May 20, 2022
(St. Bernardine of Siena, Priest)
Jesus said to his disciples: “This is my commandment: love one another as I love you. No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. You are my friends if you do what I command you. . . . It was not you who chose me, but I who chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit that will remain, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name he may give you.” Jn_15:12-17
The apostles wrote to the Gentile Christians, “we are sending Judas and Silas who will also convey this same message by word of mouth: ‘It is the decision of the Holy Spirit and of us not to place on you any burden beyond these necessities, namely, to abstain from meat sacrificed to idols, from blood, from meats of strangled animals, and from unlawful marriage. If you keep free of these,
you will be doing what is right.” Acts_15:22-31
Friendship, love, unity and community. In what John calls – Jesus’s “Last Supper Discourses,” in the 14th and 15th chapters of his Gospel, Jesus was trying to get His disciples to understand the Trinitarian nature of God as – the Father, the Holy Spirit and Himself. And He tells them and us – that within the Unity of that Trinity, we can find: love, joy, compassion, peace, fearlessness and the answers to all of our needs.
When we believe in Jesus and love one another, as He taught us, by His word and example, then, we actually become a living part of that Trinitarian Unity.
Jesus went on, in John 15, to describe our Unity with God as a branch on a vine. He said that if we independently try to take off in our own direction, like a fruitless branch on the vine, then God will prune us off that vine, and we will burn in the fires of uselessness, rebellion and disobedience.
But when we remain connected and dependent upon the vine for our life, then, even though we may be pruned by life in this world, that pruning will help us to grow even more fruitful in these lives, as ambassadors for God, sharing His friendship and love, His unity and community.
Today, Jesus tells us exactly HOW we are to remain connected to the vine…
We are to keep His Commandments.
And, of course we know, that Jesus’s Commandments are as simple and as complex – as Loving God and our neighbor. Love, when nothing seems to be going right for us. Love, when that neighbor seems to be constantly – “out to get us.” Love, even after we’ve prayed and prayed for something and never seem to get an answer.
Jesus tells us that, Yes, this life will sometimes involve pruning. It might even require some sacrifice. But, He also tells us – that we are not and never will be – alone in this endeavor. The Holy Spirit will strengthen us to stay on that “Love” vine, and we will endure – in God’s friendship, His Love, His unity and His community, FOREVER.
The early Christian Community, as it was growing and spreading, quickly found itself with the challenge of consistency, of staying on the vine. Independents were offering their own versions of Jesus’s Gospel message. Some were extending the Pharisaical notions of overly strict law keeping. While others were contorting the very meaning of Trinitarian Unity itself.
All of this left the Apostles, and the Saints that followed them, with the challenging task of refuting heretics and developing doctrine that clearly defined what Jesus actually taught – Friendship, Love, Unity, Community and Compassion.
Peter, Paul and the Apostles began what has continued for 2000-years, as the magisterium of the Catholic Church. It’s teachings, doctrine, dogma, writings, canon law guidance, rites, rituals, and sacraments, were all derived in sacred Councils in accord with the dictates of the Holy Spirit, just like this very first ‘Council of Jerusalem’, that we heard today, gathered to determine the requirements for new Gentiles becoming Christian.
And it’s THERE, in that magisterium, that we Catholics can find the comfort and security of our faith. Yes, there will still be the heretics, the independents and the atheists. And there we find our challenge, which, with the help of the Holy Spirit, will help us to serve God – as the saints of 21st Century!
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Whispers to the Wind 