A reading of the holy gospel according to Saint John. Jesus said to his disciples, this is my commandment. Love one another as I have loved you. There is no greater love than this than to lay down one's life for one's friends. You are my friends if you do what I command you.
I no longer speak to you as slaves, for a slave does not know what his master is about. Instead, I call you friends since I have made known to you everything that I heard from my father. It was not you who chose me. It was I who chose you to go forth and to bear fruit. Your fruit must endure so that all you ask the father in my name, he will give it to you.
The command I give you is this, that you love one another. And this is the gospel of the lord. In the name of the father and of the son and of the holy spirit, amen. As I said last Sunday with reference to this reading which we had last Sunday, not so long ago, I had a an argument or as we say, I was dialoguing with a friend about this matter of liberation theology, and I asked them where they got their their basis in scripture. And they quoted this, a new commandment I give you.
I said, well, what what do you mean by that? How how does that explain? Well, said, this supersedes everything that's going ahead. Well, I said, how about that how about the instance in Saint Matthew chapter 22 where the sadducee came to Christ and said, what's the first and the greatest commandment? And then our lord said, well, you know, god first, love god with your whole heart, with your whole mind, with your whole soul, with everything you are.
God first, and love your neighbor as yourself. And remember, that's from the old testament. Christ didn't bring that. That's not new. It's from Leviticus and Deuteronomy.
Oh, he said, well, that's that has been superseded by this what we just read today. All that matters is love loving your neighbor. Well, of course that's nothing but but this but altruism which John Stuart Mill made so much of in the latter part of the nineteenth century. And altruism is is a fit subject for the birds, not even for good sensible birds. But why should I love my neighbor?
Because is my neighbor fiddlesticks. Because in many instances he's not lovable at all. We know that. So what what is new about this commandment of of of our lord? And he certainly is not abrogating the old testament.
He is not abrogating the that god comes first, and that I must love my neighbor as myself. Remember, that's from the old testament. Christ is simply emphasizing it, bringing it, repeating it. And let me tell you something else. That word neighbor in the old testament explicitly means and includes your enemy, the alien.
So that that wasn't that isn't Christian. By that, I mean, it came before Christ. This was a basic concept of Judaism and is today, of course, true. Then what is new about Christ's commandment of love? And I hate to use that word love.
It's so it's in such great disrepute. Let us use the Greek word charita or not well, the English word charity, which is the Greek word agape. But of course, the word that wonderful word charity in English, we can't use anymore. It's so been so denigrated. But I prefer to use it rather than to the word love, which is meaningless.
As I've told you many times, if you'll take the time to look it up in the Oxford Underbridge dictionary, you will find 12 columns of meaning for the word love. Now any word that has that many meanings, forget it. Because words are signs. And if you're looking for a sign to get to Baltimore, and you find a sign which has 12 columns of different destinations, well you better go to bed. You're more likely to get to Baltimore.
So let's use the word charity. That's remember, in the Greek it isn't it isn't the level, it's it's agape, which is a different word from the level. So what is new about the charity of Christ? It's it is not the it is not the extension of it because the old testament has it, I must love myself, I must love my neighbor, and I must love even my enemy, the alien, and treat him justly. Then what is new about Christ?
And the answer is Christ. Christ. Because he said, you've got to love your neighbor as I have loved you. That is new. That is new.
What is new about the commandment of charity with Jesus Christ is the standard. How much what is the quality of that love? What is the quality of that love? And our lord says, you have to love your neighbor as I have loved you. And you ask, how did Christ love me?
Well, look at the crucifix. Look at the cross. Look at Jesus Christ on the cross. Although today, some people don't like to see a figure on the cross. What is the cross without Jesus Christ, I ask you?
It's nothing more than a gallows, electric chair, an injection of poison, or something. And so keep this in mind. We are asked to love our neighbor as Christ has loved us. Now if there's anything which is perfectly clear about Christ's love for us, that he didn't love us for what he could get out of us, he doesn't need us at all. He's God.
He's God. And that is the essence of the purest kind of love. You know, when the young man tells his dearly beloved, darling, I couldn't live without you. That's like saying I can't live without water or air. So she's in the same class as good water and good air.
That's great. And she feels flattered. Why should she feel flattered if she's only being used as an instrumentality or a tool for somebody else's welfare. That is not the love of Jesus Christ. That is not the love of charity.
That is not the love of Aquinas's friendship. Because as Aquinas points out, friendship the the love of friendship means that I am attached and devoted to a person for the person's sake, not for my sake, but for the welfare of that person, for the good of that person. That is friendship. Amachiziae. And do we toss the word friendship around as if it was common dirt?
And yet, as Aquinas says, that's the truest kind of love. And that's the only kind of love that you can talk to speak of with reference to God Almighty. You cannot certainly use the word love of God with reference to God and to Jesus Christ in the sense of emotions, of sentiments, of passion, of feeling, or of needing me. Not at all. Not at all.
God doesn't need me. I haven't first chosen God. As our Lord says today, I have first chosen you. You. You individually.
See, we we forget this that that that the great truth that God loves me. Almighty God loves me, an individual. Not the collectivity, not a community, not society. Individual. Mary Jane O'Brien.
Individuals were an individual in God's sight, and God loves me because he wants to do good for me. He came to save me, not to save himself. It didn't add a thing to God to become man. All it did was to bring me salvation, if I will accept it. The name of the father and of the son and the holy spirit.
Amen.