Love's Labors

How great it is to be back with you at Mass, preaching from this pulpit to actual people again and not just to a screen. By my count, it’s was just over two months ago that we last had public Mass, and so despite the restrictions and the precautions we are taking, it’s a joy to be gathered around the altar of the Lord again with you.

A lot has changed over the past two months. We have all had to endure difficulties in one way or another, some more so than others. We have had to get used to a new way of doing even the most basic things of daily life, and we’ve been motivated to do them for different reasons. Sometimes others have told us to do them: a business having to temporarily close its doors, for example, or a church suspending public services. Other things we have done perhaps because we have felt a sense of duty or obligation: practicing social distancing, wearing a mask, washing our hands frequently.

But in the midst of those things we’ve been told to do, or felt a duty to do, I imagine we can all think of things we have done because we *want* to do them: perhaps, reaching out to a loved one who lives alone; sharing some of our resources with those less fortunate; even deciding to refrain from visiting friends or family out of a desire to keep them safe. That’s because love is always the best motivation for anything; even more than when they are commanded or done out of duty, difficult things are done best when they’re done out of love.

In the Gospel today, Jesus speaks to his disciples about what they will do after he has left them. He has spent the better part of three years instructing them, forming them – showing them what it means to be his disciples. They have a whole body of teaching to live out, to proclaim – both in word and especially in action. But still, here, Jesus reminds them the reason for all that he has given to them: love. “If you love me,” he says, “you will keep my commandments.” Love is the motivating principle – it’s the foundation for everything else and it’s what makes these commandments doable. And not just a generic love, either – the love of Jesus.

Loving Jesus is probably the best way to sum up the essence of our Christian faith. But don’t we often fall short of that? We have some other motivation: maybe personal benefit – “What’s in this for me?” or a desire to just follow the rules – “I’m doing this because the Church says so” – or a sense of duty – “I guess I shouldn’t do that because I’m a Christian.” While those motivations can sometimes be useful, they all fall short in one way or another of the standard of love. The highest form of following Jesus isn’t something that can be done by a single action or in a concrete moment – it’s something that has to be continually lived out. It’s a relationship, a friendship – to love Christ, and to love others out of love of Christ.

Gustave Doré, The Apostles Preaching the Gospel (1891)

I hope that the last several months have given us all time and opportunity to consider our own friendship with the Lord – a friendship that perhaps has been disrupted like so many other things have, especially without the ability to come to Mass and to receive the Eucharist. But as with any friendship, distance can make it stronger – absence can make the heart grow fonder. Perhaps this time away from our worship routine has made us better understand why we believe what we believe, why we do what we do. To be authentic, our faith has to be rooted in love; to fulfill the Lord’s commandments, we have to love him above all else. We have had the chance to learn that truth in these last many weeks, and no doubt we will have the opportunity to do so again and again in the time to come. Even as we return to public worship, the world is still in difficult straits, and it needs our witness – now more than ever – of what the love of Jesus spurs us on to do. I don’t just mean in the things that relate to the pandemic, although those are good places to start – public safety, using good judgment, bearing our burdens with patience and humility. But even more, we have seen so clearly in these past months how much our world needs the light and the love of Christ. Who better to share that than his disciples, his friends, we who say we love him?

Friends, in the Gospel today Jesus promises the gift of the Holy Spirit, and it is that gift – the divine gift of the Third Person of the Holy Trinity – that the Lord gives to assist us in loving him. The Holy Spirit teaches us how to love – how to obey God’s commandments with joy, how to endure our sorrows with hope and strength, how to express to others the love of friendship with Jesus that undergirds all we do. As we prepare to receive the Eucharist again this day, with great love for the Lord present in this Sacrament of Charity, may the Holy Spirit motivate us to find each day the opportunity to renew our love for the Lord Jesus and to be renewed in it.