Commentary on Sixth Sunday of Easter (year B) from “First Impressions” (2024)

Today’s gospel presents us with a vision for the church. Jesus has just told his disciples, “I am the vine; you are the branches” (15:1ff). Now he describes the relationship between his disciples and himself. It is not merely a gathering of friends, or like-minded individuals. Nor is it an institution with fixed offices and officials. Instead, as different as each may be, Jesus and his disciples are bound by sacrificial love. Our love is to be the same as the love he has for us: “This is my commandment; love one another as I have loved you.” We have our treasure and our relationship to Christ and one another; but we also have responsibilities. We are attached to the true vine and we are to share the love and life we are receiving now from Christ with others. The love Jesus showed us was a sacrificial love and so should ours be towards others, “in season and out of season.”

But such loving cost Jesus his life and it asks much of us. It is only possible because Jesus remains with us in his Holy Spirit. Just as he obeyed his Father’s commands, because of his love for God, the disciples will continue to know and enjoy Jesus’ presence by our obedience to his commands of love for one another.

Today’s gospel is part of Jesus’ last discourse. He is telling his disciples of both the privilege and responsibilities we have. He is the true vine we are grafted to. We have the joy of knowing this friendship that will be with us in both good times and bad. We will come to know that Jesus will not leave us and we will continue to know God and Jesus by keeping Jesus’ commandment of love. What kind of love is he speaking of? He says it quite plainly: it is love like his, a willingness to lay down one’s life for one’s “friends.”

We don’t just need a model of ideal behavior upon whom to fashion our lives. We need a savior who, once having lived and died for us, will stay with us to guide and enable us to imitate his own living and dying. Today, as last Sunday, we hear the importance of “remaining” or “abiding” in Jesus. This staying in Jesus will be the way we can live his commandment of love. One thing is very clear in this discourse; we can live Jesus’ life because he graces us to do so. Without our relationship with him, we would be left on our own to do our best to follow his life and live his commands. And the truth is, on our own, we wouldn’t be able to live such a life. Without Jesus’ abiding, grace-giving presence, neither we individuals, nor our church, can live the life he calls us to today: “Love one another as I have loved you.” His love is the kind that lays down his life for another.

Some people think the church has gone soft since Vatican II. Now, they complain, all we hear is talk about love. They would prefer the stricter black and white commands they remember from their childhood. But we are not children. The teaching about love goes back to our Founder; it is not a recent innovation, or a new-age trend. Jesus does lay down a commandment for us today, but he does so, he says, not as a master talking to servants, but as a friend to other friends. Servants follow rules, their lives are dictated by the one who holds authority over them. Jesus’ religion isn’t based on such a model. Instead, love is the foundation of our faith. We are assured we already have God’s love, it is not something we must earn by minute adherence to a code of proper behavior. Jesus is asking us to live out of the realization of that love. We are his friends, he tells us, so now go out and live like friends with one another. “Friends,” in this context, means “beloved ones.” We need to live out of that description for we are the beloved.