Colloquially when we say that someone has “kept their word” we mean that he or she has done what they had promised or committed themselves to do. Similarly, in today’s gospel, when Jesus says that whoever loves him will keep his word, He is not referring to merely remembering or pondering on his words. No doubt this is important: the psalmist tells us that the man who meditates on the law of the Lord is blessed (Ps 1). But he is so because his meditation leads him to be like a tree which yields its fruit in due season. Likewise, when Jesus tells us that to love Him we ought to keep his word, He is indeed inviting us to meditate on His words, but more than that, He is encouraging that meditation to lead into action.
Moreover, Jesus explains that his word is not his own, but, instead, it is the Father’s. Thus, the word that we ought to ponder and to bring our action into conformity with is not just any. Instead, it is the Word of the Father: Jesus, the eternal and incarnate Word, who is the perfect expression of the Father’s being and love. It is the love which Jesus has given and shown us that we ought to keep. In short, Jesus command is that if we love Him, we ought to love as He has loved us.
No doubt this is no easy task. The struggles and hardships we face daily make it hard for us to love as Jesus would in our place. But our good Lord knows our weakness. He knows that our relationship with the Father – our trust and reliance on His love – is not like His. Thus, Jesus promises that He will send us the Holy Spirit, who is to be our teacher and our guide. Through the sacrament of baptism, we receive the Holy Spirit, we die to our old self and are reborn as sons and daughters of God. It is by the Spirit that we can come to know the Word of the Father, Jesus Christ, and to imitate him. The Spirit helps us to overcome our self-reliance and self-love, to more closely follow Jesus and, like Him, to depend solely on the Father’s love and grace.
Let us then continually ask the Father to send His Spirit upon us, that by His presence in our souls we may increasingly be transformed in the image of Jesus and allow Him, our King, to reign in our hearts with His peace.
Santiago Torres – St. Joseph Seminary, Edmonton, Alberta
Fot. Rachel Lynette/Unsplash.com