Love opens the door

The texts from the Roman Catholic Lectionary today invite contemplation of the foundation that Love is in generating hope for the New Heaven and the New Earth.

Love reveals truth, beauty, goodness

The reading from Acts summarizes the end of the First Mission of Paul and Barnabas.

* [14:23] They appointed presbyters: the communities are given their own religious leaders by the traveling missionaries. The structure in these churches is patterned on the model of the Jerusalem community (Acts 11:30; 15:2, 5, 22; 21:18).1 

In Psalm 145 The “works of God” make God present.

The “works of God” make God present and invite human praise (Ps 145:4–7); they climax in a confession (Ps 145:8–9). God’s mighty acts show forth divine kingship (Ps 145:10–20), a major theme in the literature of early Judaism and in Christianity.2 

The passage from the Book of Revelation shares images of the New Heaven and the New Earth.

* [21:1–22:5] A description of God’s eternal kingdom in heaven under the symbols of a new heaven and a new earth; cf. Is 65:17–25; 66:22; Mt 19:28.3 

The Gospel from John express love as the New Commandment declared by Jesus.

* [13:34] I give you a new commandment: this puts Jesus on a par with Yahweh. The commandment itself is not new; cf. Lv 19:18 and the note there.4 

Suzanne Guthrie is interested in questions about how people "learn" to discern layers of consciousness of the Holy. She cites John of the Cross and Ernesto Cardenal in her meditation on the Gospel today.

We turn outward, attracted by the beauty we see in created things without realizing that they are only a reflection of the real beauty. And the real beauty is within us. And so paradoxically, the more we turn toward beauty, the more we turn away from it. For it is in the opposite direction. We turn outward and it is within.5
Her reflections are accessible through Textweek Easter 5 6 

Mariana Miller is struck by Jesus’ last words in the Gospel passage.

I give you a new commandment: love one another.As I have loved you, so you also should love one another.This is how all will know that you are my disciples,if you have love for one another." (vv.34, 35)
We are living in a historical time where we tend to only want to love those who look, think, talk, and act like us. Is this what Jesus meant when he said, “As I have loved you, so you also should love one another”? What does it mean today, for us, to love one another like Jesus loved us?
Let us ponder these questions in our prayer today and ask God for the grace of openness to love in justice and reconciliation in our own lives, in our communities and in our world.7 

Don Schwager quotes “Christ's love goes further than anything previous,” by Cyril of Alexandria (376-444 AD).

 "He plainly indicates the novelty involved in his command here - and the extent to which the love he enjoins here surpasses the old idea of mutual love (Deuteronomy 6:5) - by adding the words 'Even as I have loved you, you also should love one another.' ... The law of Moses mandated the necessity of loving our brothers as ourselves, yet our Lord Jesus the Christ loved us far more than he loved himself. Otherwise, he would have never descended to our humiliation from his original exaltation in the form of God and on an equality with God the Father, nor would he have undergone for our sakes the exceptional bitterness of his death in the flesh, nor have submitted to beatings from the Jews, to shame, to derision, and all his other sufferings too numerous to mention. Being rich, he would never have become poor if he had not loved us far more than he loved himself. It was indeed something new for love to go as far as that! Christ commands us to love as he did, putting neither reputation, wealth or anything else before love of our brothers and sisters. If need be, we even need to be prepared to face death for our neighbor’s salvation as our Savior's blessed disciples did, as well as those who followed in their footsteps. To them the salvation of others mattered more than their own lives, and they were ready to do anything or to suffer anything to save souls that were perishing." (excerpt from COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 9)8

The Word Among Us Meditation on John 13:31-35 asks if be nice, take care of the people you’re close to, maybe give some money to the poor. Is this all that Jesus means? Or does he have a different idea? Let’s look at the context of this command to get some idea.

he is calling them to a love that mirrors his own love—a love that is selfless and sacrificial, a love that flows from God’s unconditional love for each person on earth.
This way of loving would set apart Jesus’ followers because it is so different from the way most people think of love. Jesus’ love washed the feet of his betrayer. It forgave those who nailed him to the cross. It reached across cultural lines to embrace Samaritans and Gentiles. It extended healing to the marginalized and political rivals.
It’s this kind of love that won people over in the first century: they saw believers caring for outcasts like widows and orphans and holding their possessions in common. But it has also won people over throughout history: people saw Christians nursing plague victims in the Middle Ages, believers risking their safety to hide Jews during World War II, and more recently, Pope St. John Paul II forgiving the man who shot him.9 

Friar Jude Winkler notes that Paul and Barnabas appointed “presbiterio” or priests and counselors in the communities they visited who would suffer obstacles as they lived the Way. The New Jerusalem is a society where we form the Body of Christ. Friar Jude reminds that the Father is glorified in Jesus in the outpouring of Love on the Cross.

Fr. Richard Rohr, OFM, teaches the Divine Spirit—God within us, is already promised, often with different words, by the Hebrew prophets. In Jeremiah 31:31-34 and Isaiah 11:2—God takes on an indwelling character. The unnamable I AM becomes writ large on our hearts, revealing the “down and in” divine characteristic present since the beginning of time. Let’s call the Holy Spirit Implanted Hope.

 Theologian Jack Levison points out that there are many meanings for the Hebrew word ruach and the Greek pneuma: “The original Hebrew and Greek words for ‘spirit’ were used to convey concepts as diverse as a breath, a breeze, a powerful gale, an angel, a demon, the heart and soul of a human being, and the divine presence itself.” [1] For me, what seems most significant is that Spirit is the divine indwelling in creation. As God promises Ezekiel, “I will put my spirit within you, and you shall live.” (See Ezekiel 37:9-14.)
Without God as Holy Spirit, there’s no inner momentum, élan vital, or aliveness to heal our wounds. When the Spirit is alive in people, they wake up from their mechanical thinking and enter the realm of co-creative power. As in Ezekiel’s vision, the water flows from ankles to knees to waist to neck as the New Earth is hydrated. (See Ezekiel 47:1-12.) Like Pinocchio, we move from wooden to real. We transform from hurt people hurting other people to wounded healers healing others. Not just as individuals but as shapers of history that keeps moving forward through the Spirit’s power.10

Jesus Life in us through the indwelling Spirit reveals the truth, beauty, and goodness in Creation and connects us in service to love that sacrifices self for the other.

References

1	(n.d.). Acts, chapter 14 - United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. Retrieved May 19, 2019, from http://www.usccb.org/bible/acts/14
2	(n.d.). Psalms, chapter 145 - United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. Retrieved May 19, 2019, from http://www.usccb.org/bible/psalms/145
3	(n.d.). Revelation, chapter 21 - United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. Retrieved May 19, 2019, from http://www.usccb.org/bible/revelation/21
4	(n.d.). John, chapter 13 - United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. Retrieved May 19, 2019, from http://www.usccb.org/bible/john/13
5	(n.d.). Easter 5 A - At the Edge of the Enclosure. Retrieved May 19, 2019, from http://www.edgeofenclosure.org/easter5a.html
6	(n.d.). Easter B5 - Textweek. Retrieved May 19, 2019, from http://www.textweek.com/yearb/easterb5.htm
7	(n.d.). Creighton U Daily Reflections - OnlineMinistries - Creighton University. Retrieved May 19, 2019, from http://onlineministries.creighton.edu/CollaborativeMinistry/daily.html
8	(n.d.). Daily Scripture Readings and Meditations. Retrieved May 19, 2019, from https://dailyscripture.servantsoftheword.org/
9	(n.d.). Meditations - The Word Among Us. Retrieved May 19, 2019, from https://wau.org/meditations/2019/05/19/
10	(2019, May 19). Implanted Hope — Center for Action and Contemplation. Retrieved May 19, 2019, from https://cac.org/implanted-hope-2019-05-19/