Sixth Sunday of Easter-B
In the first line of the Gospel from John this Sunday, Jesus said to his disciples, “As the Father loves me, so I also love you. Remain in my love.” In his Epistle and the Gospel for this Sunday, John uses the word “love” eighteen times. The two readings are dripping with the word love. Christians are familiar with the term because it is central to its message. We remember being taught that “God is love itself,” “Love your neighbor as yourself,” and even we are called to do the unthinkable, “Love your enemies, and pray for those who persecute you.”
Love is not just a characteristic of God; it is the very essence of his being. God created the world out of love, Christ redeemed humanity through love, and the Holy Spirit continues to fill his people with the same love. As beings created in the image of God, we are designed to share in the love of the Trinity. Jesus provides a clear roadmap for us to experience this divine 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.” This is not a mere suggestion but a promise from the Son of God himself. This promise holds the transformative power to turn our lives into a reflection of divine love.
Jesus’ mandate is straightforward; by following his commandments, we can be sure we live in his love. However, the implications of this teaching are profound. Jesus assures us that by keeping his commandments, we are not just recipients of his love, but we share in the same love he has with the Father. This is a staggering statement. It means that even as sinful humans, we can partake in God’s divine love by keeping the Ten Commandments! This is not just an invitation to the inner life of the Trinity but a sharing in his eternal life.
In the fourth century, St. Athanasius famously summarized this theme in a memorable sentence: “He [Christ] became man so that we might become God.” He is not claiming that we become and change from being humans into little gods, but that through the grace of Christ, we are conformed to His image. St. Peter first wrote about this truth. “He has bestowed on us the precious and very great promises, so that through them you may come to share in the divine nature, after escaping from the corruption that is in the world because of evil desire.” This promise of sharing in divine nature is a beacon of hope, assuring us of our ultimate destiny in God’s love.
By keeping God’s commandments and living in his grace, we are assured that we love God and our neighbor. Jesus then tells his disciples what the result of our loving will be. He says, “I have told you this that my joy may be in you, and your joy might be complete.” The joy Jesus refers to is not the fleeting happiness we might experience, changing from one day to another, but having a more profound meaning.
From a spiritual perspective, joy is a state in which pleasure, satisfaction, contentment, rest, and happiness are experienced. Joy for the Christian is the result of charitable actions, forgiveness of sin, and life under the promise of redemption and salvation. Essentially, Christian joy is a sharing of the joy of Christ at the accomplishment of the works of divine salvation. Joy is the completion of happiness, the aim of human action and existence.
Only God could provide the fullness of joy as only He could meet all our human needs and fulfill all our human longings. Christian joy differs from what is promoted in a humanistic and secular world by rejecting the premise that joy can be achieved through materialism. St. Thomas Aquinas was aware of this error and taught that joy is the result of love alone and not by some temporal pleasure. He contends, “ No man can live without joy. That is why one deprived of spiritual joy goes over to carnal pleasures.”
Love, then, consists of obeying God’s commandments and living in the joy of our participation in God’s life. Only then will we be satisfied.