Love in All of Us

Homily: Sixth Sunday of Easter (B)

5 May 2024

John 15:9-17

Fr. Ricky Cañet Montañez

As I was preparing for ordination, a classmate jokingly asked, “Why do you want to be ordained a priest? You will be single forever. Who will cry over your coffin or urn when you leave this planet?” (Ganern?) A single friend once complained that some people made her feel less of a person because she was single. She asked “Do they really think I’m lonely? Do they think I am cursed to live a loveless life?” On the other hand, a married friend who did not have any children shared that she would feel really sad whenever people insinuate that only after experiencing the birth of her own child would she feel what true love really is. Whoa, harsh! It’s funny how some people think that the only way to have love is with a life partner and their own kids.

Love is in all of us. And paradoxically, when we give love, we receive love. It doesn’t mean we all should have a spouse or a biological child. There are single people who commit themselves to worthwhile causes where they give of themselves to uplift sectors of society or to save the planet for future generations.  There are children who chose to be single and have devoted themselves to caring for their siblings or their aging and sick parents. We priests, have the capacity to be spiritual fathers to thousands of people entrusted to us by the Bishop (or our religious superiors) because we don’t need to earn a living and provide for a wife and kids. Love is inclusive. It is for everyone. It does not limit itself to specific types of people.  As Peter attests in the First Reading after seeing that the gift of the Holy Spirit has been poured out on the Gentiles also, “In truth, I see that God shows no partiality.” (Acts 10:34) All are acceptable to God, Jew and Gentile, man and woman, slave and free… God’s invitation to love is for all!

This Sunday’s gospel passage from John, is all about love.  We find Jesus urging His disciples twice to “remain in His love” and twice “to love one another”. If we look closely, these two commands are actually interrelated, as “remaining in His love” will redound to loving others. What is at the heart of the command is the invitation for all of us believers, without exception, to love the way Jesus loves — a total self-giving for the sake of the one being loved. It is a selfless offering of himself for others. Jesus says, “[There is] no greater love than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.” (John 15:13) And that is exactly what He did not just in the way He died where we are told His blood and water flowed in mercy for all of humanity, but also in the way that He lived, his priority was making sure that the people He loved were restored to wholeness and nourished by the word of God.

Thus, when we love we must be willing to put the good of the people we love before our own wants; before our own needs. Often this involves varying degrees of sacrifice.  The first thing I think of is a mothers’ love for their children as the best example of this sacrificial love. However, motherly love is not only exemplified by biological mothers themselves but also of those who in their own ways have been mothers to others. I have a single aunt who cared for me and my siblings and her other nephews and nieces out of the goodness of her heart. There are even nannies who cared for their wards as their own children. Once a good friend of mine and his family asked me for the anointing of their very sick  “yaya” who means a lot to them for the love that she lavished on everyone. My friend said their  “yaya” has been with them since she was 18 years old. Now at 90, she continues to be a beloved extended member of the family.

In the passage from John’s First Epistle, we are invited to replicate this example of love shown by Jesus in the Gospel. We need not fear that we may not have the capacity to love as such because it is God who gives us the grace to do so. “Beloved, let us love one another, because love is of God; everyone who loves is begotten by God and knows God.”  (1 John 4:7) To love like Jesus and lay down our lives for others is very much against man’s natural tendency for self-preservation and thus, it cannot originate from our human capabilities but rather in God. We know how it is to love because we first feel His love for us. “This is love: not that we have loved God, but that he loved us.” (1 John 4:10) It is God who initiates this love as exemplified in Jesus. “As the Father loves me, so I also love you.” (John 15:9) Clearly, the source of this selfless love is divine love itself. This is so because love is the very being of God. St. John says: “God is love.” (1 John 4:8) We too, are granted a share in this nature when we are “begotten by God” through baptism — love becomes part of our being as well. The Spirit of love has been poured into the hearts of all believers to make us capable of this self-giving love of Christ regardless of our status or vocation in life.   

In summary, let us take to heart that as Christians, our love should take after the selfless and self-giving way Jesus loves us; and how greatly God the Father has loved us first and most deeply in Jesus. Jesus paid a high price to express this love for us and to teach us what love is. Thus, we need to learn how to love. It does not matter if you are called to be a mother to your own kids or to help raise the children of others, or whether your vocation is to be married, single, or called to the religious life, love is within all of us because we have Jesus. Let us love as God loves each one of us — faithfully, truly, unconditionally.