Abide in My Love
I had a joyful experience on Friday afternoon. The school intercom blared, and all the kids in the tutoring program I’ve been involved in were rounded up and called to the school cafeteria. It was a big moment – the kids who had shown enough growth in their math scores would be awarded laptop computers. Kids who had excellent attendance would be awarded IPod Shuffles.
The kids have been waiting for this moment for months. After the awards were announced, the kids learned they wouldn’t actually receive them until a parent or guardian came to the school office. That way, the principal explained, the kids wouldn’t have to worry about being jumped and robbed in the street or about dropping the computer on the way home. Excitement was instantly extinguished.
But then, I saw something wonderful. One of the boys in my group, Mark, was hurrying to the office with his dad in tow. His dad had come to pick him up after school. They were two versions of the same face and body and hair, one eager, the other patient. The boy had earned an IPod, and his dad put his own agenda aside to go to the office then and there to pick up that IPod. Mark’s dad was laying down his own life for his son. “No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.”
When we hear these words from Jesus, we think about the people we would die for, the people we would “take a bullet for.” Some of us may even visualize heroic action scenes, with ourselves as the stars. Despite this human weakness, Jesus loves us as we are. We are chosen for this endless love. To receive such love we are asked to do one thing, to love one another in the same way Christ loves us.
Laying down our lives for our friends and loved ones does not require taking a bullet but it does require sacrifice. It is the sacrifice of moving across the country, leaving family and a way of life behind to follow the dreams of a spouse. It is hemming an acolyte’s robe. It is taking a family member to rehab and taking ourselves for help of our own. It is laying down our Blackberries and set aside time to pray for one another and for the world entrusted to us. These are the acts of love we are chosen by God and appointed to do.
It is a sacrifice to set our agendas aside for those we love. But Jesus’ challenge to us is greater still: to love all who love God as Jesus loves them and as Jesus loves God. The circle is far wider than we might guess.
The first reading today from the Acts of the Apostles helps us to see the circles around circles around circles of who Jesus loved and loves. The chapter begins with a Roman centurion named Cornelius who invites Peter to join him in Caesarea, a pagan-Samaritan city on the Mediterranean coast.
While Cornelius’s men travel to Joppa to meet Peter, Peter has a dream. He sees a sheet being lowered, and it holds four-footed creatures, reptiles, and birds. Peter hears a voice ordering him to eat, but Peter objects, saying he has never eaten anything unclean or profane. The voice replies, ‘What God has made clean, you must not call profane.” And as the sheet returns upward, Peter ponders the meaning of the words.
After traveling to Caesarea, Peter finds an assembly of Gentiles – pagans – at Cornelius’s home waiting to hear his teaching. Looking at them, he immediately understands his dream. Christ has come for all. No one is unclean. No one is profane. As we heard two weeks ago, the Good Shepherd acknowledges not only his fold but also the sheep outside of it other sheep outside his fold (John 10:16), and these, too, must hear his voice. Peter embraces the Gentiles as Christ would have welcomed them: he baptizes them as fellow friends of Christ.
They too have been chosen by God and appointed to carry God’s word. And do you know what? The good news is that most of us are descendents of Gentiles, and the invitations and blessings offered first by Jesus and here by Peter mean liberation and inclusion for us! We are chosen, too. We are among the friends of Christ. We are called to share our liberation with others in the same way it comes to us: by including those we think at first should be excluded.
I was touched on Friday when two of the boys – the devilish boys who always steal my heart, and two of the girls – the serious, hard-working girls who move my heart, crossed the room and sat with me. They decided to lay down their usual behavior of ignoring adults and sticking together like a pile of puppies long enough to sit two on my right – José and Jonathan – and two on my left – Edith and Elideth. They included me and I was touched. I found myself with a big smile on my face. Their simple and spontaneous action deepened my understanding of the love we are commanded to share with one another. These four kids gave me the gift of joy.
They brought Jesus’ words to life: I have said these things to you so that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be complete.
We can read and hear the call to love until we are blue in the face. Nothing teaches us the joy of Christian love better than being included and loved. Christian love is fresh and energizing and life-giving. It is the laughter of a young child riding on her parent’s knee. It is the pearl of great price, an ironic comment from a sixth grader, the gift of joy.
Let us commit ourselves to include those within this room and those outside in joyous love. Let us raise the hopes of those we meet as Christ has raised ours. Let our hearts and actions testify to our love, our values of justice, reconciliation, and inclusion of those who don’t at first come to mind. Let us widen the circle around Christ to give joy to all people and to be bathed with joy ourselves. Let us strengthen joy through prayer and by sharing the bread and wine that will become for us the body and blood of Christ. And as we do this, as we abide in Christ’s love, let’s smile.