6th Sunday of Easter. Today’s readings: Acts 10,25-26.34-35.44-48; 1 John 4,7-10; John 15,9-17
I have just hung up after a telephone conversation with a psychologist who works with youth. The concern she voiced did not surprise me, but I was still saddened by what she shared.
“Young people have a real issue with strongly embracing core values… and it all begins with childhood experiences and unhealthy family relationships.” She did not list the values she had in mind, but a number of them would probably be the following: respect: honesty, faithfulness, reliability, authenticity, commitment, and altruism. Socrates had complained that “children now love luxury; they have bad manners, contempt for authority; they show disrespect for elders… They contradict their parents, chatter before company, gobble up dainties at the table, cross their legs, and tyrannise their teachers”.
It might be hard to believe that that statement was made over 2,000 years ago, and not last week at a complaint party of a group of elderly people reminiscing over their good old days. Nonetheless, no matter what young people or older ones hold dear, the one thing we all crave for and find security in is love.
Truth be told, the word ‘love’ is overused, misused, misunderstood, and abused, but here we are talking about true, pure, and genuine love, the kind of love that was the object of our meditation particularly during Holy Week. That love was represented on a T-shirt that was given to me years ago by a German friend of mine who had just come to the faith. It depicted a silhouette of Christ’s head crowned with thorns and three crosses on a hill in the background. The caption read: “Love of another kind.”
It is the kind of love that, knowingly or unknowingly, we are all seeking, because it is the only reality in life that will soothe our wounds, calm our fears and fill us with peace
The words of Jesus should bring us face to face with that reality: “As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love” (Jn 15,9). There you are – that is the key to joy and to meaning in one’s life. Jesus has loved you with an eternal love. Seek no further!
This is not some whimsical, sentimental love, but a concrete and very real divine appreciation of your being to its very core. It is the kind of love that, knowingly or unknowingly, we are all seeking, because it is the only reality in life that will soothe our wounds, calm our fears and fill us with peace.
It is such a pity that there have been individuals who gave up on life because a mere human being had become cold and turned their back on them. If only they knew that, unlike human love, which tends to be conditional and volatile, nothing could separate them from Christ’s love, which far exceeds anything the human heart can possibly offer to another.
A friend of mine uses the image of water to explain God’s love. Just as water can only wet things, so God can only love. It is his very nature, and one of the most striking aspects of his personality, not to mention his holiness, justice and power. It is only if we have tasted this love and are convinced of it that it will then be possible to heed Christ’s command: “Love each other as I have loved you” (Jn 15,12).
You have Words of Eternal Life: Scripture Meditations, by Hans Urs von Balthasar.These words must, firstly, not be read as a command, but rather as a clear sign of the immense potential we have despite our limited human nature. We can love like Jesus. Indeed, this is our highest calling. “It may seem hard to us if our neighbour is either alienated from God or humanly repugnant. But viewed with eyes of faith he is already (actually or potentially) a fellow child of God and thus worthy of more profound love than a physical sibling” (Hans Urs von Balthasar, You have Words of Eternal Life: Scripture Meditations, 191).