May 5, 2024
VI Easter Sunday, B
John 15:9-17
Last Sunday we began listening to chapter 15 of the Gospel of John. There Jesus speaks of the bond that binds him to his branches, like the bond between the vine and its branches. It’s not two different things, two different lives, it’s the same life. It bears fruit in cycles (John 15:1-8).
We continue to hear it today (John 15:9-17). That leads us to the fundamental question: what is the fruit Jesus is talking about? We said that the branch would definitely bear fruit. But so good a viticulturist, so beautiful a vine, so well connected a branch with the vine, what good fruit can they produce?
The result of that can be seen in today’s passage, which immediately follows last Sunday’s passage.
Jesus often says in the Gospel of John that he knows that his Father loves him. And he repeats this today, but with an important addition. That is, as the Father loves him, so do his disciples (John 15:9).
Jesus does not say that He loves the Father as the Father loves Him.
Yes, Jesus is similar, but his words go even further. He loves others and loves himself as his Father loves himself.
Jesus is saying that the love between two people is not just a closed relationship that ends in a mutually beneficial relationship. Because at the end of the day, that’s not love.
If I love someone and they reciprocate my love and that’s where it all ends, it’s certainly a beautiful and rewarding experience, but it’s also a very poor experience. Because I receive nothing more than I give.
If I don’t lose anything, if I don’t take any risks, if I don’t get out of this interaction, I’ll always end up at the same place in terms of loving.
Jesus’ love is not only reciprocal, but also open. More than just an interaction between two people, this gift of love to everyone who wants to participate.
This is a mature love, the kind of love that knows how to give of itself and give its love to others, the kind of love that has nothing only for itself.
Love is not something that should be kept, but something that can be lost. Only in this way can you be sure that even if you have lost love, you will be able to find fulfilling love again.
But what’s even more beautiful is that this applies to the disciples in exactly the same way.
For Jesus does not ask them to reciprocate his love, but to share it among themselves and even with others.
It doesn’t say, “You shall love me as I have loved you,” but it goes on to say, “As I have loved you, so ye also love one another.” (John 15:12).
Therefore, we become his friends not if we love him or not, but if we love each other.
Moreover, this love has clear characteristics, a certain style. In other words, Jesus asks us to love one another as He has loved us (John 15:12), to the end, as much as we choose to call it love. .
Therefore, to love is not to give something to your brother, but to give yourself and your life to another (John 15:13).
This is the commandment of Jesus (John 15:10) and the Word of God that cuts off dead branches and prunes them so that they bear more fruit (John 15:2).
Because in that case it would mean choosing to love even those who don’t love us, and it would mean wanting to break out of the logic of pure reciprocity.
The love we receive must go far, must go deep, must die and be born again, and must be poured out on others in order to bear fruit. It won’t happen
When this happens, we will know what joy is (John 15:11).
That Easter fruit we saw in the Gospel passage about the encounter between the Risen One and his disciples returns here. They will rejoice when they see the Lord (John 20:20).
They rejoice when they see that such love, which gives life without expecting anything in return, is the love that saves life and makes it eternal.
+ Pier Battista
