Fifth Sunday of Easter

Dear Friends,

This Sunday’s Gospel is a profound reminder of the intimate and radical way in which God loves us. Often we approach the Lord with trepidation or the feeling that we have to prove ourselves to him to earn his love. But as Jesus addresses his disciples in today’s Gospel, we can see the reckless generosity that characterizes his relationship with us. He begins with, “as the Father has loved me, so I have loved you.” This remark alone is enough to fuel hours of meditation: as Love Himself–infinite, perfect, unending, all powerful–has loved His own Son, THAT is how Jesus loves us! Holding nothing back, lacking nothing, limited by nothing! He goes on to instruct us to keep his commandments, but this instruction does not come from a punishing law-maker who is waiting for us to mess up and who is keeping score of our failings; no, it comes from Christ’s loving wish that we would never be far from him. Living in accord with God’s commandments is what is best for us and what allows us to remain in his love, so when Jesus points us toward the commandments it is always out of love and a desire to be close to us, never out of an obsession with rules and restrictions for their own sake.

He then singles out a specific commandment: to love one another. And the love he speaks of is not one of simple acts of affection or wishing well for each other; he invites us to love one another as he has loved us. And as we just saw in the epic celebration of Holy Week, and as we see every day in the celebration of the Mass, Jesus’ love is one that gives itself away completely, that suffers and sacrifices, that lays everything down in pursuit of the beloved. It can be difficult to love in this radical way, but that’s why Jesus commands it only after reminding us of his deep love for us. Our love for others is meant to flow directly from his love for us; any efforts to love that aren’t rooted in Jesus are just hollow niceties. But when we receive his love and remain in it, and when we love others with that same love, we can walk with Jesus in the intimacy of true friendship.

~Jule Coppa, Penn Campus Minister