Channels of communion

A recording of today's gospel and blog can be accessed here.

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Today’s gospel (John 14:21-26) continues the love letter which we have been reading in recent days from Jesus to his disciples, the discourse at the Last Supper. Now, the Lord turns to the indwelling of the Trinity in the hearts of His faithful servants: if anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him. It is in this scene also that Jesus assures the disciples that the Paraclete, the Holy Spirit, will come to them later to help them remember all His teachings.

This is one of those passages in the gospel that need to be understood correctly, or rather, that can be easily misunderstood and taken incorrectly. And because it is as vital to avoid error as to weed the garden, these things are worth dwelling on for a while.

First, Jesus says: Whoever has my commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves me. To reinforce this message, He subsequently says: Whoever does not love me does not keep my words. It is in such passages that we realise the so-called plain sense of scripture is not at all plain. Do we all keep the commandments? No! If this is so, do we even love the Lord? Or if we do not keep His word, how can we say we love Him? Taken in this way, these words would be a reason for our despair. This is where the plain sense of scripture would be, so to speak, plain silly. Peter loved the Lord, and yet he denied Him. None of the apostles but John stood firm at the hour of the trial, and yet they all still loved him. So, what does the Lord mean?

The truth is that the more we love the Lord, the more we become like Him. He could work this transformation in a miraculous way, but it is only rare exceptions in the lives of the Saints that show such overnight metamorphoses. Usually, the transformation happens over time. There is an apprenticeship to serve. There is a time of learning to be undergone. We have the map, but we have not walked the journey. We know the destination, but we are not yet there. We can console ourselves with other words of the Lord. The just man falls seven times a day. This is good for our humility and good for our patience. It teaches us not only about ourselves and our real condition, and how grateful we should be to the Lord of all, but also about the struggles and difficulties of others who never even seem to come close to the Lord. How could we take pity on them if we had not known in some way their bitterness and limitations?

One other mistake that we might make as we read this gospel is to think that it is because of our action, our fidelity, that the Blessed Trinity will come to dwell with us: If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him. But again, this is where the plain sense of scripture would mislead us. The gift of the indwelling is not merchandise that we can barter for with a few coupons of good behaviour. In the one instant of eternity from the mystery of which the Blessed Trinity knew our creation, our fall, our redemption, and our sanctification, all of these things were a gift, not an entitlement. This indwelling comes not in return for our mere questionable fidelity. Even if through and in Christ, we merit grace, that we merit is itself a gift, for only Christ merits in the strict sense of the word.

This gift of the indwelling, to be made a house for the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit:: this gift comes out of His goodness towards us, for goodness must share itself. This logic is captured in the words of a hymn penned by St Francis Xavier that are worth quoting in one of the original Latin versions, for the sheer beauty and simplicity of the words:

Nec præmii ullius spe;

Sed sicut tu amasti me

Sic amo et amabo te,

Solum quia Rex meus es,

Et solum, quia Deus es.

Not for the hope of any reward, but just as you have loved me.

Thus I love and will love you,

Only because you are my God

Only because you are God.

 

To receive this gift is to be lifted up into another life in which the Father loves the Son and the Son loves the Father, that love between them being nothing other than the person of the Spirit. Here is where our calling to be like Christ takes on another breathtaking level, for just as the humanity of Christ, united to the person of the Son, was a dwelling place for the Trinity on earth, so through grace, we are united to these three persons, the One God, and are enabled even now to live with them in the secret chamber of our souls. The Father who begets the Son from eternity and the Son who is the perfect image of the Father, live in the unending rapture of love that is the Spirit and will that their human creatures share now on earth this inner living presence, and later see in glory the everlasting banquet of conviviality – a word that means literally a living together. This is the pearl of great price. This is everlasting life: to share in their joy. This is the ultimate fruit of our redemption.

When Mary said ‘yes’ to the angel, she was not just saying ‘yes’ to being a mother. She was reworking the original disobedience of Eve that introduced such dissonance into human existence, and blending it again with the harmony of the eternal Trinity. She, Mary, is the one who has kept the commandments, and thus the one in whom the Trinity dwells, and in whom the Son can take flesh and step into this fallen world for its recovery.

We can always fall; let us be humble. But if we are faithful, faithful to this inner life, what miracles of grace might we yet help unleash upon the world, what miracles of love and unity might not be wrought with our cooperation! For having come to share in this living, raging torrent of the Trinity’s life, how could we not become channels of His living waters for others?

And then we can collectively echo Mary too. Fiat nobis secundum verbum tuum : let it be done to us Lord, according to your word.