by Fr. Tommy Lane
In a moment of desperation or frustration, in a moment when someone’s cross is heavy, someone may wonder if God really loves them or even if God exists. Such thinking is an understandable moment of wondering in the face of difficulty and pain. It is a moment of questioning provoked by suffering. Yet of course we know that God exists and loves us. The answer to this questioning is given us by Jesus in his words in the Gospel today: “As the Father loves me, so I also love you.” (John 15:9)
This is an astounding statement—that Jesus loves us as the Father loves him. We might wonder if that is really what Jesus means. This is too good to be true. Am I misunderstanding it? Am I being heretical in thinking that Jesus loves me as the Father loves him? Could it be that there is a problem with the English translation of John’s original Greek? It is obviously a difficult statement to understand because many of the scholars who write on John’s Gospel skip over this verse: “As the Father loves me, so I also love you.” It sounds like Jesus is saying his love for us is comparable to his Father’s love for us. The clearest answer I found is in a homily given by then Cardinal Ratzinger, later Pope Benedict XVI, during Mass for the ordination of priests in Rome (October 10, 1996, Church of San Ignazio):
with the same love with which God loves himself, with the same love with which the Son is devoted to his Father—with that same love, the Lord loves us. We are known, we are loved, we are accepted. Our existence in the world is not empty; we are not cast into a meaningless darkness without knowing [from where] it comes or [to where] it leads. An indestructible love accepted us in advance and goes with us. (Joseph Ratzinger, Benedict XVI Signs of New Life: Homilies on the Church’s Sacraments p118)
We probably don’t think too often about that:
with the same love with which God loves himself, with the same love with which the Son is devoted to his Father—with that same love, the Lord loves us… An indestructible love accepted us in advance and goes with us.
Not only is this saying something about God’s love for us; obviously it is saying something about us: that we are important to God, very important, extraordinarily important. Explaining further, Cardinal Ratzinger said in his homily:
We are loved. This means: we are needed. For someone who is loved is needed, is necessary for the one who loves him. God, who is in need of no one, loves us, and so the improbable fact is true: he needs us, we have become necessary for him. We are needed. We are not without purpose in the world. He wants us. He is in need of us. (Joseph Ratzinger, Benedict XVI Signs of New Life: Homilies on the Church’s Sacraments p118)
After telling us that Jesus loves us as the Father loves him, Jesus then says, “Remain in my love.” To use the language of Jesus in last Sunday’s Gospel, Jesus is asking us branches to remain attached to him the vine. He is asking us to remain in relationship with him. Jesus wants us to be in relationship with him not just on the day of First Communion, Confirmation, and school Masses, but to be in relationship with him continuously. We sometimes describe being in close relationship with Jesus as “being in a state of grace.” Being in a state of grace simply means being connected with God, remaining in Jesus’ love as he asks us in today’s Gospel. How do we remain in Jesus’ love? He says, “If you keep my commandments, you will remain in my love.” (John 15:10) That obviously means if we do not keep his commandments, we do not remain in his love. If we do not keep his commandments, we do not remain connected with Jesus. Every time we pray the Lord’s Prayer / Our Father, we pray, “thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” When we do on earth what is God’s will in heaven, then we remain in Jesus’ love. Jesus said, “If you keep my commandments, you will remain in my love.” (John 15:10)
For the times when we fail to keep Jesus’ commandments, we can ask his forgiveness. Speaking in Rome yesterday, Pope Francis said we show we are genuine when asking forgiveness by making reparation. What is reparation? Reparation is healing a wound, healing the wounds our sins have caused to Jesus and his mother. We have devotions practiced by some to make reparation: reparation to the Sacred Heart of Jesus on the First Fridays; reparation to the Immaculate Heart of Mary on the First Saturdays. These are ways of repairing the wounds our sins have caused, repairing the wounds we caused by not remaining in the love of Jesus, when we did not do on earth what is God’s will in heaven.
Remembering the Lord’s love of us helps us remain in his love, keeping his commandments, doing on earth what is God’s will in heaven. Jesus said, “As the Father loves me, so I also love you.”
With the same love with which God loves himself, with the same love with which the Son is devoted to his Father—with that same love, the Lord loves us… An indestructible love accepted us in advance and goes with us.
© Fr. Tommy Lane 2024
This homily was delivered in a parish in Ireland.
More Homilies for the Sixth Sunday of Easter Year B
As the Father loves Jesus, so Jesus loves us 2021
Remain in my love 2018
The sacrificial love of Jesus and the miraculous crucifix of Limpias
Related Homilies: Homilies on God’s love for us and loving our neighbor as ourselves
God’s covenantal love for us 2010
Loving others as Jesus loved us
Jesus the bridegroom loves the Church his bride
on laying down one’s life, see St. Damien of Molokai and St. Patrick