with multiple
disabilities. Well, not too long ago, my
wife and I were at a gathering and Chris and MaryBeth were there. And I have to tell you - the patience, and gentle
care, and obvious love that Chris has for his wife, helping her to stand up,
leading her around, taking her even to use the restroom – it was absolutely
beautiful – a striking example to me of agape, self-giving love.
I’m
sure when Chris vowed on their wedding day to love MaryBeth “for better or for
worse” I can’t imagine he had this kind of future life in mind, but he makes
the decision every day to be there for his wife, to love and care for
her. That was a clear picture to me of
loving as Jesus loved.
But
no matter our circumstances, we all called to love selflessly, as Jesus loved,
in the every day moments of our lives.
As St Therese of Lisieux taught, even if we don’t have the opportunity
to love greatly, as have canonized saints, as have our friends Chris and
MaryBeth, we do have the opportunity to do “little things with great love.”
Make
little decisions to love at every moment.
To say a kind word when we might have been silent. To stop ourselves from saying an unkind
word. To look for the little needs all
around us and to go out of our way to
help satisfy those needs.
Forgiven
here in the Sacrament of Penance, and fed here at His altar with His very Body
and Blood, you and I, brothers and sisters, are sanctified and strengthened and
called to go forth from here to show this world what is truly “new” and
different – to show the world what true
love is. To demonstrate by our very
lives that same self-giving love Jesus Christ shows, to show that same
self-giving love to each other.
They
will know we are His disciples, they will know we are Christians, only
by our love.
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