Overwhelmed By Love

“This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. You are my friends if you do what I command you. I do not call you servants any longer, because the servant does not know what the master is doing; but I have called you friends, because I have made known to you everything that I have heard from my Father. You did not 

choose me but I chose you. And I appointed you to go and bear fruit, fruit that will last, so that the Father will give you whatever you ask him in my name. I am giving you these commands so that you may love one another."

                                                                              - John 15:12-17

To bear fruit that will last seems to be the greatest witness of love for others in the way that Christ has loved us. This commandment had to be overwhelming for the disciples. Jesus presents to them the love commandment in light of friendship, an intimacy that he shares with them and yet one that they may not have fully grasped until after his resurrection. Laying down one’s life for a friend looks different after crucifixion and resurrection, it gives a depth and a richness to this commandment of love.

The gospel of John presents Jesus sharing this commandment at the Last Supper after the foot-washing. Not only had Jesus washed their feet, he now challenges them to take that action into the world by means of loving others and bearing fruit. Again this had to be overwhelming for the disciples, they had to be asking how? where? when? always? with him? for them? friendship? love?

Between the foot-washing and the love commandment Jesus shares a lot with his disciples, again overwhelming seems like the best way to describe it. There was the model of discipleship, the commandment to love so others will know they are his disciples, Jesus’ declaration of him as “the way, the truth, the life”, the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, his gift of peace, and the image of the vine and branches all coming together in the command to love in friendship, to lay down one’s life and to bear fruit. That is a lot to take in, to appreciate, to live by, to process… overwhelming seems to be the best descriptor.

And then the betrayal, then the cross, then his death, then the burial, then the end… or so they thought and what they thought was the end was really the start of going and bearing fruit that would last, and what was thought to be overwhelming was transformed and strengthened by love and as his words began to come back to them and settle in their bones and they remembered Jesus saying, “You did not choose me, but I chose you” and what was overwhelming or seemed impossible was swallowed up by God’s great love and became life-giving and possible.

So it is for us, when our lives feel overwhelming, when we feel overwhelmed by the commandment to love and the teachings of Jesus, we must be nourished by his love which he offers time and again at each Eucharist. Which in turn strengthens us to go bear lasting fruit (loving relationships, community, respect, care for the less fortunate, forgiveness, etc.) knowing he has chosen us. The great love of Christ is ours and as we are sent forth to proclaim the gospel we do so with love only because Christ did so first in laying down his life for us.

Together let us help each other to bear much fruit 

and change the world by truly loving one another.

How have you been a bearer of lasting fruit?

How have you been a witness to the love of the Risen Christ? 

There is no time like the present... it is always seeding time...

Where can you be a bearer of fruit in the days and weeks ahead?