May 21^st, 2006

Sixth Sunday in Easter Time

Acts 10: 25-48 Psalm 98 1 Jn 4: 7-10 John 15:9-17

1. During the 1960s there was a very popular musical called “My Fair Lady”. Towards the end, you see Freddy Eynsford-Hill singing, “I have often walked on this street before.” But now I am in love, it seems so very different. At that stage, Eliza Doolittle comes storming out, “Words, words, words, first from him now from you. Is that all you blighters can do.” Our Second Reading and the Gospel seem to be Words, words, words... especially the Word Love. It appears nine times in the three verses of John’s letter and another nine times in the eight verses of the Gospel.

2. It is probably the only word we hear most often in our everyday language if you do not take into account all the swearing. When we speak of Love however, we speak of THREE types of Love.

a. The first is Eros. The Love that is physical. The love between young lovers. The love between Romeo and Juliet. We often tend to discount this love because it is connected with erotic and therefore pornographic love. And yet the present Pope, Benedict 16 in his first encyclical as a Pope, wrote “Deus Caritas est.” God is love. In that letter, the Pope stresses the importance of the Love called Eros. We must not discard the Love called Eros. This type of love is the spark plug of human relationships. A boy looks at a girl and says, “I like her smile, I like her figure.” A girl says, “he looks cute, or he is handsome.” As the little verse goes

first there is love, then there is marriage, then a baby in the carriage.

b. The second love is Philia. We have all heard of

Philanthropy: the love for mankind - or

philosophy: the love of wisdom.

Philadelphia: the city of brotherly love in Pa.

Philippos: love of horses

Philia - is the highest type of human love. It is selfless. It is centred on the other person. It seeks the wellbeing and prosperity of the one we love.

It is the love that Jesus had when he saw the crowds. He felt pity for them because they were like sheep without a shepherd.

It is the love Jesus had for the 5000 when he multiplied the loaves and the fish. He did not want them to faint on the way home.

It is the love we see in the cure of the daughter of Jairus. After the girl was cured and everyone was dancing and celebrating. Jesus was the only one sensitive enough and said, “give her something to eat, she must be hungry.”

it is the love a mother has for a son who has been killed at two o’clock in the morning. She will still say he was a good boy, caring and considerate. A good boy should have been in bed on a weekday... and not in the plaza at 2 in the morning. But love makes every excuse, gives the benefit of the doubt.

c. Our final love is Agape. To put it quite simply, it is Divine Love. This is the love Jesus describes in the Gospel. “As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you. Abide in my love.” This is the passage, that the Pope uses to open his encyclical. The Pope could have used the famous passage from John 3:16. “For God so loved the world.” Or he might have chosen, John 6:27 Love your enemies. But he chose this one to describe the Love of God.

It is a limitless love. It is a love that enriches anyone who is touched by this love and it takes them to a higher level. They say you become the food that you eat. And you are transformed by this love of God. Isn’t it strange but the prophets describe Agape, the love of God for us, in terms of Eros-Love. This personal, desiring and elective Love of God for us.

3. As Children we read comics of Superman and Spider man. These are superheroes. They were faster than a speeding bullet, stronger than a locomotive. Or words like that. Fastest and strongest. We all want to be that don’t we. The Divine Love however makes us slow and soft.

Slow enough to stop and watch the sunset.

Slow enough to stop and smell the roses.

Slow enough to stop and admire a baby’s curious look.

Slow enough to walk with the tiny steps of a three year old, or the faltering steps of an aged person.

It makes us soft at the sight of the poor, weak and homeless. It makes us soft to the rags of a street person. It allows us to see in them a Son or Daughter of God. Jesus invites us to abide in this love.

Who can afford to refuse this invitation.

God love you all.

APPENDIX: this Love leads to Jesus calling us Friends.

Friendship with Jesus has a fivefold special dimension.

First the friends of Jesus enjoy his sacrifice. “I lay down my life for my friends.”

Second we become the friends of Jesus not in a haphazard manner or by chance or coincidence, the friends of Jesus are deliberate. “I have chosen you.”

Third, the friends of Jesus are not left confused. If you are my friends, you will keep my commandments. These commandments are not a list of “shoulds” and “oughts” but an invitation that follows naturally from being a friend.

Fourth, to be the friends of Jesus is not only a blessing, but also a challenge. It is a call to serve. If you are my disciples, and I will not call you servants, but I call you friends, then you must serve one another.

Finally, the friends of Jesus are always fruitful. They might not be successful from the point of the Secular World. Jesus with all his miracles and good works, ended up as a failure on the cross from the point of view of the world. But the the friends of Jesus will always bear fruit, fruit that will last.