READINGS: ACTS 10:25-26,34-35,44-48; PSA 97:1-4; 1 JOHN 4:7-10; JOHN 15:9-17
THEME: LOVE HAS NO BOUNDARY NOR RESTRICTION
The readings of today lay bare to us the love of God for us, the love that has no restriction nor boundary, and at the same time invite us to be the scent of God’s love to others.
a. LOVE AS ‘IFU-N’ANYA’
In my mother’s tongue, love means ‘ifu-n’anya’, that means, ‘to look into the eyes’. When we look into another person’s eyes, what do we see? We see ourselves. To love therefore means to see myself in others. We must never forget that we are created in the image and likeness of God.
Hence, each and everyone of us is a bodily representation of God’s image. In fact, St.Irenaeus says that man fully alive is the glory of God. In this way, we understand that when I look into another person, I not only see myself, but also see God, whose image I am.
Love, which is ‘Ifu n’anya’ therefore is an invitation to draw so close that I can look into another person’s eyes and see myself. And when I see myself, I see the glorious image of God which I am. To love others therefore means to love myself whom I see in others and to love God whose image I am.
b. LOVE IS POSSIBLE WHERE FRIENDSHIP EXISTS
But the question is, ‘how can I have that close range with another person so as to see myself living in that person?’
Jesus knows that the kind of love that looks into the eyes is not that which is found between master and servant. With the distance that exists between a master and his servant, ‘ifunanya’ is not possible. Before a master can love a servant, and vice versa, the master-servant distance must first be breached and overcome.
Hence, Jesus tells his disciples, that he no longer calls them servants because the love which he has for them is not that of master for servant, but the love of a friend for his friends.
A friend is one who stands so close to his/her friend such that he can not only see the image in his friend’s eyes but also hear his/her breath and hear his/her smell. Unless we are able to come that close, thereby creating friendship, love is difficult. This ‘coming close’ is more of attitudinal than physical. Jesus gives us the command to love.
But he does not want us to follow that command as a servant would follow the command of his master. A servant does what the master says, even if he/she does not want to. But Jesus wants us to keep his commandment of love as a way of showing our own friendship with him.
Hence, he says, ‘we are his friends when we do what he commands us’, and what is that which he commands? that we love one another. We can only love others when we make them friends, and in loving others we show our friendship with Jesus. Love is a command, but not a command of a dictator but a command of a friend. It is not what we do for a master but how we show our acceptance of friendship with Christ.
c. LOVE HAS NO RESTRICTION NOR BARRIER
In the first reading, Peter follows God’s instruction to go to the house of Cornelius, people who were considered pagans and unworthy of being called ‘friends of Jesus’. To Cornelius and those who have gathered in his house, Peter said ‘I have come to realize that God knows no partiality, but in every nation anyone who fears him and does what is right, is acceptable to him’. (Acts 10:34-35).
God’s love is not limited nor restricted. It is not reserved for some people. No matter where one comes from, and what one does, God’s love reaches there. The same Holy Spirit which the ‘most righteous’ Judeo-Christians received, was also given to the pagan household of Cornelius and those gathered with him.
Our love should not have restriction nor boundary. We do not love because ‘he/she is a family or relative’, we love because he/she is a co-friend of Jesus. Once we are not ready to remove the tag that identifies some people as ‘strangers’ we cannot love them. It does not matter who we think someone to be, or what we consider him/her to be, he/she deserves our love.
Therefore, we have to ask ourselves today? am I God’s friend? How do I show that I am God’s friend? Do I create barrier in my loving others? Do I see other people as God’s friends who are also worthy of my love? If everybody is God’s friends, and God loves all of us as his friends, then who am I not to love God’s friends? who am I not to love my fellow friends of Christ? we cannot love God whom we do not see if we do not love our fellow men whom we see.
Dearest friends, let us ask God who is love and who calls us to love him in loving others, to give us his Holy Spirit, the Spirit who makes no boundary, the Spirit who fills our hearts with fire of God’s love, the Spirit who unites us all into one family of God, making us friends of Jesus and co-bearers of God’s glorious image, so that we may bring the same spirit of love of God to other people, without considering who they are, where they come from, and what they do.
Fr. Henry Chukwuezugo Nnamah
Catholic Diocese of Aguleri