by Fr. Tommy Lane
“If you love me, you will keep my commandments,” says Jesus to us today (John 14:15). If we love Jesus, we will strive to live in a way pleasing to Jesus. When we love Jesus with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength, we will not want to put anything, no matter how small, before Jesus. Again the words of Jesus in our Gospel are, “If you love me, you will keep my commandments.” (John 14:15) Sometimes we hear people make statements like, “Jesus understands that I am human. He will forgive me.” Jesus is forgiving; we do not doubt Jesus’ mercy. But if we love Jesus more than anything we will put Jesus before whatever it is that is tempting us, and we will try to root that sin out of our lives completely.
Loving Jesus therefore is not just something emotional; loving Jesus may mean changing our lives, reforming our lives, working on our personalities and characters, overcoming sinful habits, stretching ourselves to love as Jesus loved. Loving Jesus means thinking about ourselves and others as Jesus thinks. Where does your information about yourself and others and the world come from? If it comes only from TV and a materialistic western culture which does not understand the difference between freedom to sin and the freedom to do what is right, our minds may be contaminated by false images of ourselves, others, and the world. But if we truly want to love Jesus, we will fill our minds with his thoughts and his way of looking at the world. We can fill our minds with Jesus’ thoughts by reading the Bible, reading spiritual books, and praying as much as possible every day. If we fill our minds with the filth of the world, how can we love Jesus? It would be impossible, and it would be impossible to keep his commandments. We can fill our minds with the thoughts of Jesus so that we may love him and keep his commandments.
Again the words of Jesus are, “If you love me, you will keep my commandments.” (John 14:15) Truly loving Jesus leads us to give up whatever in our lives draws us away from Jesus. As Jesus said in Matthew 6:24, we cannot be the slave of two masters. Truly loving Jesus leads us to making changes in the way we live and think and act. When we love Jesus, we put Jesus in first place and so we will keep his commandments. How do we know if we love Jesus? Look at the way we live our lives. Do we live as Jesus asks? Do we live as Jesus asks us through the Church’s teaching? If we do, then we know that we love Jesus. If we truly love Jesus and do not understand the Church’s teaching on an issue, our love of Jesus will prompt us to probe and learn until we understand why the Church teaches what she does.
When we keep the commandments not only do we love Jesus, but we also have the love of God in us. At the end of our Gospel excerpt today we heard,
Whoever has my commandments and observes them
is
the one who loves me.
And whoever loves me will be loved by my Father,
and I will love him and reveal myself to him. (John 14:21)
So, loving Jesus and keeping his commandments fills us with the love of Jesus and the love of the Father, and in our hearts we see Jesus. When we love Jesus and keep his commandments, we have Jesus in our hearts. But sin kills the life of God in us and whenever the life of God is lacking in us, it is not God’s fault; it is ours. It is not God who sends us to Purgatory; we send ourselves because if our soul is lacking in love of God we would be blinded by the pure light of God’s love and need to purify ourselves to be able to enjoy the vision of God in heaven. Likewise, anyone who goes to hell does so because they have chosen to totally reject the love of God. But, in the words of our Gospel today,
Whoever has my commandments and observes them
is
the one who loves me.
And whoever loves me will be loved by my Father,
and I will love him and reveal myself to him. (John 14:21)
How much does Jesus love us? This much [stretching out arms]. He stretched out his arms on the cross and died for us. Never be afraid to turn to Jesus for mercy; Jesus is always waiting to forgive us and restore us again. We resolve during this Mass to love Jesus by keeping his commandments so that the love of Jesus and the Father and the Spirit may be in our hearts, and we may have Jesus in our hearts.
Copyright © Fr. Tommy Lane 2005
This homily was delivered in a parish in Maryland.
More Homilies for the Sixth Sunday of Easter Year A
The Spirit of God leads us to the truth about the world and ourselves 2023
Related Homilies: Loving God with all our heart and loving our neighbor as ourselves
Loving God and Loving our Neighbor as Ourselves 2018