Doing Good
To All,
In our Gospel reading for this Sunday (John 14:15-21), Jesus says, “Whoever has my commandments and observes them is the one who loves me. And whoever loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and reveal myself to him.”
I feel sometimes that these words of Jesus can be understood as saying that God’s love depends on whether we love God. But I can’t believe that! Jesus has revealed Himself to us. We hear this in our second reading (1 Peter 3:15-18): “Always be ready to give an explanation to anyone who asks you for a reason for your hope, but do it with gentleness and reverence…For it is better to suffer for doing good, if that be the will of God, than for doing evil. For Christ also suffered once, the righteous for the sake of the unrighteous, that he might lead you to God.”
Jesus put no conditions on suffering for us “unrighteous.” Thanks be to God! And in His Cross and Resurrection, He has revealed how much we are loved and what we are called to do.
But it seems that in our divided times we are often less interested in suffering for doing good than trying to make others suffer because we have decided that they are too different from us and are therefore evil and godforsaken.
But we are not here to decide that others are godforsaken. We are called to something different. In our first reading (Acts 8:5-8, 14-17), the deacon Philip goes to the city of Samaria (again, remember the antipathy between Jews and Samaritans) “and proclaimed the Christ to them.” Luke tells us that the crowds paid attention to what Philip said, not only because of the words he was saying, but the “signs he was doing.” We do not proclaim Christ by condemning others. We proclaim Christ by acts of love, even to the point of suffering for doing what is good. This is the kind of love we know to be authentic. This is the kind of love we celebrate on Mother’s Day every year.
What Jesus promises us is that the more we are willing to observe His commandments, the more His love for us is revealed, and the more we understand our call as disciples. The more we understand our call, the more we understand the hope we have in the Resurrection, even when we may be suffering for doing good.
In all this, we are not alone. In our Gospel reading, Jesus says, “I will not leave you orphans.” By the power of the Holy Spirit, we can keep and observe Jesus’ commandments to love and proclaim Christ to the world.
I welcome any comments or questions. Thanks for your time.
In the Risen Christ,
Phil, CP
