Word of Life November 2012

«Those who love me will keep my word, and my Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them.» (Jn 14:23)

Jesus is giving his great and heartfelt farewell discourses to his apostles. He assures them, among other things, that they will see him again, because he will reveal himself to those who love him.

Then Judas (not Iscariot) asks him why he intends to reveal himself only to them and not publicly. The disciple was hoping for a huge outward manifestation of Jesus, one that could change the course of history and that, in his view, would be more effective in saving the world.

In fact, the apostles all thought Jesus was the long- awaited prophet of the last days who would reveal himself to everyone as the King of Israel, who when he came would put himself at the head of the people of God and establish the kingdom of the Lord once and for all.

Jesus explains that instead, his revelation will not take place in a spectacular and outer way. It will be a simple but extraordinary ‘coming’ of the Trinity into the heart of the faithful person, occurring wherever there is faith and love.

With this answer, Jesus states clearly how he will continue to be present in the midst of his own after his death, and he explains how it will be possible to have contact with him.

«Those who love me will keep my word, and my Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them.»

He can be present in Christians and in the midst of the community right now. There is no need to wait for the future.

The temple that welcomes him is not so much one of bricks and mortar, but the very heart of the Christian, which becomes the new tabernacle, the living dwelling place of the Trinity.

«Those who love me will keep my word, and my Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them.»

But how can a Christian achieve this? How can we bear God within ourselves? What is the way of entering this deep communion with him?

It is love for Jesus. A love that is not mere sentimentality but translated into concrete life and, specifically, into keeping his words.

It is to this love of a Christian, verified by deeds, that God responds with his love: the Trinity comes to dwell within.

«Those who love me will keep my word, and my Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them.»

“... keep my word”. What are the words that the Christian is called to keep?

In John’s Gospel, ‘my words’ often mean the same as ‘my commandments’. So the Christian is called to keep Jesus’ commandments. But these should not be viewed as a list of laws.

Rather they should be understood as summed up in what Jesus illustrated through washing his disciples’ feet: the commandment of mutual love.

God commands each Christian to love the other to the point of complete self-giving, as Jesus taught and did.

«Those who love me will keep my word, and my Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them.»

So how can we live this Word of Life well? How can we reach the point in which the Father himself will love us and the Trinity will come to dwell within us? By putting into practice with all our hearts, radically and with perseverance, precisely this kind of love for one another.

It is here, mainly, that the Christian finds the way of that profound Christian asceticism demanded by Christ crucified.

Indeed, it is in love for one another that the various virtues flourish in our hearts and that we can respond to the call to our personal holiness.

«Those who love me will keep my word, and my Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them.» (Jn 14:23) Text by Chiara Lubich