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Homily Easter 6 B

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St John, it is said, lived to a great age, and as an elderly man he was carried each Sunday to where the Christians in Ephesus were gathering to celebrate Mass. Invariably he was asked to address the congregation, and as we might imagine from today’s Gospel text, he always spoke about the love of God, until even the most devout of the people grew tired of the same recurring theme, love one another. 

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However, the elderly St John would not change his subject but persisted in speaking about love, because for him the central theme of Jesus’ message was the overwhelming love of God. 

But, the thing is, it could easily become an empty slogan, and elsewhere St John explains a little more of what he meant by love. “This is the love I mean: not our love for God, but God’s love for us, when he sent his Son to be the sacrifice that takes away our sins.”

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Most of us would probably agree that we are quite unable to love ourselves to the same degree that God loves us.

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And so, the commandment in today’s Gospel is not an easy one. That we are to love one another as God has loved us.

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Loving others in general is a noble and beautiful ideal. But loving particular people is where the challenge comes in. When someone irritates us at work or at school or in our family, loving that person seems unreasonable. When someone ignores us or hurts us, loving that person can seem impossible. So, it is understandable that we try to wiggle out of Jesus’ commandment. We say to ourselves, “That person is selfish or manipulative. That person does not deserve to be loved.”

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But Jesus has anticipated our objection and shaped his command accordingly. He says, “Love one another as I have loved you.” And how has Jesus loved us? He has loved us even though we at times are selfish and manipulative. He has loved us even though we do not deserve his love. So, Jesus gives us little room to escape from his command. We are to love others, even though they do not deserve to be loved.

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So how do we pull off this seemingly impossible way of loving? Jesus shows us the way. In the Gospel, before he gives the commandment, he shows us how to follow it. Before he tells us to give love, he tells us to take love. And the love that we are to take is Jesus’ own. He says, “Remain in my love. Then my joy will be in you, and your joy will be complete.” Jesus is telling us that we must first take his love in order to give it to others.

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So, we need not despair when Jesus asks us to love someone who has hurt us or someone who annoys us.

 

First we need to surround ourselves with his love, the love of Christ, to draw strength from the love we receive from him, and then try to love someone who is difficult.

 

If we try to love based on our own love, we will often not succeed.

 

But if we draw strength from the love of Jesus Christ, then we may find that it is possible to accept the people who irritate us, to show mercy to those who have hurt us.

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