I listened to a man on the radio whose teenage daughter was murdered in a school shooting last year. No words can describe the pain of losing an only child. This man has turned his grief energy into trying to protect children in our country from the kind of violence his daughter experienced. He appeals passionately to school leaders, legislators, and whoever will listen to him, to take vigorous measures to ensure safety for school children.
What impresses me is not the kind of “generic” love this man has for children of the world, but the “specific” love he had for his daughter. He is a man whose indescribable love for his child is now being released to millions of children throughout the world. He doesn’t want any parent to ever have to go through the pain that he did.
If we take the immense love this father had for his only daughter and multiply it by a billion, we will have a slight glimpse into the love that God the Father has for his only Son. Jesus talked about this in the Last Supper discourse (John 15:9-17).
“Jesus said to his disciples: ‘As the Father love me, so I also love you. Remain in my love.”
This statement is hard for us to believe. Knowing the shortcomings and sins of his disciples, how could Jesus love them at all, much less with the depth of love that his Father had for him? All the energy of the universe is generated by the Father loving his only Son. And, now, Jesus is saying that this same depth of love is in his heart and directed to his little band of disciples. Lest there be any doubt about this, Jesus demonstrated his love by willingly submitting to death—death on a cross.
“No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.”
As great as Jesus’ love was for his disciples, they still had the power to reject it. So he pleads with them to devote their entire lives to “remaining” in his love.
“If you keep my commandments, you remain in my love, just as I have kept the Father’s commandments and remain in his love.”
Jesus had one and only one purpose in life—to do the will of the Father. Nothing was as important to him as remaining in the Father’s love. His followers were to relate to him as he related to the Father, by listening to his voice and following him wherever he might lead them. No compromises. They were to sell out to Jesus just the way he sold out to the Father.
Then Jesus issued an “impossible” command.
“This is my commandment: love one another as I love you.”
How could we, sinful humans, have the same depth of love for each other that Jesus has for us and the Father has for Jesus? Only by eating his Flesh and drinking his Blood and thus allowing Jesus himself to live inside us, do we have the power to love as he loves. It is Jesus in us releasing his own love into the lives of other disciples through us.
This mystery is so profound that we can hardly scratch the surface in trying to understand it. Only by surrendering our lives to the infinite love that Jesus has for us, are we able to begin loving the other members of his Body as he loves us.
“I chose you from the world, to go and bear fruit that will last” (John 15:16).
