Lectionary Reflection — 22 April 2018, Fourth Sunday of Easter
16-17 This is how we’ve come to understand and experience love: Christ sacrificed his life for us. This is why we ought to live sacrificially for our fellow believers, and not just be out for ourselves. If you see some brother or sister in need and have the means to do something about it but turn a cold shoulder and do nothing, what happens to God’s love? It disappears. And you made it disappear.
18-20 My dear children, let’s not just talk about love; let’s practice real love. This is the only way we’ll know we’re truly living in God’s reality. It’s also the way to shut down debilitating self-criticism, even when there’s something to it. For God’s greater than our worried hearts and knows more about us than we do ourselves.
21-24 And friends, once that’s taken care of and we’re no longer accusing or condemning ourselves, we’re bold and free before God! We’re able to stretch our hands out and receive what we asked for because we’re doing what God said, doing what pleases God. Again, this is God’s command: to believe in God’s personally named Son, Jesus the Christ. He told us to love each other, in line with the original command. As we keep his commands, we live deeply and surely in him, and he lives in us. And this is how we experience his deep and abiding presence in us: by the Spirit he gave us.
Other readings:
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In 2011, The Way, was released in the US. The film was written, produced, and directed by Emilio Estevez and starring his real father, Martin Sheen. It tells the story of an estranged father (Sheen) who must travel to France to gather the remains of his son (Estevez) who died in an accident while walking the Camino de Santiago. While there, Sheen decides the best homage he could pay his son is to walk the Camino in his stead, carrying the ashes of his son with him. What follows is a moving film about sacrifice, connection, and, yes, love. It’s a very human movie. And it’s a very spiritual movie. I highly recommend the film, if you haven’t seen it or, even if you have, it’s worth seeing again.
In our Lesson today, St John reminds us that we’re to “live sacrificially” for others and “not just be out for ourselves.” “This,” we’re told, is how we’re to “understand and experience love.” After all, this was The Way of Jesus.
And then John gives us some very practical advice; some that’s also very human. He tells us to “practice real love.” He says that when we do that, we’re “truly living in God’s reality.”
Let’s think about this for a moment.
God’s reality — God’s Realm that has come “on earth as in heaven” — is the realm of “real love.” And “real love” enables us to “shut down debilitating self-criticism, even when there’s something to it.” I don’t know about you, but this is me all over. I think a lot of us are our own worst critic. I probably scrap more stuff I write than I publish. It was the same when I drew all the time.
When it comes to ministry, I always feel inadequate, like I’m a big phony. I remember one time when I was speaking with my spiritual director I said, “I’m afraid people will find out I’m a fraud.” What I mean by that is I don’t fit in the “normal” place holders one associates with a writer or priest or spiritual director (and let’s not even get me started on husband, partner, father, and friend).
So, yes, my “self-criticism” can be, and more often than not it is, very debilitating … “even when there’s something to it.” I constantly fall short of what I perceive to be the epitome of writer, priest, and spiritual director (and even more so as husband, partner, father, and friend).
To move past this, though, is to “practice real love.” That’s a very important word — practice. It shows us that we haven’t yet arrived at our intended goal. The word “practice” has two key meanings:
Practice (praktəs):
1. The actual application or use of an idea, belief, or method as opposed to theories about such application or use.
2. The repeated exercise in or performance of an activity or skill so as to acquire or maintain proficiency in it.
2. The repeated exercise in or performance of an activity or skill so as to acquire or maintain proficiency in it.
And these two understandings are found throughout the entire New Testament. For instance, St James was all about the first definition. He wrote:
14-17 My brothers and sisters, what good is it if people say they have faith but do nothing to show it? Claiming to have faith can’t save anyone, can it? Imagine a brother or sister who is naked and never has enough food to eat. What if one of you said, “Go in peace! Stay warm! Have a nice meal!”? What good is it if you don’t actually give them what they need? In the same way, faith is dead when it doesn’t result in faithful activity.
18 Someone might claim, “You have faith and I have action.” But how can I see your faith apart from your actions? Instead, I’ll show you my faith by putting it into practice in faithful action.
And so was Paul:
The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love.
James gives us the second meaning of the word “practice” when talking about Abraham. He wrote, “Abraham’s faith was at work along with his actions. In fact, his faith was made complete by his faithful actions” (James 2.22; CEB; adapted). In other words, Abraham didn’t just do one thing and his faith was complete. No. It took more than that. It took him doing a lot of things — “faithful actions” (plural) — to make his faith complete.
This tells us that “real love” is a continuous activity — like learning to play the ukulele or painting or dancing. Once someone starts learning the basics and become proficient, she realizes that she must continue to practice. Even if she becomes a “master,” she realizes that she must continue to study and practice. It’s a lifelong journey — not a destination.
That’s what Martin Sheen’s character realizes in The Way. Sure, the destination is important but he realizes it’s the journey that really changes him and his companions on the Camino.
We, too, must continually put actions to our faith to produce “real love.” And “real love” is the manifestation of God’s Reality in our lives and the world. It’s not only a destination — it’s a journey.
It’s The Way of Jesus.
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In the Love of the Three in One,
Br. Jack+, LC
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1. Scripture quotations marked (MSG) taken from The Message. Copyright © 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 2000, 2001, 2002 by Eugene H. Peterson. Used by permission of NavPress Publishing Group.
2. Scripture quotations marked (CEB) are taken from The Common English Bible. Copyright © 2011 by Common English Bible.
3. Scripture quotations marked (NIV) are taken from The Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV® Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
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