A Distant God Who is Near (Lk 15:3-7)

 

There is a song made popular by Bette Midler several years ago entitled, “From a Distance.”  The song is about a future world where peace and harmony rule the day.  In that world, “All have enough and no one is in need—there are no guns, no bombs, and no disease—no hungry mouths to feed.” The song further suggests that it is our responsibility to bring about this peace and harmony.  We are our own instruments of hope.

God, on the other hand, apparently watches us from a distance in our efforts to make this happen.  Perhaps he waits to see how well we perform, or even if we can transform anger and despair into hope, violence into peace.  Whether we succeed or not, the song suggests that God is a mere observer with no real connection between God and us.  God simply watches us—from a distance.

Although the song correctly points out our responsibility to work for peace and justice, to love and care for others rather than mistreat them, the song gets it wrong about God.  God is not one who watches us from a distance.  God is not a disinterested almighty power passively waiting for us to accept his offer of eternal life.  Rather, God is a seeker from the beginning.  He sought Adam and Even when they broke friendship with him.  His aim in finding them was not to punish, but to restore. 

As the parable of the lost sheep illustrates, God is always here among us, actively pursuing us, searching for us to make sure none are lost, not even one among 100.  Jesus tells this parable in response to a criticism by the Pharisees who were displeased that Jesus associated with those deemed unworthy, the sinners and tax collectors.  The parable is meant to show that God does not think in terms of worthiness.  Rather, God thinks only of finding and helping his dear ones who broke friendship with him, so that they will not miss out on his profound love and care for their wellbeing.

When we break the bonds of our friendship with God, his mercy and love for us compels him to search for us with the aim of restoring that friendship.  This is because God is always faithful, slow to anger, merciful and steadfast in his love, even when we are not (Lam 3:22-23; Ex 34:6-7).  For this reason, nothing can separate us from the love of God (Rm 8:38-39).  God is the true “hound of heaven” who loves us dearly and searches for us, and when He finds us where we are and we return to Him, He is jubilant.  There is great joy in heaven.  Who can resist a father like that?  Who can say no to his call?

The proof is Jesus himself.  Jesus is Emmanuel, God with us, who came to show us who the Father is and how to find our way to the Father’s house.  God longs for and eagerly calls his children into relationship with him.  That relationship stems from and consists in love for one another, along with mercy and mutual forgiveness.  God is always calling us to be more like Christ (Rm 8:29-31).  We live in the light of Christ by imitating his love and mercy.  We then become more visible to God, and through us, he becomes visible to others. 

God helps us in many ways to answer his call, especially through his Holy Spirit.  Jesus promised to send this helper, and we can therefore place our trust in His care with confidence.  When we trust in the Holy Spirit, we have no reason to fear the outcome, for “Blessed are those who trust in the Lord” (Jer 17:7).  God loves us.  God is with us.  And when God is with us, all things are possible for us (Mt 19:26).  

A God of Our Own Choosing (Mt 6:19-23)

The story about heavenly treasures versus earthly treasures is a story about our freedom to choose and the consequences of our choice.  In his discussion with the disciples, Jesus focuses on our freedom to choose between lasting values and passing values; between substance and appearance.  Jesus makes this distinction in hopes that we will choose wisely.    

Because all choices come with consequences, Jesus adds the advice to “Store up treasures in heaven” where nothing can be lost or destroyed.  He gives this advice because he knows that earthly treasures often have strong appeal despite their passing value.  He also knows that we will reap only what we sow (Gal 6:7).  His advice, therefore, expresses his hope that we will choose heavenly treasures over earthly treasures.

Does Jesus mean that the passing values of the world really have no value at all and should be avoided altogether?  No, that position would go against our fundamental need for many worldly things to survive.  For that reason, worldly pursuits surely have a practical value worthy of careful consideration and honest reflection.  Therefore, Jesus must have something else in mind when he cautions against the pursuit of earthly values. 

He gives a hint in the way he calls attention to choosing one kind of value over the other.  Notice that he says, “For where your treasure is, there also will your heart be.”  First the attraction, then the pursuit.  In putting it this way, Jesus underscores the freedom of choice that sometimes goes beyond mere appreciation for the practical value of worldly things to the point of idolizing those things we view as important and valuable.  In other words, Jesus knows we can turn anything into a god.

The question Jesus wants us to consider for our own benefit has to do with which god we choose to pursue—the one, true God or a false god of our own making.  There is no value in pursuing a false god.  This is the whole point of the golden calf story.  Pursuing any version of the golden calf leads to greed, a lust for power, status, control, and other priorities that have no lasting or true value.  In many cases, pursuing a false god brings serious harm to our companion sojourners and goes against the true God of eternal life. 

The Pharisees made this mistake long ago.  Jesus reveals their mistake when he says, “No servant can serve two masters.  He will either hate one and love the other, or be devoted to one and despise the other.  You cannot serve God and mammon” (Lk 16:13).  Jesus meant this as a direct criticism of the Pharisees for their greed and lack of compassion for the poor.  Mammon was their god.  They loved their money and their status above all else. 

The Pharisees pursued these passing values with gusto, to their own detriment and that of the very people they were called to serve with love (Lk 6:11; 16:14).  Even today, many value status and honor over peace and justice, cruelty and hate over mercy and kindness, exploitation and manipulation over love and concern, all in devoted service to one false god or another. 

Jesus taught his disciples to live a different way, to be a different kind of person—to be loving, kind, patient, understanding, and merciful, especially toward the poor and vulnerable persons.  Doing good works for others out of love for God reflects the values we are free to pursue or not (Gal 6:9-10).  The choice is ours.  Jesus hopes we choose wisely.

 

Love Three Times (Jn 16: 12-15)

 

On this great feast of the Holy Trinity, there is a story about St. Augustine that tells us something about this mystery of our faith.  You may have heard it as well.  As the story goes, St. Augustine was walking along the beach one day, trying to understand the mystery of the Holy Trinity—how God can be three persons in one.  As he walked along, he saw a young boy fill a seashell with water from the ocean and pour it into a small hole in the sand.  Out of curiosity, Augustine asked him what he was doing.  The boy replied, “I’m trying to fit the entire ocean into this hole.”  Augustine smiled and said, “That’s impossible. The ocean is too big for such a small hole.”  The boy looked at him and said, “And so is the mystery of God too big for your mind to fully understand.”  Then the boy vanished.

True or not, the story calls attention to the fact that, although much has been said and written about the Trinity, we know about the Trinity primarily through revelation and God’s grace. The Trinity is the foundation and central mystery of our Christian faith (CCC 232).  We first encounter this mystery most explicitly perhaps at the baptism of Jesus where God the Father testifies: “This is my Son whom I love; with him I am well pleased” (Mt. 3:17).  The Holy Spirit appears as a dove and descends on Jesus.  This is enough to convince John the Baptist that Jesus is the Christ, the promised Messiah. 

These are personal terms—Father, Son, and Spirit—that reveal a loving intimacy between the Persons of the Trinity.  Jesus reaffirms this idea with his promise to send the Advocate as someone who will remind others and teach them.  This description of the Holy Spirit is one of a real person (Jn 14:26).  Teaching and reminding are what a real person does. 

This description the Trinity as a unity of coequal persons working together for our salvation is consistent with our understanding of the term person.  We understand person not as a “me” term, but essentially as a “we” term.  An authentic person fully exists only in relationship to others.[1]  An authentic person lives in an interpersonal, interconnected loving relationship of self-giving and receiving.

    The Apostle John expresses this idea in describing God as love itself, poured into our hearts (1 Jn 4:8; 4-16; Rm 5:5).  He means that the love in our hearts is in fact God himself.  The Triune, loving God is in us and we are in the Triune, loving God (1 Jn 4:16).  Our God-given nature, therefore, is to be a lover, to express the love in our hearts (1 Jn 5:3-5).  This is the nature of love.  Love always seeks to express itself to the one loved, and wants to be loved in return.  Then, we feel grateful.  Authentic love, in fact, is complete when it is actively given and actively received with gratitude.”[2]

This desire for reciprocal love makes us vulnerable, however, for the one we love may not love us in return.[3]  When this happens, we often feel sad, disappointed and even frustrated.  Can we say the same about the Trinity?  Does God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit feel sad and disappointed when we do not love him or his children as he has loved us?  The answer must be yes.  Why else would Jesus urge us to love one another as he has loved us.  To love others is to love God.  Jesus makes this plain when he says that whatever we do for the least of his children, we do to and for God himself (Mt 25:40).  This is how we return God’s love for us, by loving others.

Love for God and his children also includes love for his creation, the only home he created for his children on earth.  God first reveals himself to us through his creation as noted in the Book of Genesis: “In the beginning, God created the heaven and the earth” (Gen 1:1; cf. CCC 47-50).  The reading from Proverbs celebrates the wisdom of God as the architect of creation.  This poem highlights the playful delight of God in carrying out his creativity, and his joy in being with humanity.  Through his creation, God reveals his desire to be involved with us by sharing his own love and goodness with us in a way that gives us life to the full.[4]

Caring for creation is how we express our gratitude for this gift from God.  Such gratitude inspired the late Pope Francis to issue his encyclical on the environment (Laudato Si).  In that encyclical, Francis claims that we have a duty to care for creation, our only home this side of eternity.  Like any home, we must provide adequate and proper care for where we live.  We live together on this planet in a kind of interconnected communion that supports and protects life itself (93; cf. Franco). 

The feast of the Holy Trinity is a reason to celebrate our commitment to caring for this communion with others and with God.  Caring for each other and God’s creation is a way to imitate the loving relationship of the Trinity.  Through his life and mission, Jesus revealed to us the person of God the Father as the eternal one who creates all things; the person of God the faithful Son as the one who brings eternal life; the person of God the loving Spirit as the ground of truth, who lives among us and empowers us to follow Jesus in bringing about the Kingdom of God.

Today on this great feast, we call upon this Triune God—Creator, Redeemer, and Spirit-Among-Us, a God who labors within us and brings us to birth.  We call upon this Triune God beyond all names and beyond all human understanding in the language of our hearts, the image of our desire, to commemorate the providence of God in our lives, and to give thanks for his benevolence. 

  We love God more than we know or can say about God.  We pray that our love will be like God’s love—creating, redeeming, renewing.  From beginning to end, we call on God in the universal language of our faith to renew us in his Spirit—in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.

 

 

 

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[1] Challenges and Renewals, W. Norris Clarke, University of Notre Dame Press, 1966, 74-75.

[2] Person, Being, and St. Thomas, W.Norris Clarke, Communio 19: International Catholic Review (Winter 1992).

[3] Authentic Living: How to Be Real, Jeremy Sutton, Ph.D., Positive Psychology (March 2021).

[4] Jacques Maritain, Existence and the Existent. Garden City: Doubleday, 1957, 90.

The Holiness of Love and Devotion (Mt 5:27-32)

 

Today we celebrate the feast of St. Anthony of Padua.  Anthony began his monastic life as an Augustinian friar at the age of 15 with his given name Fernando.  Soon after ordination to the priesthood, he transferred to the Franciscan order.  Their custom was to have novices choose a new name as a symbol of serving God in a new way.  Fernando chose the name Anthony in honor of St. Anthony the Great.  Padua just happens to be the name of the city in Italy where he lived and worked as a Franciscan.  Anthony died near there in 1231 at the age of 35.

Despite his brief life, Anthony is known for his influential preaching, extensive knowledge of scripture, and deep devotion to the poor.  This is what motivated Pope Gregory IX to canonize him in 1232, less than a year after his death.  In 1946, Pope Pius XII proclaimed St. Anthony a Doctor of the Church, not only for his contribution to Catholic theology and doctrine, but especially because of his holiness of life.

Anthony took to heart God’s instruction to the Israelite community:  Be holy, for I, the Lord your God, am holy (Lv 19:2;).  For this reason, holiness is everybody’s concern, everybody’s destiny, rather than something reserved to monks and the monastic way of life.[1]  Franciscans commit themselves to the way of holiness, and Anthony remained true to this commitment throughout his brief life on earth. 

In living out his commitment, Anthony followed the example of Jesus.  Through his own life and mission, Jesus shows us that being holy means living with integrity, being true to ourselves as God fashioned us and called us to be.  Jesus came to do the father’s will, and he never deviated from that purpose.  He was perfect in his resolve to carry out the will of the father as he understood it.  He applied that understanding in his life to the best of his ability, even to the point of surrendering his life for our sake.  Through his love and devotion to God, Jesus proves that he was always true to himself and true to what God called him to be.

Anthony lived by this same principle because he understood that God chose holiness of life for all of us from the very beginning (Eph 1:4).  He understood that our purpose is to live as Jesus lived in a manner consistent with the lasting values of God (1 Jn 2:5-6).  Living with such integrity is how we find true peace and lasting joy (1 Chron 29:17).  This universal call to holiness motivates Paul’s instruction to the Romans: “Do not conform yourselves to this age but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and pleasing and perfect” (Rm 12:2).  We live out this principle of holiness by doing ordinary things for others with extraordinary love and devotion to God.[2]          

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[1] The Universal Call to Holiness, Francois Corrignan, Indian Journal of Spirituality (6-1 1993), p.1.

[2] Treatise on the Love of God, Francis de Sales, VIII, p. 11.

What's In A Name? (Jn 16:20-23)

 

Jesus makes a bold claim about the power of his name when he tells his disciples that “whatever you ask the Father in my name he will give you” (Jn 16:23).  He makes his claim even stronger by adding that “Everyone who asks, receives; and the one who seeks, finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened” (Mt 7:8).  Jesus not only reveals the power of his name.  He also guarantees that the Father will respond.

We might think this guarantee means that we will receive whatever we want from God merely for the asking.  This is not the guarantee, however.  The guarantee is that the Father will respond to all requests made in the name of Jesus, not that the response will necessarily match our request.  Sometimes, it does, and sometimes it doesn’t.  At times, we might even think that God has not heard our prayer, let alone respond.

Jesus shows how to understand the guarantee when he asks: “Which one of you would hand his son a stone when he asks for a loaf of bread, or a snake when he asks for a fish?  If you then, who are wicked, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give good things to those who ask him” (Mt 7:9-11).  In this way, Jesus makes it clear that God will always respond to our requests in a way that serves our best interests.  At times, we just might not see it that way.

Our best interests depend on and derive from our relationship with God and with others.  This is the whole point of the two great commandments.  Our first priority, therefore, is to seek the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and the rest of what we need will be given to us (Mt 6:33).  Paul relies on this premise when he writes to the Romans, “Do not conform yourselves to this age but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and pleasing and perfect” (Rm 12:2).  We hear the same message from Isaiah: “Learn to do good. Make justice your aim: redress the wronged, hear the orphan’s plea, defend the widow (Is 1:17), welcome the stranger (Dt 10:17-18), and treat the foreigner as your own (Lev 19:34).

This is how Jesus lived and loved.  Jesus came to serve, not to be served, and he expects the same from us (Mt 20:28).  “Whoever wishes to be great among you shall be your servant,” he says to his disciples (Mt 20:26).  He offers the Good Samaritan story as a case in point.  The Good Samaritan focused on how to be neighbor, not on who is neighbor.  This story shows that giving to others out of love is the chief mark of discipleship.  All shall know the disciples of Jesus by their love for one another (Jn 13:35).

Jesus himself has proven his love for God and for us, his companion sojourners on the way of love, more than anyone.  His profound love motivated the sacrifice of his life as a ransom for many (Mt 20:28).  For this reason, “God highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name above every other name, so that, at Jesus’ name, every knee must bend in the heavens, on the earth, and under the earth, and every tongue proclaim to the glory of God the Father: Jesus Christ is Lord (Phil 2:6-11; cf. Is 45:22).  No wonder Jesus makes the bold claim that, “Whatever you ask the Father in my name he will give you.”  

Convict or Convince? (Jn 16:5-11)

 

When Jesus says the Advocate will come and convict the world in regard to sin, righteousness, and condemnation, he means something different by convict than is commonly understood.  Ordinarily, to convict someone is to find them guilty of a crime or wrongdoing, and then condemning them to some sort of punishment.  In a formal sense, a judge is the usual administrator of such a process.

Jesus, on the other hand, uses the word “convict” in referring to the role of the Advocate as we would use the word convince.  The Holy Spirit will come and convince us of the truth about sin, righteousness, and condemnation to guide us on the right path that leads to the Heavenly Father.  Jesus does not intend to condemn the world.  He makes this clear when he says: “If anyone hears my words and does not observe them, I do not condemn him, for I did not come to condemn the world but to save the world (Jn 12:47). 

Had Jesus meant to convict and condemn us, he would have referred to the Holy Spirit as our judge.  Instead, he refers to the Holy Spirit as the Advocate.  He sends the Holy Spirit as our Advocate, not our judge.  An advocate is one who helps, supports, guides, and defends those in his or her charge.  Jesus sends the Holy Spirit as our Helper, our Defender, our Light in a world of darkness to convince us about the values needed for righteous living.

Jesus wants us to live according to the values of God rather than the values of the world.  Seek first the kingdom of God, he tells us (Mt 6:33).  Make God's will the priority above all else, including material needs and personal desires.  Jesus emphasizes the possibility of this orientation when he urges us to “be perfect, just as your heavenly Father is perfect” (Mt 5:48).  Jesus puts it this way because the holiness of God and his perfection are one in the same thing.  “I am who I am,” God tells Moses (Ex 3:14).  God is love, God is truth, God is beauty, God is unity, God is good, God is perfect, God is Holy.

In human terms, we might say that God is a person of integrity who always lives in a manner perfectly consistent with his values.  God is never anything but God, and all that God does is always completely consistent with who God is.  God is love, the very essence of his being (1Jn 4:8).  God is slow to anger, generously merciful, gracious and kind (Ps 108:8-9).  God is just and fair, showing no partiality (Rm 2:11).  God is always faithful to these values because God is always true to himself. 

The same can be said of Jesus.  Jesus came to do the father’s will, and never deviated from that purpose.  He was perfect in his resolve to carry out the will of the father as he understood it.  He applied that understanding in his life to the best of his ability, even to the point of surrendering his life for our sake.  Jesus remained true to himself and to what God called him to be.  In human terms, Jesus was a person of integrity.

Jesus, therefore, is our model who shows us that living in accordance with the values of God means being true to ourselves as God fashioned us and called us to be.  This is how Jesus lived (1 Jn 2:5-6).  From the very beginning, God called us to a life of holiness (Eph 1:4).  This universal call to holiness motivates Paul’s instruction to the Romans: “Do not conform yourselves to this age but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and pleasing and perfect” (Rm 12:2). 

Living in a manner consistent with the values of God is a life of integrity made up ordinary things done with extraordinary devotion to God.[1]  The Holy Spirit is our Advocate who guides us in this pursuit.  When we listen to the Holy Spirit and follow the Word of God, we stay in a right relationship with God.  We then have no fear of condemnation.  A life of integrity based on the values of God is how we find true peace and lasting joy (1 Chron 29:17).

 

 

 

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[1] Treatise on the Love of God, Francis de Sales, VIII, p. 11.

What a Friend We Have in Jesus (Jn 15:12-17)

 

“What a friend we have in Jesus” is a poem from the 1800’s that became a popular Christian hymn.  We may not know the words to the hymn, but we do know who the friends of Jesus are.  His friends are those who do the will of God.  Jesus came to do the will of his heavenly Father, and to give eternal life to those who believe in him (Jn 6:38-40).  His friends, therefore, are like minded followers who share his values and goals.  Jesus makes this plain when he says that those who do the will of his Father are the ones who will enter the kingdom (Mt 7:21).  This statement implies that knowing God’s will is possible and deserving of serious consideration.   

Scripture reveals God’s will to us in at least two ways.  One way involves God’s plan for creation, a new heaven and a new earth where Jesus will draw all things to himself (Rev 21:1; Jn 12:32).  And, nothing can prevent this from happening.  For, Isaiah says on behalf of the Lord, “So shall my word be that goes forth from my mouth; It shall not return to me empty, but shall do what pleases me, achieving the end for which I sent it” (Is 55:11).  When this new creation will come about, however, remains a mystery. 

Until then, scripture also reveals the will of God in terms of his plan for each of our lives.  The prophet Jeremiah expresses this idea when he says on behalf of the Lord, “For I know well the plans I have in mind for you—plans for your welfare and not for woe, so as to give you a future of hope (Jer 29:11).  Thus, God has a plan for each of our lives, and we have good reason to put our hope and trust in that plan.  For that reason, St. Paul urges us to find out what is pleasing to the Lord (Ep 5:10).

Although scripture does not reveal the details of each individual’s plan, we know in a general sense that God expects each of us to carry out good deeds in imitation of Christ.  Timothy calls attention to this expectation in a very clear and powerful manner.  In his letter, Timothy claims that we should do good and be generous with our own wealth.  That way, we will lay up treasure for ourselves as a firm foundation for the coming age and the ultimate life that is truly life (1 Tim 6:17-19). 

We also know from scripture that God prepared in advance good works for each of us to carry out (Ep 2:10).  The specific good works, as well as when and how, are a matter of opportunity and personal choice based on our own circumstances and available resources.  Jesus reminds us that our purpose is to let our light shine before others, so that they may see our good deeds and thereby glorify the heavenly Father (Mt 5:16).

This motivates Paul’s claim that there many gifts but one spirit to equip us for doing good works, especially the work of building up the body of Christ (Eph 4:12).  We can do that by using our gifts in service to one another (1 Pt 4:10).  In that sense, our good works are like a leavening agent that causes the dough to rise.  Through good works, we become the farmer tending the growing seed.  We tend the kingdom of God by keeping his commandments to love Him and one another as Jesus loves us. 

Jesus calls each of us to a different way of life, a different way of seeing things.  He wants to form a partnership with each of us (Phil 4:13).  Jesus wants coworkers, who will be salt and light for the world, to bring about his bounty—his peace, justice, love, reconciliation, and respect for the dignity of all, especially those in our daily lives. 

Being a friend of Jesus means following his example to become more like him in serving others.  “I came to serve, not to be served,” Jesus tells his disciples (Mk 10:45).  The friends of Jesus did the same, each in their own way.  They applied his commandment to love and serve others in their daily lives.  We can do likewise. 

As followers of Christ, we are chosen for a life of good works born of faith and love to bring about a new reality, a new world—the kingdom of God.  This is the will of God.  The choice is ours.   

 

 

The Old Becomes New (Jn 13:31-35)

 

Jesus makes a surprising claim of giving a new commandment when he says, “Love one another.  As I have loved you, so you also should love one another” (Jn 13:34-35).  This commandment was not really new.  This same commandment, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself,” was already found in Leviticus (Lev 19:18).  So, why does Jesus say his commandment is a new one?

In one way, Jesus describes his commandment as new because it expands the meaning of neighbor.  For the ancient Hebrew, neighbor was a term that applied only to the Israelites themselves, and perhaps to outsiders who had lived with them long enough to be considered native born.  Their understanding of the Levitical principle to love others therefore applied only to their own people, and certainly not to the whole human race.

Jesus, on the other hand, expands “neighbor” to include all people, even one’s enemies.  “Love your enemies,” Jesus says to the people, “and pray for those who persecute you” (Mt 5:44).  Thus, his commandment of love is new because it is a universal call to love all people, regardless of time, place, culture, or familial relationship.  In the eyes of Jesus, we are neighbor to each other because of our shared spiritual heritage and destiny.  We share a common origin in God.  We are all children of God and precious in his sight (Ps 17:8).  Thus, we share a spiritual worth and dignity deserving of mutual respect and esteem.

In another way, Jesus makes his commandment new as a matter of justice and mercy.  Jesus is fully aware of the scoundrels who are part and parcel of daily life.  For that reason, he knows that we will, at times, question our ability to love others as we love ourselves.  Jesus makes it clear that we do have this ability when he says, “As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Abide in my love” (Jn 15:9-10).  Jesus means that we can love others because God loved us first (1 Jn 4:19). 

The Apostle John emphasizes this same point in a different way when he writes, “If anyone says, ‘I love God,’ but hates his brother, he is a liar; for whoever does not love a brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen.  This is the commandment we have from him: whoever loves God must also love his brother (1 Jn 4:20-21).  In this way, John makes it plain that we love God by loving his children (1 Jn 5:2).  Sounds a bit circular, but John says this because God is love itself. 

In making his commandment a new principle of living, Jesus does not romanticize love.  He is not being sappy when says to love one another as he loves us.  Nor does he require that we like everyone or accept everything they do.  Jesus loves us because of our inherent worth as a child of God and not because we have earned his love.  His love for us is unconditional.  We can do the same, as impossible as it may seem at times.   

We begin by putting aside our ideas of prestige and privilege.  Jesus says: “If I, therefore, the master and teacher, have washed your feet, you ought to wash one another’s feet.  I have given you a model to follow, so that as I have done for you, you should also do” (Jn 13:14-15).

Jesus goes a step further and reveals the kind of love he has in mind.  When he asks Peter, do you love me, and Peter responds yes, Jesus immediately tells him—feed my lambs, tend my sheep.  In effect, Jesus says to Peter, love those I love in concrete, beneficial ways.  My lambs are hungry for many things, both physical and spiritual.  Help them as best you can whenever you can.  Sometimes, this means giving a little, other times, it means giving a lot.

Jesus does not leave us alone in our response to his invitation of love.  He gave us the Holy Spirit as our guide.  In the Profession of Faith, we say, “I believe in the Holy Spirit.”  We believe that the Holy Spirit is a powerful creator who can, and often does, intervene in human affairs to help us do things we cannot do alone.  The Holy Spirit speaks to us in our hearts and minds, and through the wisdom of others to transform our lives.  The Holy Spirit “nudges” us to a better way of living, to love others and touch their lives as Christ loves and touches each of us.  We can live this way by following the Spirit’s lead (Gal 5:25).

Following the lead of the Holy Spirit might call for a change of mind and heart.  We change our minds about what is important, what values will motivate and guide our way of life.  This change of heart and mind clears the way for a genuine life in the Spirit based on the values of God.  Life in the Spirit is none other than a commitment to carry out authentic good deeds born of love in imitation of Christ. 

Following the path of love as a matter of justice and mercy is the message that Jesus preached long ago.  He invites us to do the same, to live a certain kind of life, to be a certain kind of person.  The decision to follow Christ on the path of love is a decision to be just and merciful towards others, especially the poor and vulnerable members of our society.  These are the values of God.  To live in the Spirit of Christ is to live a life of integrity rooted in love of God and love of neighbor.