Sunday 19th
May 2019. Read Acts 14:21-27,
Psalm 145, Revelation 21:1-5 and John 13:31-34
_*“Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth… Behold, the dwelling of God is
with men. He will dwell with them… he will wipe away every tear from their
eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning nor crying
nor pain anymore.” (Revelation 21:1-4).*_
Dear friends in Christ, it is now five
weeks ago since we celebrated Easter. The question we must ask ourselves is: “What
difference has Easter made to my life?” In other words, as today’s opening
prayer puts it, “Am I bearing much fruits as I ought to?” On the second Sunday of
Easter, we reflected on the forgiveness and mercy displayed by Jesus. Am I more
forgiving of others now? The third Sunday of Easter, Jesus asked Peter if he
loved Him more than the huge catch of fish. Do I value Jesus more than the
things of this world now?
On the fourth Sunday of Easter, Jesus told
us that His sheep hear his voice, he knows them and they follow Him. Have I improved
in my personal reading of the Bible and practising it (following Jesus)? Today
being the fifth Sunday, our Gospel passage takes us back to that familiar Holy Thursday
night scene when Jesus was at table with His disciples having the Last Supper
meal. Judas had just gone out to sell Jesus and Jesus knew exactly what would
happen.
One would have expected Jesus to become
angry or try to stop Judas, instead, Jesus said: “I give you a new commandment:
love one another as I have loved you.” (John 13:34). The first question for us
today is: “Can I love others as purely and as sacrificially as Jesus loved us?”
and secondly, “If I knew someone was planning to do something bad and evil to me
would I act like Jesus?”
*Lesson One: What is “New” about this Command?*
In his homily for this Sunday titled “Love
Revolution” Fr. Gerald Musa noted that “Jesus is the greatest and most
influential revolutionary who changed world order without using guns and bombs…
He preached against the reciprocal law of love which says love those who love
you; do good to those who do good to you and lend your money to those who lend
you theirs. Jesus reversed this form of love by challenging his followers to be
different.”
What is new about this new command is
that it teaches us to love those who hate us, it teaches us to make sacrifices for
others even when they would never make a sacrifice for us in return, it teaches
us to love like Jesus who laid down his life for us our sake on the cross. What
makes this commandment new is not the fact that it changes the Ten Commandments
but rather, it summarizes them and brings all of them to fulfilment. While the Ten
Commandments tell us what NOT to do, (Thou shall not…, thou shall not…), this
new commandment tells us what we MUST do: to love one another as Jesus loved
us, to love our enemies, to love without expecting anything in return, to love
those we know would betray us and sell us like Judas Iscariot.
*Lesson Two: When we Love like Jesus, God
Himself dwells in our Midst.*
In today’s second reading, we hear John
speak of a new heaven and a new earth. The hallmark of this new heaven and new
earth is God dwelling in the midst of men. Then there shall be no more tears, no
more pain or sorrow, no more death or mourning. In his first letter, this same John
writes: “Beloved, let us love
one another; for love is of God… He who does not love does not know God; for God
is love…. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No
man has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us and his love is
perfected in us. (1 John 4:7-12)
You see, when
we juxtapose the revelation of John with what he says in his first letter, one
clear fact emerges: The new heaven and the new earth is what happens when we
love one another as Jesus himself loved us. God is love and wherever true love
exists, God is right there. Imagine a world where everyone is willing to sacrifice
for the good of the other; a world where there would be no gap between the rich
and the poor. Imagine a world free from kidnapping, armed banditry, greed,
selfishness and hatred. That world is the new heaven and the new earth. We can
make it happen if we love like Christ.
“Lesson Three: This Kind of Love is What
Makes us Jesus’ Disciples.”
In the last line of today’s Gospel
passage, Jesus said: “By this, all men will know that you are my disciples if
you have love for one another.” (John 13:34). This simply means without
sacrificial love for one another, we who claim to be Christians are nothing
short of a disgrace to Christ. We are negative advertisements of
the person we claim to be following. Even though we go to church, we are not
yet Christians.
The sad reality is that many of us are
still living in the old dispensation. We still believe and practice the old system
of “an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.” Easter has not made any impact
on us. We are still unable to forgive, we still value the things of this world
more than God, so we are ready to fight to the finish and hold lawsuits over
material things. Our love for one another is conditional; it is according to
that popular song, a “do-me-I-do-you” kind of love. We stop giving once we stop
getting.
Jesus noted: “If you love those who love you, what
credit is that to you? For even sinners love those who love them. And if you do
good to those who do good to you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners
do the same. And if you lend to those from whom you hope to receive, what
credit is that to you? Even sinners lend to sinners, to receive as much again. But
love your enemies, and do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return; and your
reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High; for he is kind to
the ungrateful and the selfish. Be merciful, even as your Father is merciful.”
(Luke 6:32-36)
From the above
statement of Jesus, we can see that at the heart of loving like Christ is forgiveness.
We can only say we have loved like Christ when we are able to pray like Christ
on the Cross: “Forgive them Father for they know not what they do.” (Luke
23:34). No matter what anyone has done to you, it can never be greater than the
power of love. A Christian who cannot forgive is not yet born again; he or she
has not encountered Christ.
*Lesson Four: To Love Like Christ, We
Must See Christ in Others.*
In today’s first reading, the mention is
made of several towns Paul and Barnabas visited strengthening the souls of the
disciples, exhorting them to continue in the faith and saying that through many
tribulations that we must enter the kingdom of God. One unique thing about
these towns mentioned in this passage is that they are not traditionally Jewish
towns.
In fact, our first reading today ends by
saying: “when they arrived, they gathered the Church together and declared all
that God had done with them and how he had opened a door of faith to the
Gentiles.” What was behind the drive of Paul and Barnabas? What propelled them
to visit these Gentile towns and speak with strangers? One simple answer is
Love; the love that does not discriminate; the love that is able to see Christ
in everyone regardless of tribe, colour or language.
In conclusion, any love that is trade by
barter, any love that only gives in expectation of getting back, any love that
does not have Christ as its centre and model is in every sense a fake love. Today,
Jesus gives us a new command, to love in imitation of the love He displayed by
dying on the cross for us. This is the kind of love that qualifies us as His
disciples and this love does not discriminate among persons.
Let us pray: Lord Jesus, teach me to love
like you and not like the world does. Amen
Happy Sunday. Be Happy. Live
Positive. Have Faith. It is well with you. God bless you. (Fifth Sunday of
Easter, Year C. Bible Study: Acts 14:21-27, Psalm 145, Revelation 21:1-5 and John
13:31-34).
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