May 5, 2024
VI Sunday of Easter, B
Jn 15:9-17
Last Sunday we began meditating on chapter XV of John's Gospel, in which Jesus speaks of the bond that unites him to his own, which is likened to the vine and its branches: not two different things, not two different lives, but the same life which circulates and bears fruit (Jn 15:1-8).
Today our meditation continues (Jn 15:9-17), leading us to ask a fundamental question: what is the fruit that Jesus is talking about. We said that the branch must bear fruit. Such a good vinedresser, such a beautiful vine, a branch so united to the vine, what kind of good fruit will it produce?
Today’s passage, which follows last Sunday's passage, we learn about the kind of fruit.
Jesus often states in John’s Gospel, that he knows the Father loves him. And he repeats this today, but he adds something important, namely, that as the Father loves him, he loves his disciples (John 15:9).
Jesus does not say that as the Father loves Him, so He loves the Father.
He certainly does as well, but Jesus' words go further: as the Father loves Him, so He loves others, loves His own.
Jesus wants to tell us that the love between two people cannot remain closed, which ends within an interchange. Because after all, it would not be love.
If I love a person and that person reciprocates my love and everything ends there, it is certainly a beautiful, rewarding experience, but also a very poor one, because I receive nothing more than I have given.
If I don't lose anything, if I don't risk, if I don't get out of this reciprocity, I will always end up at the same level in giving love.
Jesus' love is not only reciprocal but also open. Not just an exchange between two people, but it’s a gift, available to all who want to take part in it.
This is a mature love, the kind that knows how to give itself, its love to others, the kind that keeps nothing for itself.
Love is not something to be guarded, but something we should be able to lose, being certain that only by losing it, does one find it again in fullness.
However, what is even more beautiful is that this also applies to the disciples in the same way.
For Jesus does not ask them to reciprocate his love, but to share it among themselves, and even with others.
He does not say, "As I have loved you, so you shall love me," but even here he goes further: "Love one another as I love you" (Jn. 15:12).
Meaning, we will be his friends, not if we love him, but if we love one another.
Moreover, this love has a definite characteristic, a particular style, namely, that Jesus asks us to love one another as He has loved us (Jn 15:12), to the extent that He has chosen to love, to the end.
Then, to love is not to give something to one's brother, but to give oneself, to give one's own life to another (Jn 15:13).
This is Jesus' commandment (Jn 15:10), this is the Word, which cuts and prunes the dead branches (Jn 15:2) so that they bear more fruit.
For then it means choosing to love even those who do not love us, it means wanting to step out of a logic of pure reciprocity.
For the love we have received, to bear fruit, it must go far, it has to go deep, it has to die and then be reborn, and it must be poured out on others.
When this happens, then we know what joy is (Jn. 15:11).
That Easter fruit we encountered in the Gospel passages relating to the Risen One's encounter with his disciples returns here: they rejoiced when they saw the Lord (Jn 20:20).
They rejoice to see that such a love, which bestows life without asking for anything in return, is a love that saves and renders life eternal.
+ Pierbattista
