“Whoever has my commandments and observes them is the one who loves me” (John 14:21).
Especially in our modern western mind set, the idea of commandments and love are bristled at. Mostly this is because of abuse of power, abuse in relationships, and a weakening of trust in secular and religious institutions is still present for many.
Jesus though is clearly bringing commandments and love together, as he is sharing with his apostles in these beginning stages of his farewell discourse before his crucifixion, what he feels is most important to leave. His testament that he not only wants to share, but these final words he wants to impart upon them in such a way that they continue to learn and receive his teachings, put them into practice, and perpetuate them.
As commandment can lead one to bristle, love has many more superficial meanings than what Jesus means. One reason is that, even though the English language has a plethora of words to utilize and choose from, there is only one word for love and it is interpreted in many ways. In Ancient Greek, there are four words that are used to connote love. There is eros, which has to do with attraction. It is the beginning stage of love because we are drawn out of ourselves as we are attracted to another. The next word for love is philia, which aligns with friendship, a wanting to be together, to share between friends. If our love matures it moves from attraction or infatuation to friendship. The third word, storge, is the deeper love shared with family members which can be through blood or a deepening of friendship. The fourth word is agape, which is unconditional love, a sacrificial love.
When Jesus shares that we are to follow the commandments, he is not demanding that we do so as a tyrant would. He is providing the boundaries and parameters for us to grow and mature as people who love, who, in the words of St Thomas Aquinas, will the good of the other as other. As humans, we are social beings. We want to belong, to be accepted, and to be a part of. We seek meaning, purpose, and fulfillment in our lives. This is best done through cooperation and collaboration with God and with one another, striving to love unconditionally, agape.
As a good son of St. Augustine, Pope Leo XIV quoted Augustine in his inaugural Mass as Pope Sunday: “Lord, you have made us for yourself, and our heart is restless until it rests in you (Confessions, I: 1,1).” We are made by God to be loved and to love in return. Nothing we seek of this world will satisfy this deepest hunger that we all have in our soul besides the love God has for us. Unfortunately, we succumb to many disordered affections in pursuit of the love we seek. We are led astray by apparent goods that leave us hungry, thirsty, and wanting for more.
If we operate from a self-centered posture in which we are only turned in upon our self, and we only seek to manipulate and get from others, instead of working for consensus and sharing a common vision with others, we will ultimately be empty with the exchange on any level, because even in our relationships as with material things, we will be left wanting more. This is true because once the immediacy of the stimulation, whether material, personal, or sensual, ends, so does the experience of the feeling. Some happiness may linger from the effect, but we will never be filled or satisfied with that which is finite. We will continue to seek more and more until the pursuit of instant and constant gratification ensnares us and we are entangled in a web of addiction.
God’s commandments, grounded in love, are meant to provide boundaries for us, training wheels, and to keep us free from enslavement to sin, while at the same time help us to mature as persons moving away from being self-centered to becoming other-centered. Discipline in this way is meant to be a means of freedom for excellence such that we can become who God calls us to be and who we truly desire to be. God is not in competition with us. He is our biggest fan. As St Irenaeus wrote, the glory of God is the human being fully alive!
Commandments and morality imposed indiscriminately, without reason or an end goal is a bludgeon. Love and mercy without accountability and justice can be enabling. Jesus’ invites us to receive and observe his commandments so that we may be freed from disordered affections and so properly order and discipline our affections and passions to be free to love. Jesus knows what will truly fulfill and give us deeper meaning. May we trust in and learn from the deposit of faith passed on from Jesus to the Apostles, to each successive generation, as well as the ongoing guidance of the Holy Spirit who the Father sent in his name (John 14:26).
Pope Leo XIV continued to carry on Jesus’ teachings yesterday: “Brothers and sisters, this is the hour for love! The heart of the gospel is the love of God that makes us brothers and sisters.” We are brothers and sisters, disciples of Jesus, when we receive, rest, and abide in the love that Jesus offers us and come to realize that we do not do walk alone. As we receive and put into practice Jesus’s commandments, we love him and his Father, are given the discernment to reveal the lies of the enemy, we grow, and mature in our spiritual lives.
Let us allow the tender chords of the Holy Spirit’s love to draw us deeper into intimacy with him so that we can be transformed by his love, healed by his love, and freed from the false lures and promises that seek to divert us from being the beloved daughters and sons of God our Father that we have been created to be. As we allow ourselves to be loved, we, are “called to offer God’s love to everyone, in order to achieve that unity which does not cancel out differences but values the personal history of each person and the social and religious cultures of every people” (Pope Leo XIV).
Photo by Alberto PIZZOLI / AFP accessed from Catholic Herald
Quotes above from Pope Leo XIV from: Transcript of Pope Leo XIV’s Inauguration Mass
Spiritual Stepping Stones 