(Audio)
This is my commandment: love one another as I love you.
No one has greater love than this,
to lay down one's life for one's friends.
Love is always a laying down of one's life in ways that may be large or small. True love is not simply affection. A feeling may be part of love but it is more than a feeling. It can even endure when feelings are absent. Husbands and wives make sacrifices for the sake of their partners. They continue to act loving even when they didn't get enough sleep or have a headache or had a bad day. Parents make sacrifices to love their children, even when those children act in ways that are less than deserving, less than endearing. Priests sacrifice in order to provide service to their congregation.
You are my friends if you do what I command you.
I no longer call you slaves,
because a slave does not know what his master is doing.
I have called you friends,
because I have told you everything I have heard from my Father.
What sustains love when feelings are absent? It can be difficult if feelings were part of an initial motivation to keep going without them. But there's something we know, revealed by Jesus from the Father, that helps us to believe in love even when we don't feel it. It is the same as believing in the resurrection when all around us we only see Good Friday.
We know that our self-surrender is not for nothing. It is received. We know that the love we show has meaning and impact. Just as Jesus knows that his love matters because it will give new life to his bride so too do we come to learn and believe in the victory of love. Even though we might not feel the emotion of love we are almost able to reach directly through to the results of our love in the beloved and experience that joy as our own. This is the mystery of love. It is a glimmer and a glimpse of the Trinitarian life in which we are, somehow, called to share.
Be exalted above the heavens, O God;
above all the earth be your glory!
We need to be grounded in the truth of Jesus in order to love like he loves. This is why the danger of those upsetting us with their teachings and disturbing our peace of mind is a concern. Bad teaching can make us uncertain about whether we should really love like Jesus loves. This is why good teaching is as simple as it can be but not simpler:
'It is the decision of the Holy Spirit and of us
not to place on you any burden beyond these necessities,
When we hear what Jesus tells us from the Father we become able to live as his friends, loving as he loves. This is the necessity. This is the simple truth. We are to love. For if we love we are victorious.
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