REMAIN IN MY LOVE

VI SUNDAY OF EASTER - John 15:9-17

The word love can be heard countless times every day. It sounds as if love is a daily experience of every human being. However, the word love may be loaded with a variety of different shades. The Greeks were well aware of that and used different words for different kinds of love. Love may refer simply to friendship (philia), or maybe it refers to family love (storge) or a passionate and sexual attraction (eros). And then, there is the word agápe, used in the New Testament for the love of God, a love that is unconditional, free and gracious, full of tenderness, compassion and mercy. Agápe is divine love, ”because God is love” (1 Jn 4:8) and the source of all true love, which implies total self-giving as if we turn ourselves out for the others. God has done that for us.

“God’s love for us was revealed

when God sent into the world his only Son

so that we could have life through him”.

By loving us first, God revealed his true love:

“…this is the love I mean:

not our love for God,

but God’s love for us when he sent his Son

to be the sacrifice that takes our sins away.” (1 Jn 4:9-10).

God’s love is the fountain of living water that makes our love possible. The Holy Trinity is this relationship of love between the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. Jesus, as the beloved Son, lived that love and he loved us with that same kind of love: he put himself at our service and offered his life in sacrifice for us.

In the gospel, Jesus tells us: “Remain in my love.” With him, we must experience God’s love as his greatest gift, the one which makes all the others possible. Feeling accepted and loved, we learn how to love, spending and consuming our life at the service of the loved ones. If we remain in Christ, we are going to learn with him the true love, the love which comes from God. This love is a gift of ourselves to the other and it implies a commitment and a decision to love. It is not simply a feeling or a passion, which may blind us for a while and then disappears. It has become so common nowadays that people speak of love when they feel happy and satisfied, but then turn their back and desert their loved ones when the road becomes rough and difficult. With Christ, we must learn how to love. True love is strengthened and guarded by rules: “If you keep my commandments you will remain in my love”. These rules are not oppressive; on the contrary, they show the way that leads to joy and happiness:

“I have told you this

so that my own joy may be in you

and your joy be complete.” (Jn 15:10-11).

And the commandment is very simple and straightforward: “What I command you is to love one another.” (Jn 15:17).