Daily Retreat 05/19/06

2006 May 19 Fri: Easter Weekday

Acts 15: 22-31/ Ps 56(57): 8-9. 10 and 12/ Jn 15: 12-17

From today’s readings: "It is the decision of the Holy Spirit and of us.... My heart is steadfast, O God; my heart is steadfast.... This is My commandment: love one another as I love you."

The Loving Command

The words of Christ, no less than His miraculous deeds, make a claim for His divinity. For since it is absurd for any human authority to promulgate a new commandment about whom to love, only God, who is love, is obviously in position to make universal demands about love.

God commands us not only to love Him (cf. Deut. 6:5), but also, to love one another - our friends, and even our enemies (cf. Mt. 5:44). And not just in a half-hearted way, for the Lord’s bidding is "love one another, as I have loved you!" It’s far-fetched that a mere human being on his own would even conceive of the possibility of such love, but to God, such love is not only possible, it is explicitly demanded!

Now, it would be unjust for God to command and demand something that is absolutely impossible, so, it follows that He Himself is irrevocably committed to empowering His friends to fulfill His divinely demanding commandments of love. And so this becomes one of the greatest thrills of authentic Christianity - the personal discovery of the ecstatic truth and fullness of joy in loving God and one another as God loves!