VI Sunday of Easter (Year B) – May 9, 2021 - Graduating Seniors Mass Remaining in Christ: Going forth and growing forth through him, with him and in him Acts 10: 25-26, 34-35, 44-48 / Psalm 98 / 1 John 4: 7-10 / John 15: 9-17
I’ve been at the University of Houston long enough to have memories, and good ones, of the many students I have served, especially those of our community who will graduate this semester. Our graduating seniors obviously have their share of memories. The memories leave a smile on my face and joy in my heart. To put it very simply, I am grateful. God is good.
Yes, such memories are sentimental but they also speak of virtuous qualities and simple expressions of love. We are reminded that part of us remains when we move on. Such things and thoughts remind us of real people and real hopes and real faith.
Jesus states clearly, “remain in my love.” I have always been fascinated by how he uses the term, remain. In today’s Gospel reading from the fifteenth chapter of John, he states it four times. In last Sunday’s reading, which immediately precedes the one for today, Jesus uses the word a total of eight times. He is not repeating himself but seeking to reinforce an essential point.
The reading comes from the Last Supper Discourses, a final testament and message on the night before he died. He is about to go and fulfill his mission. His discourse is an invitation to be in relationship with him. “Jesus said to his disciples: ‘As the Father loves me, so I also love you. Remain in my love. If you keep my commandments, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and remain in his love. “I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and your joy might be complete” (John 15: 9-11).
The term, remain, is not as passive as you might think. Jesus chooses us and awaits our response. He gives us the opportunity and capability to be a part of his work, but in an abundant and lasting manner: “It was not you who chose me, but I who chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit that will remain…” (15: 16a).
As graduating seniors, you have accomplished a significant milestone in life, the fruit of much effort and labor, and definitely prayer. You are moving on to big and important things, but at the same time part of you remains here. In a spiritual sense, all of you have left or are leaving a mark.
All of us make an impact on and in the lives of others. I have experienced that often as a priest. The same takes place in your lives as you go forward but after having given yourselves to the community and shared your gifts and love with others. You have touched the lives of many, myself included, in ways you are not fully aware of and in ways that we are grateful for but might not fully understand at this time.
And at the same time, graduation signifies that you are moving forward and entering into a new time of transition in your lives. Memories are important and will live on, but life calls us onward and we are to continue making new ones.
All this discussion about what Jesus teaches us and the importance of remaining in his love and then keeping his commandments as well as memories and even feelings can almost make us sentimental. Still, all of it touches on many aspects of our faith and human experience. Is it a matter of humanizing the spiritual and the holy or spiritualizing or sanctifying the human?
There is little need to debate the question, for both are correct. What we consider to be holy is also meant to be very human; the human is meant to be sanctified and made holy. But how? Why? In a word: Incarnation; in a person: Jesus Christ. It was and is all God’s initiative; it was and is all his invitation. The Incarnation of the Lord Jesus was not just a passing experience but the sealing of a permanent bond God makes with humanity in Christ.
Rather than a single event, the Incarnation is both the beginning of a stronger relationship and its continuation and ongoing expression. As a result and in him, the possibilities are endless. Living life fully is about discovering the possibilities and bring them to fruition and, all the while, trusting in him.
Jesus invites us to remain in him so that our urge to move ahead is not just a going forth, but a growing forth so that our lives are about continually seeking to love him and our neighbor. If there are hints of warm feelings and sentimentality in all of this, it is because the Lord‘s mercy is quite tender and brimming over with kindness. In a hard edged world like ours in which one of the greatest spiritual dangers is hardness of heart, it might be tempting to view the mercy of God and his loving kindness as of secondary importance, but we are also speaking of God’s essence.
Remaining in the Lord’s love means that we are to be at home in him. Truly loving him means that we are willing to go and bear fruit in his name, the fruit of faith. Remaining, as Jesus teaches and lives it, requires courage, commitment and fidelity. In short, a willingness to love and be loved. Those are qualities quite natural to him. True peace, true happiness occurs when they are considered as natural to us .
Peace in the Risen Lord! Fr.. Charles Johnson, O.P.