If you love Me, keep my word

Sixth Sunday of Easter Year C

I’m really tired of hearing people justify their disobedience to Church teachings and disciplines by saying that they are fundamentally being faithful and obedient to Christ and that they are listening to the Holy Spirit. It’s one thing to disobey and then take responsibility for your actions and decisions; it’s another thing to blame God for it. What they are suggesting is that, either the Church is not being faithful to Christ or obtuse to the promptings of the Spirit OR that Christ gives them an example of dissent and that the Spirit is leading them to “make a mess” of things? Both conclusions are not just faulty but ludicrous.

It’s easy today to justify and believe someone when he tells you that Jesus came to teach us that love is at the heart of our Christian Faith, whereas the Law isn’t. Put it another way, Jesus broke the Law for love. The conclusion is that people who insist on following Church laws are not very loving and in fact, going against the spirit of what our Lord taught. In fact, the Spirit is often cited as the basis of disobedience, that is, disobedience is justified if you are obedient to the Spirit. On the other hand, if you are not bound by those rigid laws meant for narrow-minded people, you are being as loving as Jesus. Sounds right? Well, here’s news for you. Today’s passage shows us how terribly wrong these propositions are.

Our Lord tells us, ‘If anyone loves me he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we shall come to him and make our home with him. Those who do not love me do not keep my words.’ Hold on a minute. Did our Lord just say that those who keep the Law actually do love Him whereas those who break His law, in all honesty, don’t?

Yes, that’s what our Lord said exactly. This is because love and obedience go together. The disciple’s personal love for the Lord should lead him to obey His commandments. Love and obedience open the door for God to dwell in the disciple. Disobedience is not evidence of one’s superior love. On the contrary, disobedience is evidence of one’s lack of love for the Lord and proof that one only loves oneself more than anything else, including God. The root of disobedience is not love, it’s pride.

Love is tied to obedience because a discipleship’s relationship to Jesus mirrors Jesus’s own relationship with the Father. Just as the Son loves the Father and obeys His will, so too must the disciple love Jesus and obey His will, which is the same as the Father’s will. To claim otherwise would be a blatant lie.

So, the next time you hear someone say that Jesus came to show us an example of being loving, believe him. But if he were to say that Jesus is the model of disobedience, the exemplary model of someone who breaks the law, call him out as a liar. We are not here to rewrite the gospel so that it can become more palatable to the masses. Our Lord said many things, but that’s one thing He never said and will never say.

What about the Holy Spirit? Today, we are introduced to the Third Person of the Most Holy Trinity, the Advocate. We will be hearing more about Him in the coming weeks leading up to Pentecost. Most people often associate the Holy Spirit with unbridled freedom, “the Spirit blows where it wills.” It is no wonder, that the Spirit is often cited as the justification for disobedience, freedom from regimented structures and protocols and rigid rules. It must be clear that the Holy Spirit is the Spirit of the Father and the Son. He is sent by the Father to teach us and remind us of what our Lord has taught. He is not a spirit of innovation, to constantly teach new things in contradiction with what the Lord has taught.

Secondly, He is the Spirit which bequeaths peace. He is not a spirit which causes confusion and conflict between the members of the Body of Christ. In fact, those who cause dissension within the Church work against the mission of the Spirit and are motivated by the spirit of the world and their own pride. So, don’t push the blame on the Spirit. The Spirit helps us to love the Lord by keeping His commandments, not by breaking them. The Spirit builds and strengthens the visible bonds of communion – of belief, of worship and submission to apostolic hierarchy – and not by causing division and schism within the Church.

The first reading gives us an example of a controversy arising in the early Church which was officially resolved in the council of Jerusalem by a consensus of the apostles and elders. St Luke, the author of Acts, specifically, writes that it is not just the decision of men, but “it has been decided by the Holy Spirit.” This story provides us with a model of community discernment and decision-making: in the awareness of the Spirit, the leaders heard the facts of the case, listened to the opinions on both sides of the question put forward by experienced leaders, and then made their decision in the Spirit. Both the human and the spiritual dimension were not neglected.

Today, we acknowledge that it is easy to walk away from a discussion and take matters into our own hands, when our opinions and ideas are not accepted. We may even justify our actions by calling it fidelity to Christ and the Spirit. But the truth is that, it is pride which often makes us take our own path, no matter how well-thought out we may imagine this path to be. At the end of the day, it is not about the agenda of the leadership or that of the larger community or ours. It is about the agenda of the Lord. Our Lord has made several promises to us. He is not a liar. He is not a propagandist, He does not have any political agenda to push. The only agenda He has is the salvation of souls, our souls. He is only concerned with the Truth and the Truth is that obedience, to the Father’s will and to His commandments, is the only sure path to salvation. The bottom line is this, if you profess to love the Lord, keep His commandments.