Homily For Sixth Sunday of Eastertide Year B, 5th May 2024

 
Readings: Acts.10:25-26.34-35.44-48; Ps.98; 1 John 4:7-10;  John 15:9-17

Fr. Emmanuel Emenike  Onyia.

 

LOVING ONE ANOTHER IS WHAT GOD COMMANDS US TO DO

 

As we celebrate the sixth Sunday of the holy season of Eastertide, our attention is being drawn more to the departure of Jesus who has been with his disciples. With the Solemnity of the Ascension coming up on Thursday within the week, in anticipation of the Solemnity of the Pentecost coming very soon, the readings of today draw our attention to the last and very important words of Jesus to his disciples before his departure. These departing words are summarized in one word which is Love.

 

Thus, our readings today have love as its central theme. In our Gospel passage, Jesus said to his disciples: “As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you. Remain in my love. If you keep my commandments you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and remain in his love. I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and your joy be complete. This is my commandment: love one another, as I have loved you. A man can have no greater love than to lay down his life for his friends. You are my friends, if you do what I command you.”

 

Similarly, we heard St. John in our second reading saying: my dear people, let us love one another since love comes from God and everyone who loves is begotten by God and knows God. But anyone who fails to love can never have known God, because God is love.

 

Here, our attention is focused on love.  But what kind of love are they talking about? Is it the type of love we have in our world today, the love that is based on feelings for selfish gain and lustful desires? I don’t think so, for Jesus didn’t say, I love you as a mother loves her baby or I love you the way a husband loves his wife or wife to her husband, or I love you the way the children love their parents or even I love you the way a girlfriend loves her boyfriend, nor the way people love their worldly possessions.

 

No, the love Jesus is talking about is the sacrificial love that comes from the heart and soul of one who is rooted in the life of the Trinity, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. This is why Jesus is talking about the love of the Father towards the Son, and of the Son towards his disciples, and his disciples toward God and our neighbour. This love is joined together with an inseparable seal of the heavenly joy. That is why Jesus said: my joy may be in you and your joy be complete

 

Thus, Jesus is speaking of the power of love, that life-giving passion that transforms and unites the disciples with the master in a relationship that portrays their new status. For they are no longer to be seen as “servants” but as “friends.” It was by the effects of the cross and resurrection of Jesus that they have come to know what this sacrificial love has accomplished in them through their unity and abiding relationship with Jesus in God the Father.

 

Hence, this action now makes it further clear that the power to respond to his command to love one another comes from his choice for them when he said: “You did not choose me, I chose you, I have called you; I have chosen you; I have commissioned you to go and bear fruit, fruit that will last. Little wonder we heard St. Peter saying in our first reading: ‘The truth I have now come to realize is that God does not have favourites, but that anybody of any nationality who fears God and does what is right is acceptable to him.’

 

Dear friends, what is God demanding from us?  What does he expect from us as his disciples? The answer is love, sacrificial love, for love is what he requires from us. Love is all he has offered us, love is all he is demanding from us. He is not asking us to offer what he has not given us. He is rather asking us to offer that which he has offered us in abundance. I know that it is not easy to bear the sacrificial nature of love in our world today, but that is what the world needs now. Loving one another requires sacrifice, sacrifice of our comfort, resources, talent, gifts and pride. Loving one another requires forgiveness, mercy, care and humility and not the life of I, I, I, Me, Me, Me that we practice these days.

 

So. Let us not just think about ourselves and our selfish desires, but consider the needs of others and bear that sacrificial aspect of love. How I wish that humanity can embrace this command of our Lord Jesus, by investing more in the things that ensure love and unity in our societies rather than spending our energy, time and resources in producing heavy ammunitions of war that breed more hatred and division in our world.

 

LET US PRAY: Heavenly Father, love is what you have offered us, love is all you demand from us. As we listened to your words today, may we embrace your love in our hearts and share it with one another even in the midst of persecution and hatred in our world. Let your love reign supreme in our lives, our families, societies, countries and the world at large. This we ask through Christ our Lord. Amen. Do have a spirit-filled Sunday.