Impartial Love

Homily – May 10, 2015 (Sixth Sunday of Easter - B)

Acts 10: 25-26, 34-35, 44-48; Psalm 98: 1, 2-3, 3-4; 1 John 4:7-10; John 15: 9-17

A special thanks to the Mothers, and Happy Mother's Day to all. There are many obvious connections with today's readings, and the celebrations that have and will occur on this day to say thanks. But today is not just a day for the card, flowers, special meal, or those really nice coupons from the kids that promise a chore, or a cleaning of their room (which they should be doing anyway).  Today we celebrate three genuine elements of what makes motherhood the gift from God that it is... Love and service with no partiality!

But first, let's get up to speed with an Easter Season that is in full swing, and coming to end soon:

• Jesus is Risen... Our new life in Him is as alive today as it was on that day of our own Baptism! Remember, those who die with Christ, also rise with Him! This Easter season calls us to let go of our own self, and perceived needs, and LIVE in the light of this Easter Candle, the light that dispels all darkness and guides us into all of the new opportunities that await us in the journey towards an everlasting life with Him!

• Believe Without Seeing... Blessed are you who cannot see, and still believe! For in our supposed state of blindness, the Lord finds other ways of revealing Himself. Whether it's on a journey like on the Road to Emmaus, where we walk together, experiencing the Lord in our burning hearts and seeing Him in the breaking of the bread; or like the Apostles gathered in the Upper Room, when we are greeted by the Lord, here in the Mass, allowing us to proclaim, "My Lord, and my God;" or when we experience a conversion like Paul's, and we hear the Lord's voice, and experience His light, calling on us to stop the persecution, and simply follow Christ...

• Be Opened by God's Word... Not open to, as if it's something to consider, but open by His Word, to a deeper understanding of what it means to love!

• Find God in the Rejected... The love of God resides in those whom the world has rejected, the lonely, the poor, the "outsider". We are invited to know, love and serve the Lord by serving one another! They rejected Him, and they will reject you. But just as He became the cornerstone, you too must know how much you can handle, and what you can support!

• The Spirit Prunes Us (So as to Grow)... Christ said, "I am the vine, you are the branches." Which simply means that we are called to do all of the above, to live, believe, and be open, growing and reaching out farther as we serve, especially the poor, knowing that we are connected, and forever part of the whole!

• Continue Jesus' Ministry, even after He has ascended, or in those times when it feels like He's there, but not here; and allow us to experience yet another Pentecost, quenching our thirst for the Holy Spirit.

Which brings us to today... God shows no partiality. While this is true in times of challenge, that is, no one is so favored in God's eyes that he or she would be spared of the realities of our human experience, namely bad days, scary diagnoses, or natural disasters. It is particularly true with God's love!  The theme of the two readings from 1 John and the Gospel of John is obviously love, or more specifically, “Love one another.” But we should be careful not to fall into the comfort zone of just loving those who belong to our group, or just this parish, or just "our kind", staying away from the outsiders, or those who don't follow our rules. Our First Reading from Acts makes it clear that we are to love everyone without exception, for “God shows no partiality” and we are to pattern our love after God’s love.

I think it's noteworthy that on this 50th Anniversary of Vatican II's Declaration on the Relationship of the Church to Non-Christian Religions, we hear again how the Church asks us to live with what some might refer to as "outsiders" and serve one another...

• We cannot in truthfulness call upon that God who is the Father of all if we refuse to act in a [loving] way toward certain [people], created though they be to God’s image.

• A [person's] relationship with God the Father and his relationship with his [people] are so linked together that Scripture says: ‘He who does not love does not know God’ (1 Jn 4:8).

• The ground is therefore removed from every theory or practice which leads to a distinction between people in the matter of human dignity and the rights which flow from it.

• As a consequence, the Church rejects, as foreign to the mind of Christ, any discrimination against [people] or harassment of them because of their race, color, condition of life, or religion.

This Father's love shows no partiality, for love by its very nature, is not restrictive. It is inclusive of all, cares for all, and reaches out to all.  His Son, Jesus was given to us all, for God sent His only Son so that we all might have life through him! There is no partiality because it doesn't matter how you love God, or how many times you say the right prayer, or do the right thing. What matters is that YOU ARE LOVED, period! Once you've embraced this, then that love begins to grow, preparing us to share it in the same way... With no partiality. Jesus puts it out there in today's Gospel where he simply says, "Love one another as I love you!

The power of God's Holy Spirit crosses any and all boundaries, illustrated quite well in today's First Reading, as the Spirit interrupts Peter, and simply comes down on ALL who were listening to the Word. This movement of the Spirit, and Peter's willingness to simply submit and obey, led many to the waters of Baptism.  Again, we have a model to follow as we prepare ourselves to leave the Easter Season, and enter into the not so ordinary task of living in Ordinary Time... The Lord is risen, and he is always with us; especially in the work of our lives in serving others with no partiality! Can you submit to that? Will you obey Jesus' obvious request that we love one another, as He loves us?

We've focused on the command of the Gospel in the last verse of John, "love one another," but there's one more element to consider today, the verse just before hand. In the Gospel Reading, Christ suggests a remedy for any problem we have, when He says that, "It was not you who chose me, but I who choose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit that will remain, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, He may give you." Wow, The Father will give you anything you ask for, if you will just ask for it in Christ’s name.

But what is it to ask for something in Christ’s name? It can’t be a matter of simply tacking the name of Christ on to any prayer. “I would like a Porsche, please, in the name of Christ.” Prayer isn’t magic. It isn’t a matter of using the right magical formulas in order to make God do what you want him to do.  It helps here to consider some more practical cases in which one person asks something in the name of another. An employee can ask for the mail in their boss’s name: “I’m just here to pick up the mail for my boss!” A child can ask a neighbor for a cup of sugar in his mother’s name: “Mrs. Murphy, my mother wants to know if you could lend her a cup of sugar.”

In these cases, the person asking can ask in the name of another because he somehow identifies himself as in relationship with that other: my boss, or my mother. Some connection of shared work, or a family relation binds the two of them together.  To ask for something in Christ’s name is similar. When you ask in the name of Christ, you are in the kind of relationship to him that lets you ask with respect to him. And what would bind the two of you together in this way? Not just a "personal relationship with Jesus Christ," but an intimate one!

The Lord loves and cares for his own. He knows what to give in answering to our prayers. So if you ask the Father for something in the name of Christ, then you do so prepared to accept what your Lord wants to give you. What you are given will be a good gift if it is in accord with his will, even if it isn’t in accord with yours. This is trust, and with trust comes intimacy.  This is what sets relationship a part from others... Again, first and foremost, God loves us in the deepest way possible (and then some). And we love, because we are loved by Him. Like the letter from John says, "Everyone who loves, is begotten by God, and knows God."

So, don't ever forget why you were born: To know, love and serve the Lord! To know God is to know him with the deep intimacy that we see in the bond of mother and child. Such a depth of knowledge leads one to grow in their own level of intimacy for God that endures and remains. I would contend that this can apply to mother/child relationships as well, and that is why a lot of you scurry to get the cards, flowers, and those adorable coupons for chores. Such intimacy leads us to mature in our faith, and help us extend ourselves, reaching out like fruitful branches from the vine, as it grows to become evident in our actions, that is, our loving one another.