GOD SHOWS NO PARTIALITY

VI EASTER SUNDAY - Acts 10:25-26,34-35,44-48

Reading the Acts of the Apostles, we get surprised and remain puzzled discovering that the first Christian community under the leadership of the Apostles had to be pushed into openness. In the beginning, they remained in Jerusalem, unconcerned with anything else, as if they had forgotten Jesus’ command to go and proclaim everywhere the Good News. Being forced out of Jerusalem by the persecution that followed Stephen’s killing, they went to Samaria and preached the Gospel there. Meanwhile, Saul has his experience of the risen Christ, converts and starts preaching the Gospel. God is preparing the way for the evangelisation of the Gentiles. However, they would not venture into gentile territory and God had to force their hand, leading Peter to the house of Cornelius and granting him and his family the gift of the Holy Spirit. Peter understood that God does not discriminate; in fact, he rejects any tribalist and chauvinist mentality, because for him “anybody of any nationality who fears God and does what is right is acceptable to him” (Act 10:35). Later on, Peter had to justify himself before the community in Jerusalem. After that, some Christians of Antioch became bold enough to speak to the Hellenists about Jesus Christ. It was in Antioch that the Church opened her doors to welcome non-Jews. A big conflict would ensue from this openness, dividing the Church between the Christian Jews strictly faithful to the Law of Moses and the open-minded Christian Jews (like Paul) who mingled with the Gentiles accepting their culture and customs, moulded by the faith in Jesus Christ. In an attempt to heal that division and solve that crisis, the Apostles together with the Elders held a council in Jerusalem. God had taught them a lesson and forced them to realise that “God shows no partiality”. God accepts people from all nations and all cultures, once they open their hearts to Jesus Christ and accept to walk with him towards their Father’s home.

Remain in my love

It is good to read this Sunday's gospel closely - John 15: 9-17 - and find out what Jesus teaches about love. As we read through, we may discover these main points:

1. God’s love - the love he has for his Son, Jesus, who is called the beloved - is the role model for all love. All love springs from him, the fount of love, because He is love.
2. Jesus invites us to remain in love, his love. Jesus’ love is true love, in total self-giving, without any shade of selfishness. That’s why we should remain in his love, so that we may experience love and live according to the choices of love. Indeed, in order to remain in love, one must make a choice, since love implies a commitment and a daily effort so that love may grow.
3. According to Jesus, in order to remain in love, one must keep the commandments. The traditional society knew well that there is no love without rules. There are limits that must set and that should not be overrun. Love implies a relationship and, if in that relationship, my whims become the rules of life, the relationship will be broken, making it impossible to remain in love.
4. The rules of love do not oppress, but they protect and enhance love and life. Jesus has not come to press us. In fact, he came so that his joy may be in us and that our joy may be complete and perfect. Jesus came to show us the path that leads to perfect joy, or to happiness. Often we doubt and think that he deceives us and leads us along paths that stop us from being happy, and so we prefer to choose our own ways, which ultimately lead us to anguish and despair.
5. Love implies a relationship of friendship. Love thrives in freedom. Jesus gives the relationship with his disciples as an example: you are not servants but friends; and between friends, there are no secrets. Everything is shared together. The measure of true love is to be able to work and to suffer to the point of giving one's life for the one we love. That's what Jesus did.
6. Love is fruitful, for it bears fruit and that fruit remains. Love is never sterile because it always leads us to give our best. "Love one another” - is the only commandment given by Jesus.