2024/04/28 SCRIPTURE REFLECTION

Fifth Sunday of Easter

- Nick Carlson, Director of Ministry

I am fascinated by this Saint John connection that we read in today’s liturgy. On one hand, he invites us in the second reading to love not in word or speech, but in deed and truth. In this way we keep his commandments, and remain in him, and he in us. It’s an invitation to the growing community to remain true to the Spirit he gave us, above and beyond any norm or rule. Then, in the Gospel, John calls to mind Jesus’ words during the Last Supper: remain in me, as I remain in you…whoever remains in me and I in him will bear much fruit…by this is my Father glorified—that you bear much fruit and become my disciples.

For John, there’s a close link between loving in deed and truth and bearing much fruit. Remember: religious practice at the time of Jesus placed a heavy emphasis on sanctifying everything by fulfilling even the most minute norms and rules. The thought was that if we pay attention to every detail, we can demonstrate that God is present even there. This practice in itself is not wrongheaded, and surely there have been countless people for whom it has been life-giving—but it can lend itself to a greater preoccupation with fulfilling the law than with encountering the God of the law. Many of us may even have experienced faith in this way: if you were baptized Catholic, your earliest recollections of Christian life may revolve around keeping the fast before mass, or rushing to make your Sunday commitment, or stressing over getting the words right during your first confession. And while each of these things has value, an excessive focus on any one of them can lead us to neglect the most essential point: that we remain in him, bear much fruit, and become his disciples.

This week’s liturgy invites us to remember, for ourselves and for anyone who might be following our steps into the life of faith, that the most important part of everything we do is that we come into a closer encounter with God, and allow him to dwell within us. And this can mean recalibrating our own fulfillment of rules—it’s worth reflecting on a deeper level why we do what we do, so that we can renew our thoughtfulness, and hopefully root our practice more fully in that living encounter to which Jesus invites us.

This also means that as disciples, we can embody the thoughtfulness God has towards every single person. Imagine the community of believers in the first reading, hearing word that bloodthirsty Saul was trying to join the disciples—as foreign and even frightening as that may have seemed, the community knew to have grace towards Paul. They imitated Jesus’ merciful heart because they had experienced it firsthand. This open-handed approach led to the community’s growth with the consolation of the Holy Spirit. This is loving in deed.

Imagine Saint John writing his Gospel or epistles, looking back on these experiences, and recalling just how close he was with Jesus! Imagine his prayer, how he would have talked to our Lord with a living faith because he knew him as a friend. Now put yourself into his shoes: Jesus doesn’t want us to live faithfully because he appeared to someone else. He doesn’t want us to come to church because we read it somewhere that we should. He doesn’t want us to pray because someone told us to. He wants us to remain in him because he wants to remain in each one of us without exception; so that we can bear much fruit—flourish!—and be his disciples. This will mean revisiting a moment when you have experienced God in a deeply meaningful way, but it will also mean allowing God to renew this experience in you again. And if you’re not sure whether you’ve experienced God like that, then it will mean earnestly seeking his face, and taking heart that he will not withhold it from you.

Let’s continue to embody this wholistic approach to discipleship here at Saint Clement—the more we can do so, the more readily we will fulfill our mission to invite all into a life-changing relationship with Jesus. In this way, we will remain in him, and bear much fruit.