Breaking Open the Word

By James Cavanagh

May 17: Sixth Sunday of Easter

Scripture readings:
• Acts 10:25-48
• Psalm 98:1-4
• 1 John 4:7-10
• John 15:9-17

Overview: Most of us know the first commandment: “You shall have no other gods but me.” And you probably know the “great commandment”: “Love God and love your neighbor.” But do you know what the “new commandment” is? (John 13:34: “Love one another; as I have loved you, so you also should love one another”).  This week’s readings emphasize the centrality of God’s love, which is the heart of the Gospel. Such love is vividly revealed in the death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. The most important effect of the Resurrection is the gift of the Holy Spirit, demonstrated in the first reading as Cornelius and his entire household receives the Holy Spirit. This event occurs at the end of Peter’s discourse after he proclaims the universality of God’s love: “Truly, I see that God shows no partiality.”  In the second reading, John makes a simple but revolutionary statement: “God is love”—a message that “turned the whole world upside down” (Acts 17:6). In this week’s Gospel Jesus explains what God’s love looks like when he says, “Greater love has no man than this: that he lay down his life for his friends.”  In the previous chapter, Jesus tells his disciples that if they love him and keep his commandments he will send them the Spirit of Truth (Jn 14:15). All three readings add up to one vitally important point: love is not merely a nice idea or a general statement about God; it is an event that changes lives.

Key verse: “In this is love: not that we have loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as expiation for our sins” (1 Jn 4:10).

“Catechism of the Catholic Church”: “By giving up his own Son for our sins, God manifests that his plan for us is one of benevolent love, prior to any merit on our part: ‘In this is love, not that we loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the expiation for our sins.’ God ‘shows his love for us in that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us’” (No. 604).

Pope Benedict XVI: “Being Christian is not the result of an ethical choice or a lofty idea, but the encounter with an event, a person, which gives life a new horizon and a decisive direction. In acknowledging the centrality of love, Christian faith has retained the core of Israel’s faith, while at the same time giving it new depth and breadth. In a world where the name of God is sometimes associated with vengeance or even a duty of hatred and violence, this message is both timely and significant” (“Deus Caritas Est,” 1).

Application: The proposition “God is love” who “shows no partiality” is a message that desperately needs to be heard today.  Springtime brings a profusion of sunlight and yet countless people languish in the darkness of despair because they do not know the love of God. “You are the light of the world,” Jesus said. The light of truth, which Christ has entrusted to his Church, dispels the darkness of doubt and replaces it with hope and joy.