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Homily for the sixth Easter
Sunday - Year C - Jn. 14:23-29
by
Father Daniel Meynen
"Jesus said, «If a
man loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we
will come to him and make our home with him. He who does not love me
does not keep my words; and the word which you hear is not mine but the
Father's who sent me.
"«These things I have
spoken to you, while I am still with you. But the Counselor, the Holy
Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all
things, and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you.
"«Peace I leave with
you; my peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you.
Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid. You heard
me say to you, «I go away, and I will come to you.» If you
loved me, you would have rejoiced, because I go to the Father; for the
Father is greater than I. And now I have told you before it takes
place, so that when it does take place, you may believe.»"
Homily:
"Jesus said, «If a
man loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we
will come to him and make our home with him. He who does not love me
does not keep my words.»"
Our whole life, our whole
Christian life consists in loving God with all our heart, with all our
soul, with all our strength. We have no other goal to attain: if we
fail to achieve this goal, our whole life is in vain, our entire life
is lost. "He who does not love me does not keep my words." This means
that someone who does not love God does not have the words of eternal
life in him (cf. Jn. 6:68). Now, someone who does not love God must
necessarily love something other than God, because man is made in order
to love: love is in the depths of every human being to motivate him to
act. Thus, if man does not love God, he loves something else, something
other than God. This something else is what Saint John calls "the
world": "If any one loves the world, love for the Father is not in
him." (1 Jn. 2:15)
Our entire life consists in
loving God and in loving him only! If we do so, God will enter into us
to make his home there. This is accomplished in one who receives
communion, eating the Body and the Blood of Christ worthily: "He who
eats my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and I in him." (Jn.
6:56) The Eucharist is the sacrament of the absolute, the sacrament
that asks that we love God alone, above everything else. One who loves
the world cannot receive the Eucharist and benefit from it. But one who
loves only Jesus, and loves him for the sake of Jesus alone, receives
eternal life and escapes judgment because all of his soul and all of
his body is pure in the eyes of God: "He who hears my word and believes
him who sent me, has eternal life; he does not come into judgment, but
has passed from death to life." (Jn. 5:24)
"«The Counselor, the
Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you
all things, and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to
you.»"
In order to help us
preserve our love of God, and in order to encourage us to constantly
grow in this love, the Father, together with the Son, sends us his
Spirit. The first time he did this was on the day of Pentecost. He
continues to do so throughout the Church's life, notably in the course
of every eucharistic celebration. For the Eucharist, inasmuch as a
memorial of the Lord, allows us, by means of the power of this
sacrament, to remember Christ in person, that is to say to remember the
Word of God, which Christ is in essence. It is in the celebration of
the Eucharist that the Spirit of the Lord brings to our remembrance the Word that is Christ.
"You heard me say to you,
«I go away, and I will come to you.» If you loved me, you
would have rejoiced, because I go to the Father; for the Father is
greater than I."
Paradox of paradoxes! Jesus
had just said: "If a man loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father
will love him, and we will come to him," but now, if we love him, we
must rejoice and be comforted in his departure and absence! A paradox,
perhaps... But not completely. For there is a very narrow link between
the departure of Christ and his return: "I go away, and I will come to
you," Jesus said. There is a link between the departure of Christ and
his return, because the departure of Jesus on the day of his Ascension
into Heaven is only the sign of his Return at the end of time: "This
Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way
as you saw him go into heaven." (Ac. 1:11) But most important for us,
we who are alive at the present time, is that, in every Eucharist,
Christ already comes back; he anticipates, in a way, his second coming.
Let us therefore prepare
our heart to receive Jesus within us. Let us receive him with a great
love. Let us ask the Holy Spirit to help us with his power: may Mary,
his mystical Spouse, intercede on our behalf to obtain this for us!
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