![\"Icon](\"http:\/\/nicksenger.com\/onecatholiclife\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/council_of_jerusalem.jpg\")
<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
It’s nearly June,
\nwhich means the wedding season is almost upon us
\nand couples everywhere are preparing for their special day.
\nThere are lots of things to get ready:
\ninvitations, fittings for dresses and suits,
\nlodging for guests, planning the ceremony itself,
\ngetting decorations for the reception, flowers,
\nchecking off all the final details.<\/p>\n
But as crazy and chaotic as it can be,
\nall that preparation is done out of love.<\/p>\n
And once again we find love at the heart of today\u2019s gospel.<\/p>\n
Jesus is preparing for something, too, but not a wedding.
\nHe is preparing to leave his disciples.
\nThis isn\u2019t just the season for weddings.
\nIn the church it\u2019s the season of the Ascension and Pentecost.
\nNext week we will commemorate Jesus\u2019 Ascension into heaven,
\nso the readings chosen for this week are meant to prepare us for that.<\/p>\n
The conversation in today\u2019s gospel takes place at the last supper,
\nand Jesus is trying to prepare his disciples
\nfor the fact that he will be leaving.<\/p>\n
And has he prepares them,
\nhis first words today are about love:
\n\u201cWhoever loves me will keep my word.\u201d<\/p>\n
We have to be very careful about how we read this,
\nbecause it can be taken one of two ways.
\nOne way leads to fear, the other way leads to life and love.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhoever loves me will keep my word.\u201d
\nThis is similar to something Jesus says a few verses earlier
\nin John\u2019s gospel:
\n\u201cIf you love me you will keep my commandments.\u201d<\/p>\n
The first way to take this
\nis to make the second part of the statement
\na proof of the first part,
\nalmost a threat.
\nIs Jesus raising a threatening finger and saying,
\n\u201cWhoever loves me will keep my word\u201d?
\n\u201cIf you love me then prove it by keeping my commandments.\u201d<\/p>\n
This is the same kind of thing
\nwe might see young newlyweds say to each other in an argument:
\n\u201cIf you love me, then you will let me watch football this weekend.\u201d
\n\u201cIf you love me, then you will let me buy this expensive whatever-it-is.\u201d
\n\u201cIf you love me, then you will prove it in this way.\u201d<\/p>\n
Is this what Jesus means?
\n\u201cWhoever loves me will prove it by keeping my word?\u201d<\/p>\n
This is a trap we can easily fall into,
\nand it causes us to live in anxiety about our relationship with Jesus.
\nTaken this way, Jesus\u2019s words to his disciples become a threat,
\na statement to inspire fear.
\nBut there is a second way of taking it,
\na way that leads to peace,
\nthe peace that Jesus also talks about in today\u2019s gospel.<\/p>\n
The other way of taking it
\nis by understanding that the first part of the statement
\nmakes the second part possible.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhoever loves me will [be able to] keep my word.\u201d
\n\u201cIf you love me then [you will be able to] keep my commandments.\u201d
\nIt\u2019s a statement of truth, it expresses the natural result of what happens
\nfor those who love the Lord.
\n\u201cWhen you love me this happens.\u201d
\nInstead of a proof or a threat it becomes a support,
\na source of strength, a comfort.<\/p>\n
It also changes our focus.<\/p>\n
This is similar to spouses who say,
\n\u201cIf you love me, then we can withstand any difficulty or challenge.\u201d
\n\u201cIf you love me, then nothing can keep us apart.\u201d<\/p>\n
When we take Jesus\u2019 statement this way,
\nit reorients us,
\nit puts our focus on the positive action
\nof loving Jesus,
\nrather than on fear,
\nthe fear of worrying about whether we are keeping his word.<\/p>\n
What Jesus is saying is that
\nloving the beloved enables us to keep his commandments.
\nInstead of a threat it becomes a promise.
\n\u201cWhoever loves me will keep my word.\u201d<\/p>\n
And what is that word that we will be able to keep by loving Jesus?
\nIt\u2019s the one single command that Jesus gave his disciples:
\n\u201cLove one another as I have loved you.\u201d<\/p>\n
Whoever loves Jesus will be able to love others.
\nThat is a fact.
\nThat is the deep truth.
\nOur love for Jesus enables us to love everyone.<\/p>\n
Jesus is not about fear.
\nHe is about love.
\nWe see this clearly,
\nin today\u2019s reading from Acts
\nwhere we see the two different approaches to keeping Jesus\u2019 word.<\/p>\n
First, we first have a group of Christians who are speaking in threats.
\n\u201cUnless you are circumcised you cannot be saved.\u201d
\nThey read Jesus\u2019 words with a pointing finger:
\n\u201cWhoever loves me will keep my word.\u201d
\n\u201cTo be saved you must be circumcised.\u201d
\nIt\u2019s the same frame of mind.
\nAnd what does this do to the community?
\nIt upsets them and disturbs their peace of mind.<\/p>\n
In the gospel we have Jesus promising peace,
\nand here in Acts we have people without any mandate from the church
\nwho are disrupting that peace.<\/p>\n
The apostles and elders, on the other hand,
\nunderstand what Jesus was saying.
\nTheir relationship with Jesus,
\ntheir love for Jesus enables them to keep his word
\nand welcome the Gentiles
\nin a way that does not place burdens on them,
\nin a way that gives them peace.<\/p>\n
This was a major moment in the early church,
\nand under the guidance of the Holy Spirit,
\nlove prevailed over fear.<\/p>\n
We see this over and over in the first centuries of the church.
\nDuring the persecutions
\nthere were Christians who did not have the courage or strength
\nto face martyrdom
\nand who gave in to the Romans and betrayed the faith.
\nWhat would we have done in their place?
\nI\u2019m not sure.
\nAfter the persecutions ended
\nthe question came up
\nof whether they should be allowed back into the faith community.
\nThere was a group who said, \u201cNo, they betrayed the faith.\u201d
\nIt must have been very hard for the church to wrestle with that.
\nBut ultimately, under the guidance of the Holy Spirit,
\nthe love and mercy of Jesus prevailed,
\nand they were eventually allowed to rejoin the community.<\/p>\n
Today\u2019s scripture readings remind us
\nthat everything begins with love for Jesus.
\nJesus loves us first, and he invites us into relationship with him.
\nThat relationship is so important,
\nthat he leaves us with the Holy Spirit
\nto be our companion and guide.<\/p>\n
The better we get to know Jesus,
\nthe more time we spend with Jesus,
\nthe stronger our love for him will grow,
\nand whoever loves him will keep his word,
\nwill draw strength from that love
\nin order to love others.<\/p>\n
The key to newlyweds loving each other,
\nthe key to loving our spouses,
\nour children,
\nour neighbors,
\nour world,
\nis to first focus on loving Jesus.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
It’s nearly June, which means the wedding season is almost upon us and couples everywhere are preparing for their special day. There are lots of things to get ready: invitations, fittings for dresses and suits, lodging for guests, planning the ceremony itself, getting decorations for the reception, flowers, checking off all the final details. But as crazy and chaotic as it can be, all that preparation is done out of love. And once again we find love at the heart of today\u2019s gospel. Jesus is preparing for something,...<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7286,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"Love over Fear: #Homily for the Sixth Sunday of Easter Year C","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[349],"tags":[1118,1119,354],"class_list":["post-7283","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-homily","tag-acts-of-the-apostles","tag-council-of-jerusalem","tag-gospel-of-john"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"http:\/\/nicksenger.com\/onecatholiclife\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/council_of_jerusalem.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pOucj-1Tt","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/nicksenger.com\/onecatholiclife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7283","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/nicksenger.com\/onecatholiclife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/nicksenger.com\/onecatholiclife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nicksenger.com\/onecatholiclife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nicksenger.com\/onecatholiclife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7283"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/nicksenger.com\/onecatholiclife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7283\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7288,"href":"http:\/\/nicksenger.com\/onecatholiclife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7283\/revisions\/7288"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nicksenger.com\/onecatholiclife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7286"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/nicksenger.com\/onecatholiclife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7283"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nicksenger.com\/onecatholiclife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7283"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nicksenger.com\/onecatholiclife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7283"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}