Love and Joy

It's been way too long since I posted on my blog!  Since last March 12th, I made a trip to Malawi, celebrated Holy Week and Easter, took another trip to Washington D.C., participated in a lively parish Auction...and Archbishop Sartain (Seattle's Archbishop) went very public against gay marriage, and was put in charge of helping the U.S. nuns reform...and we held our concluding retreat for the JustFaith program in the parish.  All of those are things I might have posted about.  Oh, and I gave our parish homily a few times (which I usually post). 

I have no good excuse.  It's just that I get behind sometimes, and now I happen to be "very far behind" about a lot of things.  Still, though, I want to post this homily, because I was very happy when I wrote it and gave it -- regardless of the fact that I only had an hour to write it.

I feel that God has been very kind and generous to me -- there's a lot of JOY in my life.  I think it shows, from this homily.  God must know that I need it! 

6th Sunday of Easter (B), 5/13/12

Today’s Gospel is one of my very favorite readings. It’s simply marvelous. It’s a continuation of the Last Supper discourse in John’s Gospel, which was proclaimed last Sunday and also at the daily Masses this past week. In fact, it follows immediately after last Sunday’s section about the vine and the branches.

There are so many possible themes from this short passage, and I would like to focus on just two of them. The first theme is very obvious – Love. Our 2nd reading and our gospel virtually sing in harmony about love. And this passage is so rich, that there are at least three ways that our gospel today talks about love:

1) One is from the first paragraph, as Jesus is telling his disciples (and us) that he loves them (and us). He says, “Remain in my love! If you keep my commandments, you will remain in my love.” To use the word “commandment” here is not meant to create the image of a God giving edicts to the human race. Jesus’ teachings, his commandments, are not about judgment and damnation; if that is your focus, you’re looking at them backwards. His teachings ARE in fact all about showing us HOW to love, the WAYS to love, and the ways to BUILD love between people. And we need those teachings because love is much more than a feeling – love is also a choice, and a calling.

2) The second way that this passage speaks about love is … so very humbling. Jesus talks about just how great his love for us is. “No one has greater love than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friends.” Here Jesus is making the cross very personal! And he’s also making his love for us very personal too. “You are my friends. You, who are doing what I have taught you and shown you about love – you are my friends, and I love you so much that I lay down my life, for you.

3) But the third way of looking at love is my favorite; in fact, I often suggest that couples use it for their weddings. Twice he reminds them to “Love one another,” and just in case, to explain what he meant, he says “Love one another as I love you.” Do you realize how strong that is? Up until now all throughout the Bible, the scriptural standard, God's command, is to love our neighbor as ourselves. But this new standard is far stronger! We’re to love one another as God loves us – and God loves us much more than we love ourselves! God loves us unconditionally! God loves us into being! When we begin to realize how much God loves us, at first it’s overwhelming, but it’s also freeing – it can free us to love one another better, and it gives us an example, a model for our love. But just in case we still don’t get it, just in case we still don’t know how much he loves us, he shows us, one last time.  Once Jesus leaves that upper room, he leaves to give his life for us.

So you can see why I like to use this passage as the gospel passage for weddings… husbands and wives, mothers and fathers, are called to love the way God loves, unconditionally.  We really are called to give our lives for each other, and for our family.

This short passage on love is so rich. But there’s also another theme that I have to call your attention to, and it is captured in these words: “I have told you this so that my joy may be in you, and your joy might be complete.” JOY! Jesus told us all this about love so that HIS JOY MIGHT BE IN US, so that OUR JOY MIGHT BE COMPLETE!

JOY – We don’t have the time to even begin to talk about joy, so I’d like to give just a definition. Merriam-Webster says joy is “an emotion evoked by well-being, success, or good fortune, or by the prospect of possessing what one desires. It is delight, gaity, happiness, gladness or” – and believe it or not, it also says this—“warm fuzzies.”

Well, that’s the popular understanding of Joy, but Joy is more; and certainly Jesus meant something more. The Dictionary of Catholic Spirituality says this: "JOY exists in the very pattern of life constituted by trust in God, through Jesus."

It says more, which I’ll skip, but it ends this way: "Joy occupies a central place among all the Christian affections."

Joy is not jollity. Joy often surprises. Joy can co-exist with pain. Joy involves a felt sense of connectedness to what IS. Joy involves the union of heaven and earth, of spirit and flesh. Joy is what we feel in the presence of God. In fact, the only condition for Joy is the presence of God. Joy happens when God is present and people sense it, they know it, which means it can erupt in a depressed economy, in the middle of a war, or in an intensive care waiting room.

Without the proclamation of Joy, Christianity is incomprehensible, and we cease to be credible Christian witnesses if we ever lose it.

May God bless you, and may you be filled with God’s love and joy.

Deacon Denny Duffell
St. Bridget Parish