As I have mentioned previously, scholars call this part of John\u2019s Gospel we\u2019re reading after Easter the \u201cFarewell Discourse\u201d. To me, \u201cdiscourse\u201d is a formal way to put it, because if you listen a bit closer, it sounds more like a love letter. Again, as mentioned previously, there is something very personal and intimate in John\u2019s Gospel, and even more as we reach this point where Jesus is about to leave his disciples. We read Jesus\u2019s \u201ctestament\u201d and it sounds like a love letter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
To say the truth, this passage always makes me think of my grand-mother…When we opened her \u201ctestament\u201d, her \u201cwill\u201d, we found with her legal dispositions a love letter to her children (she had six!) and I don\u2019t know if it was because she was so familiar with the Scriptures that what she wrote sounded so much like John\u2019s Gospel, maybe it was because Jesus\u2019s words are themselves so human and universal…At any rate, this was what she wrote to her children: She told them that she loved them and she asked them to love one another. Because really that was her last (and ultimate) will as a mother who dedicated her life to them. In the same way, Jesus has loved his disciples so much, after he\u2019s gone, he wants them to love each other…<\/p>\n\n\n\n
As Christians we are called to love\u2026and we know that already don\u2019t we? The thing we don\u2019t know though, often, is how to do that. How are we supposed to love? If you think about it, most of our life is about figuring out how to navigate relationships: with family, friends, co-workers, and also: with people from other cultures, race, education, political views, sexual orientation. And relationships bring us a lot of joy and in the same time, it\u2019s so hard. Relationships are the hardest thing we have to do in life and we don\u2019t know how to do them right.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
So what can we learn from the Gospel? Jesus says that he has given commandments to his disciples so they may love one another. He has made known to them everything that he had heard from the Father. Jesus\u2019s life is about showing us what it means to love. If you remember from last week, I said that Jesus tells us to abide in God\u2019s love because we cannot give what we haven\u2019t received. It\u2019s true in quantity, but also in quality. We need to learn from Jesus what kind of love is this love. Jesus asks his disciples to love \u201cas\u201d he has loved them, in the same way<\/em> he has loved them. We don\u2019t know what love is because love can be many things – on a spectrum: from being nice\/polite to sacrifice and even ultimate sacrifice. So, as Christians, how are we to love, following Jesus\u2019s example?<\/p>\n\n\n\n First of all, we have to acknowledge that being nice \/ polite is not enough. Actually, Jesus wasn\u2019t always nice and polite (although it\u2019s safe to assume he was always kind). He told people things they didn\u2019t like or didn\u2019t want to hear. And he said these things not only to his enemies but even to his disciples (remember how he rebukes Peter?). Sometimes Jesus withdrew from people (left the crowds to go in a place on his own), he even got angry (in the Temple, or when talking with the Pharisees)\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n So how does Jesus\u2019s love look like? We have a cue when Jesus tells us love is about laying down one\u2019s life<\/strong>. But we don\u2019t know what to do with it because we assume that it is only about sacrifice \/ ultimate sacrifice and we don\u2019t see how it fits in our daily lives as Christians.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Jesus talks about \u201claying down his life\u201d and its a recurring theme in John\u2019s Gospel (Remember the Good Shepherd we read two weeks ago). Well, it\u2019s interesting because if we often assume it\u2019s all about Jesus\u2019s death, yet Franciscan spirituality does not see <\/strong>understand that Jesus lays down his life<\/strong> only in his death, <\/strong>but in <\/strong>in all that Jesus did for us<\/strong>. Jesus\u2019s life is \u201claid down\u201d, offered to us in his incarnation: birth, ministry of healing and teaching, suffering, death of course and Resurrection.<\/p>\n\n\n\n And to me, thinking about it this way, it makes us much more easy for us to imitate Jesus.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Jesus came to be with us. In total humility. In a life of service. In Jesus, God renounced divine power. And so when Jesus asks us to love \u201cas he loves\u201d it means that we are also called to love by renouncing our power. I know it may sometimes feel like we don\u2019t have a lot of power already. Given our wealth, our social status, education, race, sex and so on…we have very likely plus or less power in this world. Yet we all have power in certain situations, because power is the ability we have to use people, to influence them to fulfill our own goals and our own needs, and so there are many different forms of power: the power to seduce, to convince, to make other feel guilty, to manipulate them by flattery, or lies etc. It does not matter who we are, we all have means to use others to our fulfill our own goals \/ satisfy our needs…<\/p>\n\n\n\n And so if we are to lay down our life <\/strong>like Jesus<\/strong>, it means we have to lay down this<\/strong> power.<\/strong> Being a moral person is <\/strong>not <\/strong>about being nice, it\u2019s about refusing<\/strong> to use others<\/strong>, to never treat them as a means to en end. Jesus wants equality between him and the disciples, and between the disciples themselves. He tells them that they are his friends and that they have to be friends to one another.<\/p>\n\n\n\n So this is what love requires but of course that\u2019s the minimum we can do, not to use others to our own ends. There is more than that. By laying down our power, we also want to enable others to flourish<\/strong>. (Jesus wanted his disciples to bear fruit). When you love someone, you want what\u2019s good for them, what brings them joy (Jesus promises joy), you want to support them so they can be their best selves. A theologian said that love is wanting someone\u2019s spiritual maturity. By laying down your life, you make room so others can thrive. And you support them in the process. And that\u2019s what all Jesus\u2019s ministry is about.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Sometimes of course we use this idea to want \u201cwhat\u2019s best for others\u201d to justify \u201ctough love\u201d. It can be needed, but Jesus by \u201claying down his life\u201d mostly invites us to practice <\/strong>a love that is life giving, <\/strong>that set people free, that enables them to be who they really are<\/strong>. A few years ago, I had a friend who was really not doing well. I tried again and again to help her by giving all sorts of advice, but it didn\u2019t help. Actually, I understood at some point I had to withdraw because she needed to figure out things on her own, and it actually helped! This kind of love can be counter intuitive, right? It was life giving to love her by just letting her be instead of trying to rescue\u2026Love is as diverse as relationships. It\u2019s always different. Maybe the right question we have to ask ourselves is: is our love life giving? Does it bring fulfillment? Joy? Because that\u2019s the way Jesus loved.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Now we need to say something about sacrifice. Jesus says that he is giving his life \u201cfor his friends\u201d \/ he didn\u2019t give his life \u201cfor his enemies\u201d \u2013 although we understand he wanted to save all beings and gave his life for all. Jesus made a sacrifice in the sense that he remained faithful in his death \/ not using his divine power (He could have asked angels to come and rescue him) His sacrifice had a meaning. John\u2019s Gospel always insists that Jesus chose to give his life. Jesus didn\u2019t let his enemies crush him because he gave up on himself. What it teaches us though is that s<\/strong>acrifice is not about letting people use <\/strong>us<\/strong> and abuse <\/strong>us and sometimes destroy us<\/strong>.<\/strong> Human beings are never a means to en end, including ourselves. We should not accept to be a means to an end to anyone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In the same way, we are not called to do meaningless sacrifices of ourselves (In the Bible, human sacrifices are wrong). We aren\u2019t asked to sacrifice ourselves by letting other use us, from abusive relationship to suicide bombing…In certain circumstances, we can be called to give our lives to save others, but as Jesus, we are called to do it intentionally, with love, when it\u2019s the only way. For us, us \u201claying down our life\u201d is more of a daily exercise. We all have to practice it. As f<\/strong>riends <\/strong>in Christ,<\/strong> we lay down our life for each others. Love flourishes in reciprocity, mutuality <\/strong>and in community<\/strong>.<\/strong> As I have mentioned previously, scholars call this part of John\u2019s Gospel we\u2019re reading after Easter the \u201cFarewell Discourse\u201d. To me, \u201cdiscourse\u201d is a formal way to put it, because if you listen a bit closer, it sounds more like a love letter. Again, as mentioned previously, there is something very personal and intimate in … <\/p>\n
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