ALL have seen the loving kindness of God; let all sing joyfully to the Lord (Psalm 98:1, 2-3, 3-4). To remain in Jesus’ love is to follow His commandment that we love one another as He loves us (John 15:9-17).
The Lord has made known His saving power
Psalm 98 begins with an invitation to sing praise to the Lord in celebration of the marvelous things He has done for Israel. Like a mighty warrior, His right hand and outstretched arm have brought victory. He has been challenged; His covenant relationship with Israel was violated.
The Lord, therefore, manifested His saving power in a demonstration of righteousness, a vindication carried out rectifying an injustice. It was out of His faithfulness to the house of Israel and in remembrance of His steadfast love (hesed) that He has made known His saving work, as He has promised: “I hereby make a covenant. Before all your people I will perform marvels, such as have not been performed in all the earth or in any nation, and all the people among whom you live shall see the work of the Lord” (Exodus 34:10).
Not just Israel but all the earth is called to join in singing a new song to the Lord, because He has revealed His saving power in the sight of the nations. In coming to the aid of Israel and achieving victory, something of cosmic significance is shown: the Lord is the conqueror of the forces of chaos. God’s sweeping triumph is for all: “All the ends of the earth have seen the salvation by our God.” That is why the scope of the praise given to God is universal: “Sing joyfully to the Lord, all you lands.”
In the Father’s love
The word love occurs nine times in the gospel reading. Not eros, love that seeks to possess, or philia, love that simply has to be there, but agape, love that is freely and unconditionally given and received, the love that alone describes the love of God and for God. It is the love God has for Jesus, and the divine love that Jesus has for His friends, and the love that His followers must have for one another.
Jesus received His Father’s love and He loved His disciples with the same love. Not as in a passing moment, but as a lasting state of being. Jesus abides in the love of the Father because He keeps His Father’s commandment to pass on that love.
Love goes hand in hand with obedience to the command of love which is to love; love is accomplished by sharing it and giving it: love as you have been loved.
Divine, real love is eternal loving, endless giving and sharing and receiving, as in the mystery of the communion of the Most Holy Trinity, the Three Persons in the everlasting exchange of love. Its measure is in perfect, unconditional giving and receiving. Any imitation or extension of that love is not occupied with self-preservation or self-conservation. Truly no one has greater love than to lay down one’s life for the beloved. Jesus laid down His own life out of love for His heavenly Father and for humankind His Father loves so much that He gave His Son for them.
Remain in My love
Jesus wants His friends to remain in the chain of love, in following His way of love. His disciples will abide in His love if they keep His commandment, the same as His Father’s commandment: love as you have been loved.
The purpose of this chain of love is joy—the joy of the loving Father through the joy of the beloved Son in the Holy Spirit of love and joy. Jesus wants to pour His joy into His friends, in their sharing in His boundless love, sharing His complete joy. But this communicated joy is in a way only initiatory, because it is only when we love one another as Jesus loves us that we enter into the fullness of His joy.
This is eternal life, the boundless receiving and giving of love in joy. And it begins already now in time when we joyously and generously walk the way of Jesus as links in the chain of love. Freed from the compulsion to grab and to hold, we move to form a communion of sharing on the way to the greatest fulfillment of everyone. A communion with and in Jesus where there are no more servants who are ignorant of the ways of God, but friends and brothers and sisters moving joyously in the Father’s love through Jesus.
Alálaong bagá, Jesus abides in His Father’s love because, as the Crucified One, He loved us unconditionally and, as the Risen One, He loves us with His triumphant, marvelous and everlasting love whose fulfillment is in our participation in the eternal communion of love in the Trinity. Meanwhile, on earth, we are pilgrims following Jesus in the chain of love.
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Join me in meditating on the Word of God every Sunday, 5 to 6 a.m. on DWIZ 882, or by audio-streaming on www.dwiz882.com.