6th Sunday of Easter

What gives us joy? The beauties of nature, surely! And children. How Jesus rejoiced when little children climbed onto his lap! “Let the little children come to me,” he said. And what joy he must have felt when he brought physical and spiritual healing to people. The deepest source of Jesus’ joy, however, was his loving relationship with his heavenly Father, his Abba. Jesus tells us that wherever he might go, whatever he might do, he remains in his Father’s loving embrace.

Jesus wants us to have this joy, too. He tells us this in today’s Gospel (John 15:9-17): “I have told you this that my joy may be in you and your joy might be complete.” And he adds: “Remain in my love.” How do we do this? Jesus explains at once: “If you keep my commandments, you will remain in my love.”

What is the commandment above all, that Jesus is talking about? He tells us this: “Love one another as I love you.” Jesus goes on to explain the kind of love he is talking about – not just a warm, fuzzy feeling, but an active being. A committed love that gives and goes on giving. “No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.” This is what Jesus did for us. That is what he asks us to do for one another.

In our Second Reading today, from the First Letter of John (1 John 4:7-10), we hear this same message. “Let us love one another,” John says, “because love is of God; everyone who loves is begotten by God and knows God.” And God revealed this love to us through the complete offering of himself, in the form of his Son, so that we could come to know God, love God, and have life in God. Who wouldn’t find joy in experiencing that kind of life-giving love?

Saying that love is the basis of authentic Christian joy does not mean that love is easy. Loving others is difficult at times. Not in the sense of how we feel, and whether we “like” them, but because of the selfishness and sacrifice that genuine love demands of us. And yet, it is precisely these demands that give love its joy: for the more we give of ourselves in love, the more room we make in ourselves for God who is nothing but love. As St. Francis of Assisi famously said, “It is in giving that we receive.”

To love is to completely will the good of another; to desire nothing other than another’s flourishing and growth in virtue. Let us pray for the grace to do and be as God asks of us; and may the Eucharist, the tangible Presence of God’s unfailing love for us, transform us with that.