Acts 15:1-2, 22-29
Ps 67:2-3, 5, 6, 8
Rev 21:10-14, 22-23
Jn 14:23-29
Before Mass:
The homily today is going to center on the beginning of the Gospel
– listen to this:
“Whoever loves me will keep my word,
and my Father will love him,
and we will come to him and make our dwelling with him.
Whoever does not love me does not keep my words;"
What’s
that mean? If you’re like me, I read
this as another one of the churchy rules that tell me what I have to do to make
Jesus love me. But that’s not what it
says… and it’s not at all what it means.
See, reading it that way, the implication is that if we don’t do what
Jesus says, he WON’T love us. Is that even
possible? Is it possible for anything we
do to make God love us? Is there
anything we can do to make God NOT love us?
The short answer is NO. The long
answer is: There must be another way to understand Jesus’ words…and that’s
what we’ll talk about in the homily.
Homily
Jerry’s younger brother, Ted was adopted when he was just an
infant. He always knew he was adopted,
because every year since he was about 5 years old, a check would come in the
mail on his birthday. Ted’s real father
explained that because of their situation at the time, he had convinced Ted’s
mother to put him up for adoption.
And since then, He said, “not a day has gone by that I didn’t tearfully
wonder how that baby was doing… that baby is my son!” He explained that although he deeply regretted
giving him up, he is still convinced they made the right decision at the
time. They simply wouldn’t have been
able to give him a good home… but that didn’t change his love for his son. So now, 5 years later, he had a decent job
and wanted to help to provide for his son… so please accept this check to
offset whatever costs there are in raising him.
All I ask is that you please explain to him that his father loves him very
much.
When Ted turned 18, his real father sent the normal check for his
birthday… but this time he sent a letter directly to Teddy. It was a long letter… explaining the details
of his birth and his reasons for giving him up, but those details aren’t really
important right now. I want to read to you
just a part of that letter:
Teddy –
I am so proud of the man you grew up to be. Your Mom and Dad have kept me in the loop all
these years about your grades, your hobbies, and even the fact that your
favorite food is vanilla ice cream.
They’ve sent me photos so I could watch you grow… They sent copies of
some of the pictures you drew in school;
They even invited many times over the years to come visit - and I almost did many times – but felt it
was best to allow you to grow up without me complicating things.
Know that I love you – and I have always loved you. I’m hoping you will understand that as much
as it hurt us, your mother and I simply HAD to give you up for adoption… for
your own sake… but I’ve often dreamed of the day when I could give you a hug to
let you know how much I love you.
Now that you’re fully grown, I’d like to allow you to make a
decision for yourself. I would really
like to meet you and to be a part of your life.
I realize this may be major dilemma for you… your life is going so well:
do you really want to complicate it by bringing me into it? Whatever you decide, I’ll still be here –
loving you every minute.
So, based on what you know – does Ted’s real father love him? It sure seems so… first he chose not to abort
Teddy. Second, he knew that he wouldn’t
be able to give Teddy a good life, so even though it hurt him, he gave him
away. Third, he tried all his life to
have a relationship with Teddy from a distance – and even provided as much as
he could for Teddy’s growth. Yeah – it seems evident that he loved his
son.
Question: Did Teddy EARN his father’s love? No – nothing Teddy could do or not do
would change the fact that his father loves him.
But – here’s the real question… do Teddy and his father have a
relationship? Does Teddy know and love
his father? No- he doesn’t even know him
other than as this ‘vague idea of someone out there somewhere kinda watching
over him – who supposedly loves him, but they’ve never met.’ In order to have a personal relationship, Teddy
needs to get to know his father and share his life with him.
You and I are Teddy. Our
Father in heaven could have kept us with Himself forever, but He chose to
give us to some earthly parents to raise us – so that we could experience a
full life. Notice there’s nothing Teddy
did to earn his father’s love… likewise with us – regardless of what we do or
don’t do, our Father loves us. YOUR FATHER LOVES YOU….as you are… nothing
you can do about it.
But just like Teddy, our Father wants to have a
relationship with us – YOUR father wants to have a relationship with you. God has been inviting you into that
relationship every day… every moment of your life. Look around at all the ways He has blessed
you and you’ll recognize that He is crazy about you. But - Until we meet Jesus, God remains to us as just a ‘vague idea of someone
out there somewhere kinda watching over us – who supposedly loves us – but
we’ve never met’.
We ‘know’ God love us – we’ve heard that ad nauseum since we were
kids – You know: John 3:16 and all that – God so loved
the WORLD - but do we really KNOW it PERSONALLY? We won’t fully know God’s love until we give Him love in return….and
I think that’s the key to what Jesus is saying today.
Love that is given is only complete when it is returned. Love is only complete or consummated when the
Love is returned. That may sound pretty deep
or philosophical, so let me give you some examples:
Imagine you hug someone…. And they don’t hug you back. Like hugging a fish… not
that I’ve ever hugged a fish, but you can just imagine! You have expressed your feelings to that
person, but they gave nothing in return.
But!!! Imagine if that person leans into the hug and squeezes back! It changes everything!! It creates a moment of intimacy and builds a
bond in your relationship.
God is always hugging us – and he’s inviting us to hug Him back so
that we can experience a new level of the Love relationship He’s offering.
Another way to think about it is a married couple – when they
first meet, they fall in love and they kiss for the first time – that kiss –
when it is given and received by both of them, opens up a whole’nother level in
their relationship. Just think of
the emotions, feelings, thoughts and dreams that are enkindled by that first kiss!! When they’re married, their relationship
reaches a whole new level of intimacy, because there is a total gift of
self to one another….but it doesn’t stop there even… as they grow old together
and share each other’s joys and pains and struggles of life, their intimacy
grows to the point where what they thought was true love in the beginning,
pales in comparison to the intimacy they have now.
God is madly in love with you – YOU – personally. But you and I don’t experience that love
fully unless we return that love.
Communion is a moment of extreme intimacy… God is offering himself
to you personally. It’s up to us to love
back. Think about this as you come
forward today to Communion:
As you receive Him, He is receiving you – as you consume Him, He is
consuming you… like a hug – like a kiss.
Jesus made a pretty big promise today – God already loves you –
but If you love God in return, God will make his dwelling in you. Let that sink in: all we have to do is give love away, and Love
himself will take up residence IN us. When we
return Love to God, God Himself will be in us – and since God is Love, the more
we give love away, the more we become the Home of Love.
Lean
into that love today and squeeze God back.
