The Estuary of Theology 26

The Branches of the Vine (2)

“As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you; abide in my love. If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father's commandments and abide in his love. These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full. 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. You are my friends if you do what I command you” (John 15:9-14).

The source of the love of which Jesus speaks is the mercy of the Father. The Father's mercy is invisible. The Father's mercy only reveals itself when the Word expresses it. And it is made clear that the Father is the God of mercy. This mercy of God is directed to the concrete means for the end, and the means becomes love. Hence, love is visible. God has said: “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness; and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps upon the earth” (Genesis 1:26). In this way, God expressed his mercy on the world he had created in words and made it clear that he was the God of mercy. This mercy of God was directed to the concrete means of creating “man” to give a ruler to the creation that he had just made. The Lord God formed man of the dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life. In this way, the man, whom God formed, became love which responded to God’s mercy concretely being with him. The created world, thanks to God, got the one who tilled and kept it, and the cycle of life began (cf. Genesis 2:4-15). It is written, “And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good” (Genesis 1:31).

Jesus, who was God entrusted with the full authority of the Father, became man and preached the Gospel as a man, who was love. The words “As the Father has loved me” means that for this reason, the Father continued to meet the needs of the Son who constantly prayed to him. It is as Jesus said, "for the Father is greater than I" (John 14:28). The words “so have I loved you” means that Jesus made known to his disciples the name of the Father, the God of mercy, and qualified them to be his brothers and sisters who had the same Father as him (cf. Matthew 12:50). By this fact, the disciples are always with Jesus, who is God, and preach the Gospel as ones who are love. They have their needs met by the Father, who knows their needs before they ask for them (cf. Matthew 6:7-8). Above all, the Lord's Prayer, which Jesus taught, makes the disciples aware of their bond with the Father as sons by calling on the name of God the Father: "Our Father who art in heaven." Jesus then taught them whom people, who were created as ones far superior to the rest of creation, should fear (cf. Matthew 10:28-31, Luke 12:4-7), what they should seek and how they should live (cf. Matthew 6:25-34, Luke 12:22-31).

In order for a Christian, who lives all that Jesus taught with the Holy Spirit who descended, to understand Jesus’ love of which he said, “so have I loved you,” it is necessary, as we discussed in the previous issue, that he/she is the “branch of mine.” He/she must recognize the need for the worldview of Jesus, which emerges through the training of the Book of Revelation, and the need for participating in the formation of the twofold spirituality of the Holy Spirit and attending the Mass. And he/she will become accustomed to the attitude of living with God by voluntarily demanding him/herself to do these concrete works daily. The Father, who sees that the Christian has put him/herself in these practices in secret as if he/she went into his/her room and shut the door (cf. Matthew 6:6), will reward him/her with the frequent experience of collaborating with the Spirit of Jesus starting with small, everyday issues. This experience makes him/her realise that collaborating with the Spirit of Jesus is to abide in his love. This recognition is indeed the meaning of the word: "my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full." Thus, the Spirit of Jesus appears in the world by the descent of the Holy Spirit, and the words of Jesus, "In that day you will know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you" (John 14:20), will be fulfilled.

For Christians, who are humans, to love one another "as Jesus has loved", they must have the characteristics of Jesus, who was fully human and fully divine. These characteristics come about when each Christian, as a human, collaborates with the Spirit of Jesus. When each Christian, while collaborating with the Spirit of Jesus, acts as one Jesus to one another, the commandment "[L]ove one another as I have loved you" becomes practicable. However, on the other hand, Jesus, by saying, "Greater love has no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends," told his disciples that there was "God’s plan" that only he could fulfil at this moment. As Jesus said beforehand, "No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again; this charge I have received from my Father" (John 10:18), there is no greater love than that of God, who, becoming man, lays down his life for his friends. For this reason, it was only by collaborating with the Spirit of Jesus after it had appeared on earth at Pentecost that one could follow after Jesus, the God, who laid down his life for his friends.

Knowing and doing in a timely manner “what I command you” of which Jesus said, “You are my friends if you do what I command you,” is possible by collaborating with the Spirit of Jesus, even if it is the smallest of everyday things. On the other hand, the Spirit of Jesus is watching for a chance to collaborate with Christians. And the Spirit of Jesus, choosing a Christian who voluntarily turns to it, works so that he/she may go together and bear fruit and that his/her fruit may abide. The Father, who is watching this, will fully meet the needs that he/she asks with the Spirit of Jesus with his divine mercy. A Christian who collaborates with the Spirit of Jesus indeed becomes another Jesus Christ. The Spirit of Jesus, in this way, leads Christians who gather in his name into all truth. It is as Jesus said, “[F]or he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come” (John 16:13). Jesus, who has thus fully prepared all things for the Holy Spirit and Christians, again commanded Christians to know all this, to use it to the full and to love one another with Jesus’ love.

“No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you. You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide; so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he may give it to you. This I command you, to love one another” (John 15:15-17).

To be continued.

May 2021 in Hiroshima 

Maria K