The Sixth Sunday of Easter
17th May 2009
9:00am & 11:45am
Preacher: The Revd Desmond
Cox
NO GREATER LOVE
The Gospel of today¡¦s Mass reminds us of the
commandment Christ left his disciples: ¡¥Love one another as I have loved
you.¡¦ It was God who first loved
us. As we call to mind God¡¦s love
for us in Christ, let us also call to mind that our response to that love is to
love one another.
The first Christian community had been
exclusively Jewish. Now comes a
turning point ¡V the reception of the first Gentiles. Cornelius was the first pagan to receive
the grace of baptism. The reading
from Acts tells of his baptism, and shows that God¡¦s salvation is offered to
all.
In the Gospel Jesus talks about the love that
binds him to the Father, and the love that should bind the disciples to him and
to one another. Jesus¡¦ love is
modelled on that of the Father. The
disciples should model themselves on the Son: as he has observed the Father¡¦s
commandments, so that they should observe his. Obedience arises out of love, and
obedience is love. Now he is going
to give them the supreme proof of his love ¡V giving his life for them. He has chosen them and sent them into
the world to bear fruit ¡V the fruit of love.
In the Second Reading John says that
Christians must love one another because love comes from God. Love is God¡¦s essence. God has shown his love for us by sending
his Son into the world so that we might have life through him. Loving is the only way we can really
know God and share in God¡¦s life.
Once there was a young man who was having
doubts about the existence of God.
So one day he paid a visit to a monk who had a reputation for
holiness. He asked the monk, ¡¥Do
you believe in God?¡¦
¡¥Yes, I do,¡¦ the monk answered.
¡¥On what evidence do you believe?¡¦ the young
man asked.
¡¥I believe in God because I know him,¡¦ came
the reply. ¡¥I experience the
presence of God within me every day.¡¦
¡¥But how is that possible?¡¦ the youth asked.
¡¥When we love, we experience God, and doubt
vanishes like early morning mist before the sun,¡¦ replied the monk.
The youth thought about this for a while, then
asked, ¡¥How can I achieve this kind of certainty?¡¦
¡¥By acts of love,¡¦ came the reply. ¡¥Try to love your neighbours; love them
actively and unceasingly. As you
learn to love them more and more, you will become more and more convinced of
the existence of God and the immortality of the soul. This has been tested. This is the true way.¡¦
The monk was only echoing the words of
Love is a precondition for a true understanding
of life and especially of God. As
Father Zosima says in Dostoevsky¡¦s The Brothers Karamazov: ¡¥You must love all
that God has created, both his entire world and each single tiny sandgrain of
it. If you love all things, you
will also attain the divine mystery that is in all things.¡¦ Van Gogh said something similar: ¡¥The
best way to know God is to love many things. Love a friend, a wife, something, and
you will be on the right way to knowing about God.¡¦
Love is the best teacher we have. But it does not come of its own
accord. It is dearly bought. It often demands many years of
persevering toil before a person can reach the point where he or she is able to
love.
There is a big gap between knowing God and
loving God. Not to love is not to
know God. But when we love, the gap
is closed. To love is to know
God. Where love is, God is; where
God is, love is. To know is not to prove,
or to explain.
Hate is a bad thing. It¡¦s bad to hate anything. It is a good thing to love something,
even a rosebush. ¡¥For myself I am
contented to be a small gardener who loves his plants¡¦ (Van Gogh).
Because we are made in God¡¦s image, each of us
has an innate capacity for love.
However, for this to happen the heart has to be right. If only the heart was right we could
give so much more. But, alas, the
heart is sometimes cold and unwelcoming, sometimes empty, and sometimes
broken. We shouldn¡¦t be surprised
at this. All it says is that we
have a heart of flesh, not one of stone.
But we have to heal the wounds of the heart in order to be able to
produce the fruits of love.
The image of God is at its best and brightest
in us when we love.