Homily: 6th Sunday in Easter – Cycle B
Many
of you know that I was an engineer before becoming a priest. One of the things that drew me to engineering
was that I have always been fascinated by making things work. When I was young, I would sometimes
disassemble my toys just so I could figure out how to reassemble them and make
them work again. As I grew older, this
fascination expanded into my science classes: especially chemistry. I loved learning the different chemical
reactions and then watching them happen when I mixed chemicals in the lab. When I was old enough to drive and had my own
car, I loved (and still love) doing the maintenance myself: knowing how to
disassemble and reassemble the parts to restore my car to working order. I pursued engineering, in part, because I
desired to be someone who designed products that work for other people.
Whether
or not you are “mechanically inclined” like I am, there is a part of each of
our psyches that looks for a “functional order” to the world. In other words, each of our minds are always
looking for the way to make things work in the world, so that we can feel
comfortable moving around in it. Some of
the things are very concrete: like how to acquire food, clothing, and
shelter. Other things are a little more
abstract, though still functional: like how to be part of a social network in
which resources can be shared and safety can be assured. For example, we learn that by being kind and
generous with those around us we create social bonds of kinship in which there
is a mutual care and concern for one another.
Thus, we look out for one another and create a network in which our
sense of security is increased. Like I said,
it’s more abstract, but the formula is the same: I do these things in this way
and that result happens.
In
our Gospel reading today, Jesus gives us a “formula” for joy: For your joy to
be complete, remain in my love. You remain in my love when you keep my
commandments. For us Christians, we know
that the way to achieve a full and perfect joy in our lives is to be in the
love of Jesus. Put simply: the merciful
love of Jesus is the only thing that can save us from the sadness that comes to
us because we must enduring suffering in this world. The love that we receive from others is good
and does provide relief from the suffering of this world; but it is only
temporary. The love of Jesus is the love
that can make our joy complete.
Thus,
the next question becomes, “How do I remain in the love of Jesus?” Jesus himself gives us the answer: “Keep my
commandments.” By keeping the
commandments of Jesus, we order our lives in such a way that we remain close to
him and in kinship with him, in which we experience the benefit of his grace
and the safety of his providential care.
Okay,
so then the next question becomes, “What are the commandments of Jesus?” Again, Jesus gives us the answer: “Love one
another as I have loved you.” Jesus
further defines the greatest love (the love with which he loves us) is “to lay
down one’s life for his friends”. In
Jesus’ case, this meant making of himself a redemptive sacrifice that restores
us to communion with God, thus making possible the eternal life of complete joy
that he promised to give us. For us,
this means making sacrifices of ourselves for the good of others. Husbands for your wives and wives for your
husbands. Parents for your children and
children for your brothers, sisters, and friends. Bosses for your workers and workers for your
bosses. Priests for your parishioners
and parishioners for your priests. Those
who have material/emotional/spiritual comfort for those who lack it. I think you get the idea. Wherever we have a connection with others, we
are called to be ready to “lay down our lives” for their good.
This,
then, is the “formula” for achieving our complete joy: “Remain in the love of
Jesus by keeping his commandment to love one another.” Amazingly, this idea is confirmed in the
secular science of psychology. Clinical
psychologist Jordan Peterson has said this: “There is very little difference
[technically] from being self-conscious, that is, thinking about yourself or
being concerned about yourself—or, for that matter, even being aware of
yourself… [and experiencing] negative emotion.
In other words, there is no difference from being concerned about
yourself and being miserable. Those are
the same thing.” What he is saying, from
the science of psychology, is the same thing that Jesus is saying to his
disciples: when you focus exclusively on yourself and your own concerns, you
lose joy; but when you focus on others and their concerns, you find joy.
Okay,
this sounds very idealistic, but practically it doesn’t seem possible to live
this way, right? I mean, at some level,
I have to be concerned about myself, no?
Yes, that’s true. To balance
this, let’s turn to another teaching of Jesus.
Elsewhere in the Gospels, Jesus is confronted by one of the scribes and
is challenged to argue for the “greatest commandment” of the law. Jesus responds by saying, “You shall love the
Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind…
The second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” (Mt
26:38-39) I want to focus on that last
part: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”
In
my own prayer and reflection, I have found great wisdom in the fact that God
framed the commandment to love my neighbor in the context of my capacity to
love myself. This is because I have
found that my capacity to love my neighbor is limited by my capacity to love myself. In other words, I have found that, when I
love myself little, I love my neighbor little.
But when I love and care for myself in a generous way, I find myself
capable to love my neighbor in an even more generous way. Thus, it seems that the limit of my capacity
to be generous and accepting of others and of serving their needs is the limit
I place on being generous and accepting of myself and of taking care of my
needs. Therefore, to love myself—not in
a greedy way, but in a healthy way of attending to my own needs—increases my
capacity to love others; which, in turn, helps me to remain in the love of
Jesus, through which I find complete joy in my life. Can you see that there is no conflict
here? Rather, just a dynamic of love
that lifts us out of our focus on the difficulties of life and into a focus on
the communion with God and others that sustains us.
My
dear friends, as we continue through this Easter season—and prepare for the
great feasts of Ascension and Pentecost in the coming weeks—let us not lose
focus on Jesus’ command to remain in his love by keeping his commandment to
love one another as he has loved us.
Here in this Eucharist, we are reminded of how he loved us: he gave us
his Body and Blood to save us and to sustain us on our journey here on earth. Strengthened, therefore, by God’s love poured
out to us in this Eucharist, let us go forth from here to witness to God’s love
in us; so that our joy, both in this world and in eternity, might be complete.
Given in Spanish at St. Joseph Parish: Rochester, IN – May 5th,
2024
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