Acts 14:21-27; Ps. 145:8-13; Rev. 21:1-5a; Jn. 13:33a, 34-35
Love one another! How? “Love one another, as I have loved you”. The love of Jesus is sacrificial. In sacrifice God is glorified in Jesus and in sacrifice Jesus is glorified by his apostles and by us. What sacrifice do we offer up to the Lord because the opportunity for sacrifice is always an option to our daily life. The virtues of love include among others patience, perseverance, kindness, humility, generosity and all can be done offered as a sacrifice that is in imitation of Christ himself. It is putting the other before us as Christ puts our salvation before himself.
Love one another requires that the “door of faith be open” to receive God and his love. This “door” is made visible through the word made flesh. Jesus is the word made flesh who also reveals to us the word in his person, his action, his love. To be Cristo-centric is to discover the door of faith as he reveals himself to us, loves us, and invites us into his heart.
Love however is not blind separated from truth. Truth brings about a greater love as we grow in wisdom and understanding of our purpose in life and the sacrifice of our gift of self to God and to others. Love is not the passion of emotion but the passion of commitment as it unites us to God and to others. Love also has order and purpose to reach a goal in life. What is our goal and our purpose? The answer will cause us to fall into true love.
Love is ordered by God’s law. It is both the natural law and the spiritual law but natural law is at the service of spiritual law. God created nature but God is the spiritual law himself. The commandments provide a natural law of order that serve the spiritual law of love. Do’s and don’ts are not an end to themselves but a means to the end which is Jesus himself and his love of us. This was the error of the Jewish tradition that made the laws and rules the fulfillment of God’s law.
Jesus comes to perfect their understanding that perfect law is a relationship reflected in the behavior and not simply compliance with the behavior. This temptation is still a danger for all. We can live as if we love our faith going through the motions following and enforcing the rules but when it comes to love our hearts are isolated, withdrawn unable to connect to the heart of others. We share a house but don’t create a home, we have legal connections to each other but we bond more to our pets than to our relatives, and we care for how our neighborhood looks but not how our neighbors are doing. We have a religion but do we have Jesus Christ in our lives?
In the first reading Paul and Barnabas are being Cristo-centric in revealing the word and person of Jesus to the Gentiles. They are filled with love of Christ and they understand their goal and purpose is to preach and make disciples of all who will listen. They have received the gift of the Holy Spirit to accomplish the works that Christ himself was performing as signs of the power of God that is with them. They also know that this power is not restricted to them only but open to all believers as they also leave behind appointed elders in the places they preached. The church continues to grow while remaining united and faithful to the teaching of the apostles.
John has a vision of a “new heaven and a new earth” so it raises the question, “is this new heaven and new earth yet to come or is it here?”. Perhaps it is not an either/or answer but a both and answer for God is outside of time and space. Then who is living in this new Jerusalem, the “city of God”? God’s invitation is always to come “taste and see” what God has prepared for those who love him. John was given a vision of the city of God but he also received entrance by his love of God as a witness of being in the world but not of the world. The City of God is his kingdom and his kingdom resides within us being revealed by the sacramental life we live.
“God’s dwelling is with the human race” and it began with the coming of Jesus into the world. He dwells within humanity when we enter through the door of faith to discover he is already present at work from within us to raise us up into the divine existence within the city of God. The reign of God is with, through and outside of humanity as we are limited and he is infinite. Infinite is God’s love and it comes to us in his mercy to renew our brokenness and forgive us of our sins. This cannot be however without our will to unite us to his will.
God is inviting us to receive his love and mercy and he provides the means through his church. It is the instrument of faith that stands as the visible sign of his love and mercy. We are called to be church, to belong to God by belonging to his church. If faith is the door into the kingdom, then the church is the gate into the city of God. Baptism brings us through the gate now faith leads us into the door of his heart. It is the heart of love. Love one another!
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