Loving Deeply
5th Sunday of Easter (B)
https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/050221.cfm
“Children, let us love not in word or speech but in deed and truth… we should believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and love one another just as he commanded us.”
John goes on to say in the next chapter that “God is love, and whoever remains in love remains in God and God in him.” Then, he says “we love because he first loved us.”
We love because God first loved us.
We do not love or show love SO THAT…. We love BECAUSE. We love because God commanded it, but really, it is because God loves us.
If we are going to love, we need two things – we need the Holy Spirit who empowers us to love, and we need to believe. We need faith that God loves us.
What does it look like when we love? Let’s flip it over. Let’s look at it from the other side. How do we know that someone loves us?
John gives us that answer too, when he says the love of God was revealed to us by the fact God sent his only Son into the world so that we might have life through him. But, what does that mean?
Well, everything, but here are four things… God’s love is not casual or shallow. It is deep. It is costly, undeserved, generous, and joyfully free.
First, we know the depths of God’s love for us by what that love costs. God loves us “in deed,” as John writes. God’s love is active. Jesus sacrificed his life for us. He didn’t just come down for a nice visit, to show us his power. Jesus gave us everything. He left his throne in heaven to come to earth. When he was here, he didn’t just accept rejection, mockery, and physical abuse. He gave us everything he had, even his life. And more than his life, really. A single person might give up their life for another, but what about someone with family responsibilities? Jesus was responsible for his mother. Did he excuse himself from death out of care for her? No, he gave even her to us.
Second, we can see the depths of God’s love for us by how much or how little we deserve that love. Here’s the thing – we don’t deserve it at all. It was while we were sinners that Christ died for us. As John says, “God is greater than our hearts and knows everything…” It isn’t because we’re good or because we’re like a puppy who behaves terribly, but is so cute that we love it anyway. Paul tells us that we can imagine how someone might die for someone who is righteous, or who is good. Maybe. But probably not. God demonstrates his love for us by dying for us while we were still sinners. Not just “oops, I messed up” – but enemies of God. Christ died for us, who were his enemies. God is not ignorant. God sees all of our darkness. God knows exactly who and how we are. God sees our thoughts. And God loves us.
Third, we can know the depths of God’s love for us by how much that love benefits us. A child may share their candy. That’s love. A family may bring us food when we don’t have any. That’s love, too. Yesterday was the feast of Saint Joseph the Worker – what if someone gave us work? That’s even better than candy or food. Yesterday was also unofficially Batman day. What if someone saved us from getting beat up or fought our enemies? That’s pretty great. What about God? What does God do for us? God’s love gives us joy in this life. God saves us from the eternal torments we so richly deserve. And more than that, God brings us to enter the fullness of joy in heaven forever. And we don’t come to heaven as guests. We come home to heaven as beloved children of the most high God.
Fourth, we can know the depths of God’s love by the freedom with which God loves us. Do you appreciate a gift more when it is given out of obligation, or when it is given out of joy? “Here, Mom said I had to share this” is entirely different from “this jerky is amazing, here, try some.” Or, do they owe us something? That makes their love… less. If you give your mom a card or a gift for Mother’s Day next week, that’s nice, isn’t it? But what if you give her a card or a poem or a gift on a random Thursday in June? That’s better, isn’t it? It’s better because you gave it freely and without obligation. That is what it means to love “in truth,” as John writes.
And what did we hear from Jesus just last Sunday? No one takes my life from me, but I lay it down on my own. Jesus was not forced to sacrifice himself. He’s God. Everything he does is done freely, including love us. Scripture also tells us that… for the joy set before him, Jesus endured the cross… And that brings us back to the point.
When we read or listen to the scriptures we can begin to understand and believe that God loves us. That’s WHY we read or listen to the scriptures. So we can more deeply grasp that God loves us not only as a collective people of God, but also personally and deeply.
And that is what God wants for us. He gives us a commandment, to love one another the way he loved us. And that way of loving is costly, undeserved, generous, and joyfully free.
May our eyes be opened to understand and believe more and more the depth of God’s love for us, and may we be empowered by the Holy Spirit to love others as he loves us: in deed, and in truth.
This homily is heavily influenced by a series I heard by John Piper way back in the day before I was Catholic. It’s a shame he dislikes the church so much based upon his misunderstanding of what we believe. Will you, in your charity, offer a prayer for John Piper?
