Sixth Sunday of Easter
How
fitting it is that, on Mother’s Day, love is one of the themes of the readings,
especially of the second reading and the Gospel. For many people, if asked to draw a personal representation
of love, that representation of love would be a mother. Mothers, out of love for their unborn
children, bear the loving responsibility of protecting the child in the
womb. Mothers are often the ones
to express love when a child is injured.
Mothers just seem to exude love.
And
so today, we hear the command of Jesus, repeated by St. John in his first
epistle, to love. In the Gospel,
Jesus tells us: “‘This I command you: love one another.’” And St. John repeats it in the second
reading: “Beloved, let us love one another, because love is of God.” Love is who God is, and love is made
incarnate in Jesus, a love which mothers do their best to share with their
children.
St.
Augustine is also quoted when it comes to love. In Homily 7 on the
First Epistle of John, St. Augustine writes, “Once for all, then, a short
precept is given you: Love, and do what you will.” In my life, I have heard many people use the phrase: Love,
and do what you will. Sometimes
it’s used in a positive way.
Sometimes it’s used to defend any type of action.
What
does it mean to love? If one of
the most basic commandments of Jesus is to love one another, then to fulfill it
we have to know what love means.
If we start with today’s Gospel, we see that Jesus explains one of the
implications of love. Jesus says,
“‘Remain in my love. If you keep
my commandments, you will remain in my love.’” Love is rooted in obedience to Jesus and his
commandments. Love is marked by
obedience to the One who is Truth.
Truth
is important with love. Pope
Benedict XVI entitled one of his Encyclicals with those two words of truth and
love: Caritas in Veritate; Love in
Truth. The Holy Father points out
that,
Without truth,
charity [love] denigrates into sentimentality. Love becomes an empty shell, to be filled in an arbitrary
way. In a culture without truth,
this is the fatal risk facing love.
It falls prey to contingent subjective emotions and opinions, the word
“love” is abused and distorted, to the point where it comes to mean the
opposite. Truth frees charity from
the constraints of an emotionalism that deprives it of relational and social
content…
So what does this mean
practically? It sounds nice in a
theology paper, but what does it mean for the average person? Well, Pope Benedict is talking
precisely about the abuse of the word love, especially with St. Augustine’s
quote, “Love, and do what you will.”
If we do not relate love to the truth that God reveals by reason and by
revelation, then it stops being love.
We
see how love is connected to truth in the response of our mothers, and other
family members. Some would say
that love means giving every person what they want; that’s the most loving
thing. But the truth is that not
everything we want is good for us.
How many times have children asked their mothers in the check-out line
for a piece of candy, and a mother has refused because she knows the child does
not need it? The child may even
throw a temper-tantrum to try to get its own way. But the mother who loves her child knows that she cannot give
the child everything it wants, because it will be bad for the child, not only
in the present moment, but even in the long run. Or the mother who grounds her child because he or she stayed
out past curfew: is that any less loving?
Of course not! It helps a
child to learn that actions have consequences, and the consequences of
disobedience are not fun. That is
certainly a loving act to help the child to grow and mature into the young man
or woman that God has called that child to be.
Most
parents recognize how love works in principle. They understand that what is truly loving is not always what
makes their child feel good. And
yet, more and more, parents act like the principle does not apply to their
child. Their child is the
exception to the rule. Of course,
eventually everyone’s child is the exception to the rule, so there becomes no
rule at all. Now, I’m not saying
that you always have to let the hammer fall. Often times mothers are great at knowing when a punishment
is most loving, and when a child has already gotten the message and needs some
leniency. But more and more our
society wants to separate love from truth so that you never have to tell a
person “no,” or “you can’t,” or “you shouldn’t.”
Jesus
shows us what love truly is: love is sacrifice for the other. Love means laying down your own life so
that the other can live and thrive.
Jesus laid down his own life to give His people life, even though most
of the people, including his disciples, abandoned Him. He didn’t give them the Messiah they
wanted, He gave them the Messiah they needed. It’s not easy to live that love in the world. When I walk the halls and I have to
correct a child’s behavior, it’s tough to tell them that they might have to
come in to school on Saturday because they crossed the line repeatedly or in a
major way. I’d rather not have to
correct a child’s behavior. I’d
rather have the kids like me. But
if I truly love them, then I have to help them to know that a person cannot
always give in to their desires, that being a man or woman means having
self-control, that there are consequences to actions that people have to face,
no matter how well intentioned they were.
Thank you, mothers, for your love.
Thank you for your sacrificial love which carried us for 9 months in the
womb and continued afterwards.
Thank you for your love in truth.