Shikrot Mpwi - Sunday Synopsis with Fr. Justine J. Dyikuk

Sixth Sunday of Easter, Year B – May 6, 2018.

Readings: Acts 10:25-26,34-35,44-48; Ps 98:1-2-3ab.3cd-4(R.2);

1 John 4:7-10; Gospel – John 15:9-17.

Theme: The Universal Language Love!

Introduction

Beloved in Christ, our reflection this Sunday shall dwell on love and its universal dimension. As we continue proclaiming Christ-crucified, the Church urges us to allow love to conquer all. We live in a society where there are a lot of anti-love and anti-life activities. In Nigeria, the incessant maiming of unsuspecting members of the public by suspected killer herdsmen has killed love and left it without a name. Perhaps what is responsible for this ugly state of affairs is the debased idea of love and lack of looking up to the divine to perfect us in love. This is why we shall reflect on “The Universal Language Love” which is capable of conquering all.

Summary of the Readings

The first reading from the Acts of the Apostles (Acts 10:25-26,34-35,44-48) recalls the conversion of Cornelius and his household. What is instructive about the reading is that St. Peter revealed to the crowd in Cornelius’ house that God has no favourites – he noted that “anybody of any nationality who fears God and does what is right is acceptable to him.” This implies that God loves everyone irrespective of his or her creed, colour, gender or status. The reading further disclosed how the Jews were astonished at the way the pagans received the Holy Spirit and began to speak in tongues. It also recounts how Peter gave orders for the pagans to receive baptism stressing that they begged him to stay with them for some days after their conversion and acceptance into the family of the early Christian community.  

In the second reading (1 John 4:7-10) St. John charges us to love one another since God loved us first. He maintains that everyone who fails to love cannot claim to know God.  The text discloses how God’s love for us was made manifest in his Son, Jesus who came to the world so that we might have life through him. It surmises that Jesus was sent to the earth to be the sacrifice that would our sins away. 

The Johannine gospel (John 15:9-17) often referred to as “the gospel of love” reechoes the theme of love when it emphasized how Jesus tasked his disciples on love. He says: “Love one another as I have loved you.” He also maintains: “No greater love can a man have than to lay down his life for his friends.” He reiterated that he has made us his friends because he has made known to us what he learnt from the Father. Accordingly, he stressed that we did not choose him – rather he chose us and mandated us to go forth and bear fruits, fruits that will last. He assured that whatever we ask, we will receive – he surmised: “What I command you is, love one another.”   

     

Dimensions of Love

The two dimensions of love are, vertical and horizontal. In the gospel of Matthew (Mtt. 22:34-40), Jesus says: “You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the greatest and the first commandment. The second resembles it: You must love your neighbour as yourself.” He further stressed: “On these two commandments hang the whole law and the Prophets also.”  As it relates to the gospel of today, this teaching has vertical and horizontal dimensions: 

a). Vertical Dimension of Love: Loving God with all our hearts, souls and minds translates into the vertical dimension of love. This also relates to agape which we shall explain. It is crucial for us to understand that it is in him that we live and move and have our being (Acts 17:28). Therefore, in the words of St. Paul, as individuals and members of the Church, we must not let anything like death, life, angels, rulers, things present, things to come, powers, height, depth and anything else in creation, to come between us and the love of God in Christ Jesus (Rom 8:35-39).

b). Horizontal Dimension of Love:  Philial love fulfills the demands of the love of nieghbour which our liturgy challenges us to embrace. For instance, the popular parable of the Good Samaritan tells us who our nieghbour is – Rather than get stuck on the lethal radar of erotic love, we are challenged to demonstrate real and active love to our family, friends as well as our foes. In Amoris Laetitia or The Joy of Love - Pope Francis’s Apostolic Exhortation on the beauty, joy and love of marriage and the family, the Holy Father reminds us that God is throwing an open invitation to us to develop an unwavering capacity for love because our world is hungry for love, joy, peace, justice, spirituality, sincerity, fidelity and moral upliftment. This leads us to the types of love.

Various Types of Love

a). Philia: Philia is the love which exists between parents and their children, children with their parents and kids with their siblings. This stems from the natural bond that exists in a family. As a family word, philia is the brotherly or sisterly affection which unites us with one another in a unique way (Rom 12:10).

b). Eros: Erotic love stems from concupiscence of the flesh which St. Thomas Aquinas identifies in his Summa Theologica as one of the causes of sin. Aquinas makes the point that we are induced into sin through inordinate desires - The lust of the flesh includes sexual permissiveness and vain desires. The devil excites within us the concupiscence of the flesh so as to commit sin. The “lust of the flesh,” appears in two more significant passages of Scripture - the temptation of Eve in the Garden (Gen 3:1-6) and the temptation of Christ in the wilderness (Matthew 4:8-10). St. Paul warns us to “cast off the works of darkness” (Rom 13:12) and make no provision for the desires of the flesh. Paul’s warning that we should shun concupiscence of the flesh is timely.

c). Agape: This is the love of God. It is often sacrificial. As the purest love, agape is the kind of love that Christ demonstrated by the manner of his life, death on the cross and his resurrection. All that Christ asks of us is: “Love one another, just as I have loved you.” (Jn.15:12). Little wonder on several occasions, Jesus would “took pity on his people” and satisfy their hunger (Matthew 14:13-21). 

Pastoral Application/Lessons

1. Just as Cornelius and members of his household listened to the rhythm of love and embraced conversion, we are challenged to listen to the promptings of the Holy Spirit whose fire is capable of encapsulating us in a divine encounter that can change our lives permanently for good.

2. St. Peter’s take that God has no favourites because he loves people of everyone nationality who do what is right and acceptable to him urges us to throw the dividers of humanity such as race, gender, status and culture into the pit of hell and seek new connectors like compassion, kindness and forgiveness which unite humanity everywhere.

3. G-8 countries, represented by the Jews must learn to ensure equity and justice in sharing the earth’s resources with less developed nations often seen as pagans – since the pagans too are God’s children, they too deserve baptism – the temporal goods of the world.

4. The underdeveloped world must always remember that just as the Jews demanded that the pagans fear God and do what is right, they too must look inwards and stem the tide of neo-colonialism which rears its ugly head through impunity, bribery and corruption and human right abuses leading to infrastructural deficits, underdevelopment and suffering of the masses.

5. Our liturgy reveals that Jesus gives us the mandate to love because if we fail to love him, we cannot claim to know God – our love for God must be practical in terms of both vertical and horizontal as well as agape and philial love.

6. Jesus assures that we are his friends that is why he says that we should ask whatever we want and he will supply – Jesus’ assurance is a “quality assurance” that no matter what difficult condition you are in, he is capable of changing things around for good in your life.

7. The love of our nieghbour propels us to love whoever is in need – the street urchin (almajiri), the orphan, the widow, the IDPs, the aged and all other vulnerable people.

8. We are living in a Sodom and Gomorrah where erotic love, infatuation and impulsive desire has driven sons to have sex with their mothers, fathers with their daughters and uncles/aunties with their nephews/nieces – we are challenged to repent from this madness and seek the face of divine love.

9. All leaders (political, traditional and religious) must measure their commitment on sacrificial love namely, Agape for which Christ came and died.

10. What would make someone to cut a pregnant woman and kill the innocent unborn? What would make a person kill innocent worshippers in a Church or Mosque? Well, perhaps what is responsible for this ugly state of affairs is the debased idea of love and lack of looking up to the divine to perfect us in love – these call for a reordering of our DNA to that of divine status so that we can regain some sense of the sacred or morality – only prayer can perform this magic.   

 Homiletic Points to Remember

1. The Church urges us to allow love to conquer all.

2. God has no favourites – anybody of any nationality who fears God and does what is right is acceptable to him.

3. Everyone who fails to love cannot claim to know God.

4. Love one another as I have loved you.

5. No greater love can a man have than to lay down his life for his friends.  

Conclusion

The language of love is universal – this calls for converted efforts at making the world a better place to live in. The family is the basic cell of society. This means that if children are brought up in love and shown how to love and respect others, the change we desire in society would happen naturally. Every bad person in the society comes from a family – if our homes can be citadels of love, the large society would be the better for it. Traditional and Religious institutions have a role to play in reordering society on the path of love and mutual respect. As we struggle daily to love our friends and pray for our enemies, may God grant us the grace to always put aside what divides humanity and work for what connects us as God’s sons and daughter – only then can we be said to be speaking the universal language of love. Have a blessed week ahead!