Gospel of 11 May 2020
Monday of the Fifth Week of Easter
John 14:21-26
The Advocate, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you everything
Jesus said to his disciples: ‘Anybody who receives my commandments and keeps them will be one who loves me; and anybody who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I shall love him and show myself to him.’
Judas – this was not Judas Iscariot – said to him, ‘Lord, what is all this about? Do you intend to show yourself to us and not to the world?’ Jesus replied: ‘If anyone loves me he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we shall come to him and make our home with him. Those who do not love me do not keep my words. And my word is not my own: it is the word of the one who sent me. I have said these things to you while still with you; but the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you everything and remind you of all I have said to you.’
Reflexion
It’s easy today to justify and believe someone when he tells you that Jesus came to teach us that love is at the heart of our Christian Faith, whereas the Law isn’t. Put it another way, Jesus broke the Law for love. The conclusion is that people who insist on following bible-based Church law are not very loving and in fact going against the spirit of what our Lord taught. On the other hand, if you are not bound by those rigid laws meant for narrow-minded people, you are actually being as loving as Jesus. Sounds right? Well, here’s news for you. Today’s passage shows us how terribly wrong these propositions are.
Our Lord tells us, ‘Anybody who receives my commandments and keeps them will be one who loves me.’ If that’s not enough, He adds, ‘If anyone loves me he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we shall come to him and make our home with him. Those who do not love me do not keep my words.’ Hold on a minute. Did Jesus just say that those who keep the Law actually do love Him whereas those who break His law, in all honesty, don’t?
Yes, that’s what our Lord said exactly. This is because love and obedience go together. The disciple’s personal love for the Lord should lead him to obey His commandments. Disobedience is not evidence of one’s superior love. On the contrary, disobedience is evidence of one’s lack of love for the Lord and proof that one only loves oneself more than anything else, including God. The root of disobedience is not love, it’s pride.
Love is tied to obedience because a discipleship’s relationship to Jesus mirrors Jesus’s own relationship with the Father. Just as the Son loves the Father and obeys His will, so too must the disciple love Jesus and obey His will, which is the same as the Father’s will. To claim otherwise would be a self-serving lie.
So, the next time you hear someone say that Jesus came to show us an example of being loving, believe him. But if he were to say that Jesus is the model of disobedience, the exemplary model of someone who breaks the law, call him out as a liar. We are not here to rewrite the gospel so that it can become more palatable to the masses. Our Lord said many things but that’s one thing He never said and will never say.
Our Lord is not a liar. He is not a propagandist, He does not have any political agenda to push. The only agenda He has is the salvation of souls, our souls. He is only concerned with the Truth and the Truth is that obedience, to the Father’s will and to His commandments, is the only sure path to salvation. The bottom line is this, if you profess to love the Lord, keep His commandments.