(Audio)
The word that Jesus came to give was not something trivial, not mere opinion, nor superfluous trivia. He made known that which mattered most to himself, everything he heard from his Father, "for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you" (see John 15:15). Yet in spite of this overwhelming sincerity not everyone would accept what Jesus taught.
Whoever does not love me does not keep my words;
If people would not love the one sent by the Father they would also not accept his words. It was part of a unified choice about the messenger and his message.
Whoever loves me will keep my word,
Those who did respond to Jesus with love would keep his words, even when those words were difficult or confusing. Their love for Jesus himself would motivate their response to his words. Out of love for Jesus they would choose to do that which they might otherwise avoid or ignore.
Those who love Jesus care about what matters most to him, and desire to do what pleases him. It is not the case that some people keep his word and thereby earn his love whereas others do not qualify for his love because of their failure to earn it. It is rather the case for everyone that everything begins with the love of the one who loved us first. It is our response to him that is the starting place that makes the rest possible and desirable to us. We can make a response of love to Jesus because he himself creates in us new and clean hearts. This new heart is more than an art project that he transforms from the outside. He himself comes to dwell in us, bringing with him the Father and the Holy Spirit, renewing our minds, and refining our hearts until they desire only that which is truly good. He brings us, if we let him, into the love of Father, Son, and Spirit. It is this love by which Jesus himself keeps the word of the Father that now makes it possible for us to keep the word of the Son.
The Advocate, the Holy Spirit,
whom the Father will send in my name,
will teach you everything
and remind you of all that I told you.
The Holy Spirit that Jesus sent to dwell in his followers empowered them to keep his words by reminding them of those words, leading them deeper and deeper into all truth. He did this at an individual level and by the guidance to the Church he demonstrated in our reading from Acts. He himself was the source of the fruits that were commanded by those words, chief among them, love, joy, and peace.
When we hear Jesus asking us to keep his word we should not moan because he is adding to our list of things we need to do. We should rather marvel at the reality into which we are being caught up. We are not simply receiving another list of rules. We are being invited to participate in the love of the Triune God, with all the blessing and assurance that entails, for keeping the word of Jesus means nothing less than this.
Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you.
Not as the world gives do I give it to you.
Do not let your hearts be troubled or afraid.
When we set our minds in agreement with Jesus, and resolve in our hearts to keep his words, knowing that our response is itself a gift that his own love has made possible, it is then that we experience the peace that Jesus himself. This peace rules in the heart of Jesus himself because of how he lives completely and without reservation as a response of love to his Father's love. He knows the Father's love for him so well that it shapes everything he says, does, and desires. When we know the love of Jesus like this there will no longer be anything that the world can do to steal his peace from us.
The reality of the Triune God coming to dwell in our hearts remains in invisible reality in this life. But it precisely this dwelling together with God that also characterizes the destiny of those who remain in him.
I saw no temple in the city
for its temple is the Lord God almighty and the Lamb.
The city had no need of sun or moon to shine on it,
for the glory of God gave it light,
and its lamp was the Lamb.
Even here below in this valley of tears we are privileged to have a foretaste of this reality, are already in some sense seated in heavenly places (see Ephesians 2:6) The glory of God already begins to give us light, and the word of the Lamb is already a lamp unto our feet.
And we have the prophetic word more fully confirmed, to which you will do well to pay attention as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts (see Second Peter 1:19).
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