Keeping — or better — TreasuringJesus’ Commandments

εὐαγγελίζω (euaggelizo)
“to announce the Good News of victory in battle”

“If you love me, you will keep (τηρήσετε teresete)
my commandments. (John 14:15) ...
Whoever has my commandments and
observes (τηρῶν teron) them
is the one who loves me. (John 14:21)

John 14:15-21.
Sixth Sunday of Easter

θεωρέω (theoreo)
(“to perceive, discover, ponder a deeper meaning”)

Jesus’ words this Sunday form a bookend for Christian living and the episode hinges on the action of ‘keeping my commandments.’ Jesus begins catechizing the disciples about ‘keeping my commandments’ and closes with the same imperative. Even more significant is that Jesus definitively links loving Him to ‘keeping my commandments.’ To be clear, to love (ἀγαπάω, agapaō) as lived by Jesus and employed in the Gospels is not primarily a feeling or emotion. Agapaō is not a ‘good feeling’ and certainly not a license to do whatever I/we want in the name of ‘let’s all get along.’

Agapaō is an act of the intellect that wills the good of the other and actively follows the Holy Spirit’s initiative to work sacrificially and generously to provide the other with whatever she or he genuinely needs for authentic spiritual and physical living. This meaning of agapaō is timely as Scripture reveres motherhood as a way to describe, from a human perspective, the experience of agapaō. Our moms have done so much for us, not the least of which is their lived example of faith in Jesus Christ. They have birthed us to life. They have formed us in the ways of prayer after the heart of Jesus. They have shaped us in the ways of selfless living, often at a great cost to themselves. In short, our moms have provided us with concrete, in-the-flesh examples of what it means to be a person of agapaō. While our moms formed our lives first and foremost by their own example, their words to us - and - our keeping of their words have become constitutive elements of our beings. But what does it mean to keep their words and for this Sunday, what does it mean to keep Jesus’ commandments?

To keep is the translation of the Greek verb τηρέω (tēreō). While the translation to keep appears in the New American Bible, Revised Edition and other English translations of the Sacred Scripture, the word has a rich significance in the Greco-Roman world. Often, tēreō conveyed a sense of guarding, protecting, watching over, and treasuring to name only a few meanings from antiquity. The point is that the object of tēreō is valuable and so precious that one takes extraordinary steps to protect and guard that which has been received. Hence when Jesus asks His disciples ‘to keep my commandments,’ He is asking more than just an assent of the mind. Knowing Jesus’ commandments is only 1 part of the equation. Permitting Jesus’ commandments to alter behavior in thought, word and deed is key. Once again, the Gospel imperative of metanoia that Jesus sounded at the beginning of His Public Ministry (see Mark 1:14-15) is a sine qua non, an absolute and a non-negotiable when it comes to being a true believer and intentional disciple of Jesus Christ.

For the believer, a first point to consider when it comes to ‘keeping my [Jesus] commandments’ may not be the commandment itself, but Who sounds the commandment. True believing is relational living. Christian living is not defined by gnostic memorizing of do’s and don’ts and heady, abstract dogma and doctrine. It is responding to the graced-offer of an encounter with the Person Jesus (see 1 John 1:1-4 and Catechism of the Catholic Church, paragraph 426). On His part, Jesus has given the world His precious and valuable Word which His Church has sounded through generations in the Sacred Liturgy and Magisterium. He asks that we, His disciples, receive these as valuable and do our part to guard, protect - and above all, live His Words of life through daily conversion.

Humanly, this approach reminds me of a precious life moment years ago at a family gathering. My sister had to offer a gentle correction to her daughters and when she came back to us a few minutes later, she remarked, “Oh ... I've become Mom!” At that moment, my sister’s eyes locked eyes with our Mom. She went over and gave my Mom a big hug and tearfully thanked her for everything that has enabled her to be a Mom to her daughters. Maybe not in all the moments of life, but overall, my sister treasured, guarded and held precious the model of Mom’s life and her words of wisdom that has made her the mother that she is today. Analogously, Jesus has given all humanity the path to full life by treasuring His commandments coupled with the requisite responding yes to His Word so that each day may be one of becoming more and more life Him Who sacrificed so much that we may live.

Sixth Sunday of Easter

“If you love me, you will keep My commandments...” (John 14:15.)

Saint Cyril of Alexandria comments on this verse from the Gospel proclaimed at Mass today:

“Having determined and expressly declared that the enjoyment of the heavenly blessings (supplied, that is, through him by the Father) is both due to those who love him and in very truth shall be theirs, he immediately goes on to describe the power of love. He provides excellent and irreproachable instruction to us for our profit with the intent that we should devote ourselves to its pursuit. For even if a person says that he loves God, he will not immediately merit credit for having true love of God, since the power of virtue does not stand on bare speech alone, nor piety on naked words. Rather, it is distinguished by performance of good deeds and an obedient disposition. Keeping the divine commandments is the best way to give living expression to our love toward God. It presents the picture of a life lived in all its fullness and truth. It is not a life sketched out in mere sounds that flow from the tongue. It gleams instead with the altogether radiant and brilliant colors that paint a portrait of good works.” (Commentary on Gospel of John, 9.)

Collect

Grant, almighty God,
that we may celebrate with heartfelt devotion
these days of joy,
which we keep in honor of the Risen Lord,
and that what we relive in remembrance
we may always hold to in what we do.
Through our Lord Jesus Christ, Your Son,
Who lives and reigns with You
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
God, for ever and ever.

Glory to the Father
and to the Son
and to the Holy Spirit:
as it was in the beginning,
is now, and will be forever. Amen

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God has reconciled us to Himself through Christ and given us the ministry of reconciliation

Saint Cyril of Alexandria

Bishop and Father of the Church

An excerpt from his Commentary on II Corinthians

Sixth Sunday of Easter

Those who have a sure hope, guaranteed by the Spirit, that they will rise again lay hold of what lies in the future as though it were already present. They say: “Outward appearances will no longer be our standard in judging other men. Our lives are all controlled by the Spirit now, and are not confined to this physical world that is subject to corruption. The light of the Only-begotten has shone on us, and we have been transformed into the Word, the source of all life. While sin was still our master, the bonds of death had a firm hold on us, but now that the righteousness of Christ has found a place in our hearts we have freed ourselves from our former condition of corruptibility.”

This means that none of us lives in the flesh anymore, at least not in so far as living in the flesh means being subject to the weaknesses of the flesh, which include corruptibility. Once we thought of Christ as being in the flesh, but we do not do so any longer, says Saint Paul. By this he meant that the Word became flesh and dwelt among us; he suffered death in the flesh in order to give all men life. It was in this flesh that we knew him before, but we do so no longer. Even though he remains in the flesh, since he came to life again on the third day and is now with his Father in heaven, we know that he has passed beyond the life of the flesh; for having died once, he will never die again, death has no power over him any more. His death was a death to sin, which he died once for all; his life is life with God.

Since Christ has in this way become the source of life for us, we who follow in his footsteps must not think of ourselves as living in the flesh any longer, but as having passed beyond it. Saint Paul’s saying is absolutely true that when anyone is in Christ he becomes a completely different person: his old life is over and a new life has begun. We have been justified by our faith in Christ and the power of the curse has been broken. Christ’s coming to life again for our sake has put an end to the sovereignty of death. We have come to know the true God and to worship him in spirit and in truth, through the Son, our mediator, who sends down upon the world the Father’s blessings.

And so Saint Paul shows deep insight when he says: This is all God’s doing: it is he who has reconciled us to himself through Christ. For the mystery of the incarnation and the renewal it accomplished could not have taken place without the Father’s will. Through Christ we have gained access to the Father, for as Christ himself says, no one comes to the Father except through him. This is all God’s doing, then. It is he who has reconciled us to himself through Christ, and who has given us the ministry of reconciliation.

Glory to the Father
and to the Son
and to the Holy Spirit:
as it was in the beginning,
is now, and will be forever. Amen

 

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Saturday after the Fifth Sunday of Easter

“During [the] night Paul had a vision. A Macedonian stood before him and implored him with these words, “Come over to Macedonia and help us.” (Acts 16:9.)

In commenting on these verses from today’s First Reading, Saint John Chrysostom writes:

“When he had seen the vision, immediately we sought to go on into Macedonia, concluding that God had called us.” Look, no longer through an angel, as it was with Philip and Cornelius. But how? Through a vision it appears to him, in a manner now more human, no longer as divine. For where obedience came more easily, revelation was of a more human sort; where much force was needed, of a more divine sort. Thus when he was only urged to preach, a dream appeared to him; but when he could not bear not to preach, it was the Holy Spirit who revealed it to him. So it was with Peter. “Arise, go down.” For the Holy Spirit did not work what was easy; a dream was enough in his case. Also for Joseph, who obeyed readily, it was in a dream, but for others, including Cornelius and Paul himself, it was in a vision. And notice how it says “a man of Macedonia was standing beseeching him and saying.” Not “ordering” but “beseeching,” that is, on behalf of the very people in need of caring. What does “concluding” mean? It means they made an inference. From the fact that Paul saw him and not someone else, that Paul was “forbidden by the Holy Spirit” and that they were at the borders—from all this they reached their conclusion.” (Homilies on the Acts of the Apostles, 34.)

Collect

Almighty and eternal God,
Who through the regenerating power of Baptism
have been pleased to confer on us heavenly life,
grant, we pray,
that those You render capable of immortality
by justifying them may by Your guidance
attain the fullness of glory.
Through our Lord Jesus Christ, Your Son,
Who lives and reigns with You
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
God, for ever and ever. Amen.

Glory to the Father
and to the Son
and to the Holy Spirit:
as it was in the beginning,
is now, and will be forever. Amen

 

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The Easter Alleluia

Saint Augustine of Hippo

Bishop and Great Western Father of the Church

An excerpt from his Treatise on Psalm 148

Saturday after the Fifth Sunday of Easter

Our thoughts in this present life should turn on the praise of God, because it is in praising God that we shall rejoice for ever in the life to come; and no one can be ready for the next life unless he trains himself for it now. So we praise God during our earthly life, and at the same time we make our petitions to him. Our praise is expressed with joy, our petitions with yearning. We have been promised something we do not yet possess, and because the promise was made by one who keeps his word, we trust him and are glad; but insofar as possession is delayed, we can only long and yearn for it. It is good for us to persevere in longing until we receive what was promised, and yearning is over; then praise alone will remain.

Because there are these two periods of time—the one that now is, beset with the trials and troubles of this life, and the other yet to come, a life of everlasting serenity and joy—we are given two liturgical seasons, one before Easter and the other after. The season before Easter signifies the troubles in which we live here and now, while the time after Easter which we are celebrating at present signifies the happiness that will be ours in the future. What we commemorate before Easter is what we experience in this life; what we celebrate after Easter points to something we do not yet possess. This is why we keep the first season with fasting and prayer; but now the fast is over and we devote the present season to praise. Such is the meaning of the Alleluia we sing.

Both these periods are represented and demonstrated for us in Christ our head. The Lord’s passion depicts for us our present life of trial—shows how we must suffer and be afflicted and finally die. The Lord’s resurrection and glorification show us the life that will be given to us in the future.

Now therefore, brethren, we urge you to praise God. That is what we are all telling each other when we say Alleluia. You say to your neighbor, “Praise the Lord!” and he says the same to you. We are all urging one another to praise the Lord, and all thereby doing what each of us urges the other to do. But see that your praise comes from your whole being; in other words, see that you praise God not with your lips and voices alone, but with your minds, your lives and all your actions.

We are praising God now, assembled as we are here in church; but when we go on our various ways again, it seems as if we cease to praise God. But provided we do not cease to live a good life, we shall always be praising God. You cease to praise God only when you swerve from justice and from what is pleasing to God. If you never turn aside from the good life, your tongue may be silent but your actions will cry aloud, and God will perceive your intentions; for as our ears hear each other’s voices, so do God’s ears hear our thoughts.

Glory to the Father
and to the Son
and to the Holy Spirit:
as it was in the beginning,
is now, and will be forever. Amen

 

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Friday after the Fifth Sunday of Easter

“... who have dedicated their lives to the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.” (Acts 15:26.)

In commenting on these verses from today’s First Reading, Saint John Chrysostom writes:

“As they are “beloved,” they will not be dismissed. As they “have risked their lives,” they have a right to be believed. “We have sent” them as well, it says, to announce the same things by word of mouth. For it was necessary that there be more than the letter alone, lest they should say that they said one thing instead of another. The praise bestowed on Paul stopped their mouths. For Paul came neither by himself nor with Barnabas alone but was accompanied by others from the church (and not only by those from Jerusalem), so that he should not be suspected. It shows that they have a right to be believed.” (Homilies on the Acts of the Apostles, 33.)

Collect

Grant us, Lord, we pray,
that, being rightly conformed
to the Paschal Mysteries,
what we celebrate in joy
may protect and save us with perpetual power.
Through our Lord Jesus Christ Your Son
Who lives and reigns with You
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
God, for ever and ever. Amen.

Glory to the Father
and to the Son
and to the Holy Spirit:
as it was in the beginning,
is now, and will be forever. Amen

 

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Firstborn of many brothers

Blessed Isaac of Stella

Cistercian Monk

An excerpt from his Sermon 42

Friday after the Fifth Sunday of Easter

Just as the head and body of a man form one single man, so the Son of the Virgin and those he has chosen to be his members form a single man and the one Son of Man. Christ is whole and entire, head and body, say the Scriptures, since all the members form one body, which with its head is one Son of Man, and he with the Son of God is one Son of God, who himself with God is one God. Therefore the whole body with its head is Son of Man, Son of God, and God. This is the explanation of the Lord’s words: Father, I desire that as you and I are one, so they may be one with us.

And so, according to this well-known reading of Scripture, neither the body without the head, nor the head without the body, nor the head and body without God make the whole Christ. When all are united with God they become one God. The Son of God is one with God by nature; the Son of Man is one with him in his person; we, his body, are one with him sacramentally. Consequently those who by faith are spiritual members of Christ can truly say that they are what he is: the Son of God and God himself. But what Christ is by his nature we are as his partners; what he is of himself in all fullness, we are as participants. Finally, what the Son of God is by generation, his members are by adoption, according to the text: As sons you have received the Spirit of adoption, enabling you to cry, Abba, Father.

Through his Spirit, he gave men the power to become sons of God, so that all those he has chosen might be taught by the firstborn among many brothers to say: Our Father, who are in heaven. Again he says elsewhere: I ascend to my Father and to your Father.

By the Spirit, from the womb of the Virgin, was born our head, the Son of Man; and by the same Spirit, in the waters of baptism, we are reborn as his body and as sons of God. And just as he was born without any sin, so we are reborn in the forgiveness of all our sins. As on the cross he bore the sum total of the whole body’s sins in his own physical body, so he gave his members the grace of rebirth in order that no sin might be imputed to his mystical body. It is written: Blessed is the man to whom the Lord imputes no sin. The blessed man of this text is undoubtedly Christ, who forgives sins insofar as God is his head. Insofar as this man is the head of the body, no sin is forgiven him. But insofar as the body that belongs to this head consists of many members, sin is not imputed to it.

Just in himself, it is he who justifies himself. He alone is both Savior and saved. In his own body on the cross he bore what he had washed from his body by the waters of baptism. Bringing salvation through wood and through water, he is the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world which he took upon himself. Himself a priest, he offers himself as sacrifice to God, and he himself is God. Thus, through his own self, the Son is reconciled to himself as God, as well as to the Father and to the Holy Spirit.

Glory to the Father
and to the Son
and to the Holy Spirit:
as it was in the beginning,
is now, and will be forever. Amen

 

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Thursday after the Fifth Sunday of Easter

“He made no distinction between us and them, for by faith he purified their hearts.” (Acts 15:9)

Saint Augustine of Hippo comments on this verse from the First Reading proclaimed during today’s Mass:

“Faith in God purifies the heart, the pure heart sees God. But faith is sometimes defined as followed by people who wish to deceive themselves; as if it were enough merely to believe — some people, you see, promise themselves the vision of God and the kingdom of heaven for believing while living bad lives. Against these the apostle James indignantly took umbrage out of spiritual charity, so he says in his letter, “You believe that God is one.” You pat yourself on your back for your faith; you observe that many godless people assume there are many gods, and you congratulate yourself for believing that there is only one God. “You do well. The demons also believe — and shudder.” Shall they too see God? Those who are pure of heart shall see him. Whoever would say that the unclean spirits are pure of heart? And yet, “they believe—and shudder.”

So our faith must be distinguished from the faith of demons. Our faith, you see, purifies the heart, their faith makes them guilty. So let us distinguish our faith and see that believing is not enough. That is not the sort of faith that purifies the heart. “Purifying their hearts,” it says, “by faith.” But which faith, what sort of faith? The one, surely, which the apostle Paul defines when he says “faith that works through love.” This faith is different from the faith of demons, different from the morals of dissolute and desperate people. “Faith,” he says. “Which faith?” The one “that works through love,” hopes for what God promises. You could not have a more perfect, a more carefully thought-out definition than that.” (Sermon 53)

Collect

O God,
by Whose grace,
though sinners, we are made just
and, though pitiable, made blessed,
stand, we pray, by Your works,
stand by Your gifts,
that those justified by faith
may not lack the courage of perseverance.
Through our Lord Jesus Christ, Your Son,
who lives and reigns with You in the
unity of the Holy Spirit,
God, for ever and ever.

Glory to the Father
and to the Son
and to the Holy Spirit:
as it was in the beginning,
is now, and will be forever. Amen

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The Eucharist is The Lord’s passover

Saint Gaudentius of Brescia

Bishop

An excerpt from his Tractate 2

Thursday after the Fifth Sunday of Easter

One man has died for all, and now in every church in the mystery of bread and wine he heals those for whom he is offered in sacrifice, giving life to those who believe and holiness to those who consecrate the offering. This is the flesh of the Lamb; this is his blood. The bread that came down from heaven declared: The bread that I will give is my flesh for the life of the world. It is significant, too, that his blood should be given to us in the form of wine, for his own words in the gospel, I am the true vine, imply clearly enough that whenever wine is offered as a representation of Christ’s passion, it is offered as his blood. This means that it was of Christ that the blessed patriarch Jacob prophesied when he said: He will wash his tunic in wine and his cloak in the blood of the grape. The tunic was our flesh, which Christ was to put on like a garment and which he was to wash in his own blood.

Creator and Lord of all things, whatever their nature, he brought forth bread from the earth and changed it into his own body. Not only had he the power to do this, but he had promised it; and, as he had changed water into wine, he also changed wine into his own blood. It is the Lord’s passover, Scripture tells us, that is, the Lord’s passing. We are no longer to look upon the bread and wine as earthly substances. They have become heavenly, because Christ has passed into them and changed them into his body and blood. What you receive is the body of him who is the heavenly bread, and the blood of him who is the sacred vine; for when he offered his disciples the consecrated bread and wine, he said: This is my body, this is my blood. We have put our trust in him. I urge you to have faith in him; truth can never deceive.

When Christ told the crowds that they must eat his flesh and drink his blood, they were horrified and began to murmur among themselves: This teaching is too hard; who can be expected to listen to it? As I have already told you, thoughts such as these must be banished. The Lord himself used heavenly fire to drive them away by going on to declare: It is the spirit that gives life; the flesh is of no avail. The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life.

Glory to the Father
and to the Son
and to the Holy Spirit:
as it was in the beginning,
is now, and will be forever. Amen

 

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Wednesday after the Fifth Sunday of Easter

“Some who had come down from Judea were instructing the brothers, “Unless you are circumcised according to the Mosaic practice, you cannot be saved.”” (Acts 15:1.)

Origen of Alexandria (part 2 of Pope Benedict’s reflections on Origen) comments on this verse from the First Reading proclaimed at Mass today.:

“Observe what he alleges as a proof of his statement: “Christians at first were few in number and held the same opinions, but when they grew to be a great multitude, they were divided and separated, each wishing to have his own individual party. This was their object from the beginning.” That Christians at first were few in number, in comparison with the multitudes who subsequently became Christian, is no doubt true.

He also says that “all the Christians were of one mind,” not noticing, even in this particular, that from the beginning there were differences of opinion among believers regarding the meaning of the books held to be divine. At all events, while the apostles were still preaching and eyewitnesses of Jesus were still teaching his doctrine, there was no small discussion among the converts from Judaism regarding Gentile believers and whether they ought to observe Jewish customs or reject the burden of clean and unclean meats as not being obligatory on those who had abandoned their ancestral Gentile customs and had become believers in Jesus.” (Against Celsus, 3.)

Collect

O God,
Restorer and Lover of innocence,
direct the hearts of Your servants
towards Yourself,
that those You have set free
from the darkness of unbelief
may never stray
from the light of Your truth.
Through our Lord Jesus Christ, Your Son,
Who lives and reigns with You in the
unity of the Holy Spirit,
God, for ever and ever.

Glory to the Father
and to the Son
and to the Holy Spirit:
as it was in the beginning,
is now, and will be forever. Amen

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