Appointed to bear fruit...fruit that abides

Often, I am amazed at how simple the faith is. There are countless books, articles and videos out there expounding upon and explaining unsearchable depths of the faith - an expanse that is infinitely deep and wide. But I often find myself encountering these “eureka” moments that really aren’t novel at all when I think about them. And this past Sunday’s Gospel reading is an example of this.

Several weeks ago, we encountered a lawyer who was seeking to put Jesus to the test when he asked Jesus, “Which is the greatest commandment in the Law.” In his infinite wisdom, Jesus deftly maneuvered around the deceitfulness of his questioner when he replied by saying that the greatest commandment is to “love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength” and to “love your neighbor as yourself.” And this past Sunday, our Lord led us a little more deeply into how this works out practically. He says, “ This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. Greater love has no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.” 

Love is the commandment. The love of Christ demonstrated in and through his willing passion and death. This is a love that transforms like fire. This is a love the turns murderous Sauls into self-giving Pauls, who says, "…the love of Christ compels us because we have concluded this…that he died for those who live that they might no longer live for themselves but for him who for their sakes died and was raised.” Let’s not be deceived, though, brothers. In his deceitfulness, the enemy of our souls and the father of lies has the wider culture take up the banner of  “love” in a way that is foreign to Love Himself - claiming the term to justify all manner of sin and evil and to cast this shoddy form of “love” as being somehow morally superior to the trinitarian love shared among Christians, especially us Catholics. But Jesus’s words ring out with force in the midst of all considerations - “Greater Love has no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.” If we scan history for this kind of love - a radically selfless love motivated by such a concern for others that it seems as if the one doing the loving hates himself - we are extremely hard pressed to find it anywhere other than among those who commune with our Lord. Brothers, we are surrounded by “so great a cloud of witnesses” - the Saints - who have gone before us and paid the price of their own blood to find that Jesus’s words were true - “...unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.” 

Brothers, in recent weeks, we’ve been invited to abide in Christ, for apart from him we can do nothing. We are invited to consider how Christ appointed the Apostles to go and bear fruit by loving in this sacrificial way. It’s simple. But simple does not equal easy. This is why we need to be strengthened through abiding in Christ. To use the word of our Lord, “whoever eats my flesh and drinks by blood abides in me and I in him.” May we continually draw near to the table of our Lord to worship and be strengthened by the Eucharistic feast to bear fruit that abides through love..

Who will you love today?