Gospel Reflection Sunday May 5th 2024 – Sixth Sunday of Easter

By Fr Brian Maher OMI

Gospel Reflection for Sunday May 5th 2024 | Sixth Sunday of Easter

Our Gospel today is a direct continuation from last week’s reading. Jesus has shown himself to be the ‘good shepherd’ (two weeks ago) and the ‘vine of Israel’ (last week), and in doing so he has described an intimacy with the Father which is beyond that of human with God.

Today, that intimacy takes a huge step forward when Jesus invites us to share in that same intimacy with the Father. Yes, each one of us is invited to share in the very same love that unites Father and Son.

Every single word of this Gospel is simply awesome and incredible. Every one of the ten or eleven sentences (depending on the translation you are reading) are so packed with wonder and inspiration that they demand separate reflection and prayer. My advice is to take each sentence, say, “As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you.”, and spend six months contemplating only that one idea. If after six months you have not plumbed the depths of what Jesus is telling us, then spend longer and rejoice in every second you spend meditating upon it, because, believe me, every word is filled to overflowing with joy.

Do it and I promise you will emerge in five or six years’ time having met a God you never knew existed until then.

However, if, like me, you are impatient and even say to yourself ‘I may not even have that number of years left in me!’ then turn six months into six weeks or six days or six hours (less than that and your heart will explode with a joy too great to contain) and every second of it will have been well spent.

I very much doubt if Jesus said these things in one place or at one time. Apart from the fact that they are just too intense to be a single teaching, the sentences are constructed as individual thoughts linked together by the word ‘Love’.

What they give us is a snapshot of the young Church as it was maybe seventy or eighty years after the death and resurrection of Jesus. This is when these thoughts were compiled and written down, probably in Ephesus (modern day Turkey) and intended to be read by Jews and Greeks and Romans and Syrians.

What is remarkable for me is that in such a short time (70 years is nothing in an historical context) a small and persecuted band of people had come so far in understanding who Jesus was, his relationship with God, and his mission on Earth.

For example, Mark’s Gospel was written in about 65ce, and it begins with John the Baptist and the baptism of Jesus. It shows no interest in the birth or early life of Jesus. It is as if everything of importance we need to know about Jesus began when he was already thirty years of age. Contrast that with the famous opening of John’s Gospel, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” and we notice that in a few short years (maybe 35 or 40) believers have moved from a history which began with Jesus aged thirty to a history which begins with Jesus (the Word) existing from all eternity.

Another example might be that nowhere in the first three Gospels (Mark, Matthew, Luke) does Jesus explicitly talk of himself as God. He refers to himself as ‘Son of Man’ and the ‘Messiah’ but in Jewish thinking both terms referred to a man, anointed by God, who would come in power and glory to usher in the Kingdom of God.  

It is only when we get to John’s Gospel that Jesus is explicitly spoken of as God.

For the small group of Christians to be able to state in only seventy years that the man they followed was Divine himself, is a leap which is astronomical in its proportions.

I am not saying that it is only after seventy years that people began to see Jesus as God. Indeed not! Even in the Letters of St. Paul (written before any of the Gospels) there is evidence of this belief. It became a possibility for some followers of Jesus shortly after his Resurrection. However, it is only in the time of John’s writing that the statement of Jesus’ Divinity has been fully integrated into the faith of the Church. Believe it or not it was not until 431ce that the Church officially declared that Jesus was ‘fully God and fully man’.

It would be a mistake and unnecessary for me to go through today’s Gospel, reflecting on each of the ideas there. They are stated in a wonderfully straight forward and simple manner, without examples or metaphors to help explain them. It is only when we come to look at the implications of each statement that we see the immensity of what is being said.

In Psalm 8, the person writing looks at all of God’s Creation and considers the human person’s place in it. He states majestically, “yet you have made us little less than Gods; With glory and honour you crowned us; you gave us dominion over all your creatures….”

In today’s Gospel Jesus is saying the same and more…

In the person of Jesus, if we listen to him and keep his command, then we share in the life of God just as Jesus shares in the life of God. And what is the command of Jesus, “Love each other.” – the last three words of the Gospel.

Central to this Gospel, running through it like a chorus, are the words “me” and “you”. The ‘me’ is always Jesus; the ‘you’ is always us, human beings.

In each statement of the Gospel Jesus is drawing us closer and closer to himself. It is as if he is saying to us, “I want you to know just how like you I really am. Stop putting a distance between us. I came on Earth to show you how close we are.”

“If you keep my commands, you will remain in my love…”

“…so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete.”

“… I no longer call you servants, … … Instead, I have called you friends…”

Jesus wants us to know that ‘you’ and ‘me’ are kindred spirits, friends, family. The reason Jesus is on Earth, he says to us, is so that you can see this unity between us.

In itself this is wondrous. God loved us so much that he chose to come among us as one of us, so that we can see how much we are loved. “Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends…”

But now…… the Gospel takes a huge leap forward:

“…just as I have kept my Father’s commands and remain in his love…”

“…everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you…”

“…whatever you ask in my name the Father will give you…”

The me/us (Jesus/us) now becomes me/the Father (Jesus/God). If Jesus wants to tell us how close he is to us, then he also wants to tell us how close he is to God. They are the same. “…the Word was with God, and the Word was God.”

Why does Jesus want us to know of his closeness to the Father? Not to glorify himself; not so that we will glorify him; but so that we will see that we are called to that same closeness – to the life of God.

The incredible, unfathomable, mysterious truth is that you and I are invited to share in the life of the Blessed Trinity. Into that perfect, silent, equal and dynamic love of Father, Son and Spirit, we are invited.

Who invites us? Jesus (the Word, God, Divine). Why are we invited? Because God loves us that much! How do we accept the invitation to share in God’s internal life of love? By keeping the command of Jesus. What is that command, “Love one another.”

Today’s Gospel, step by step, statement by statement, leads us to see, purely and simply, that from the moment we were created “in his own image and likeness of God”, we were invited to share in the life of God, and that life is Love itself. It is not a cold, dead love, but the perfect, always active, passionate, energetic, joyful love of Father, Son and Spirit.

Ask me what Heaven is and I will look at Rublev’s icon of the Trinity and I will say, “That is Heaven”. Not three dead figures, but a circular, never ending, gaze which communicates “this is Love’, We are Love”…

and into this Love we are invited.

This Love is what gives us our dignity as human persons. It is why we are called to respect others – all others, whether they come to us by boat or plane, legally or illegally; whether they have a home or are homeless; whether they share our values and beliefs or don’t.

The command of Jesus to “Love one another.” is universal and has no exceptions.

That’s worth thinking about – for maybe another six months!!

Many thanks,

Brian.

If you have any comments, questions or thoughts on this scripture reflection, please feel welcome to email me at b.maher@oblates.ie

You are my friends if you do what I command you