Acts 10:25-26.34-35.44-48: Peter's Discourse and the coming of the Spirit
Ps 97:1-4
1 Jn 4:7-10: God is love.
Jn 15:9-17: There is no greater love than to give one's life for one's friends.

Commentary

Acts 10,25-26.34-35.44-48

Peter goes to the house of Cornelius, a pagan who has invited him. He is a pagan "friendly" to the Jews, but a pagan nonetheless. We have to remember that the Jews called the pagans "dogs" to show the gulf between Jews and everyone else.

Cornelius needs instruction and Peter is God's instrument -he himself isn't God- and to kneel before him implies that he is recognized as God, when he is human; this is something that will happen with Paul, too, in 14,11-15. But Peter also must recognize God's action in Cornelius's life, and he does

it by means of the classic biblical principle that God is not a respecter of persons (Dt 10,17; 2 Cr 19,7; Sir 35,13; Rom 2,11; Ga 2,6; Eph 6,9; Col 3,25; 1 Pet 1,17). This point is not to be understood as if God is "aseptic", because the visible sign of this "not respecting persons" is rooted in God's predilection for the victims: the poor, and -in this case- strangers.

The Spirit of God is freer than human structures, so it is poured out upon those "who don't deserve it." In this divine gesture, Peter, and with him the whole Christian community, must recognize that God is leading people along a new path. This new path is always near to the despised, the victims.

Peter's submission to the Spirit is reflected in Baptism, something forbidden to "dogs", now making "brothers" of those to whom it had been forbidden, and against whom God does not discriminate.

Ps 97:1-4

The people -at least the ones that we meet here- are in exile in Babylon, and they understand this critical stage as a repetition of their sojourn of oppression in Egypt. Especially, the disciple of Isaiah invites us to view the future return to the Promised Land as a new Exodus. In the first Exodus, God went with the people displaying to them his blessings, power and company. The events of the quail, the manna, the water from the rock and others are seen throughout the Exodus as "Yahweh's marvels". It is supposed, then, that this new Exodus will bring with it even greater marvels. And if the first miracles were sung throughout Israel, now a "new song" must be intoned.

The works of God are presented as salvation, justice, love, and loyalty, and must lead the whole earth to burst with a shout of joy. The chief motive for this triumph is the kingship of Yahweh, he has triumphed, and his triumph -especially influenced by the universalism of Isaiah- is a cause for joy for all the nations, because his kingdom will be one of justice.

1 Jn 4:7-10

There is a very close relationship between mutual love and the love that springs from God. The "progression" of love is such that those who love can do so because in their turn they have been first loved by God. A similar idea is already present in the Old Testament, hesed (mercy) is the criterion for belonging to the people of God: "He has told you, O mortal, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God." (Mic 6,8; see Hos 6,4-6).

Of course we have to understand this love in a clearly Johannine way: in practice. This understanding is of love lived and experienced, demonstrated. A theoretical love, "up in the air," which was proclaimed by some within John's community, is questioned by the author of the epistle. Love is from its source, and this love is what we experience as coming from God, and made concrete in the Son, sent into the world so that we might live. This is true love: the sending of the Son, and it is this love that we are called to make concrete in our daily life. Those who do not love do not know God. It's that simple.

The relationship between love (hesed) and knowledge is very common in the prophet Hosea: "Hear the word of the Lord, O people of Israel; for the Lord has an indictment against the inhabitants of the land. There is no faithfulness or loyalty, and no knowledge of God in the land." (4,1); where there is no love there is no knowledge, and vice versa. This concept is supported by the author of the epistle.

Saying that "God is love" (he had said that "God is spirit" [Jn 4,24] and that "God is light" [1 Jn 1,5]) invites us to an intimacy with God through the Son, who sends the spirit (Jn 7,39), who is the light of the world (8,12) and who invites us to love like he does (15,12), which includes his being sent out "to the world" from the moment of incarnation to the ultimate proof of love: giving his life. Probably John's adversaries would restrict themselves to saying that God's love was shown in the incarnation, while the author wants to show that that love, even to giving his life, precisely because it gave "us" life -that we receive through conversion and baptism- is not a love that just "sits there" but is one that is active in us. And that love is the opposite of non-love ("those who do not love...") which is hatred, which is characteristic of the world which has not accepted the Son (1 Jn 3,13; see Jn 15,18; 17,14) and doesn't accept his friends.

Jn 15:9-17: There is no greater love than to give one's life for one's friends.

Jesus' discourse begins with a movement that goes from the Father to the Son, and from them to Christians, and then to Christians for one another. Christians have to give love "like" that of the Father for the Son. Not a question of "quantity" or "quality", but of origin. Love has its origin in God, and by "enduring" it makes possible a fruitful intercommunication. The words that speak of love are frequently found together (love, to love, friends). At each end of the discourse we find references to the Father, and at the center we find an express reference to "greater" love, which is that of Jesus himself who gives his life.

To remain in love is to remain in the very source of love. It is precisely this love that arrives at that unity which generates the interrelationship Father-Son, Son-believer. And through this union, hearts and wills also are united. The will of the Father is the will of the Son, and the will of the Son is the will of the believer. Thus it is a commandment, because love "obliges"; it demands from deep within the fulfillment of the will of the other. This love in which one dwells, which has its origin in another and then sends out roots, returns to its source. Before the author passes from speaking of the love of Christ-believer to the love of the believers for one another, he interrupts the passage with a reference to joy.

Joy is the natural outcome of the gift of the Spirit, which is the gift par excellence of the coming of God at the end of time. So it is characteristic of the new time which began with the resurrection. Since this encounter with pure love is one with the Risen One, joy is a necessary result. And this joy is shared by Christ with Christians.

One characteristic of this love is that it is "like Jesus"; to be "like Jesus" is to have "greater love"; this is what makes Jesus' love a model for us. It is interesting to point out some things in John that are presented as "greater": Jesus tells Nathaniel that he will see "greater things" (1,50); he says he will give "greater testimony" (5,36). Those present ask themselves if Jesus is "greater" than Jacob or Abraham (4,12; 8,53). Through the presence of the Paraclete, believers, too, will do "greater works" (14,12), even though the Father is the greatest (10,29), and is greater than the Son (14,28). In this context, "greater love" is a love that refers to God, who is its origin, and shows itself "saying" something. The love that gives its life for its friends "says" that there cannot be a "greater" love because this is the love that has God as its origin and from Him is spread out to those who "dwell" in God. In 13,1 it is clear that "having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them unto the end". This love is greater because it is extreme. For John it's clear that the cross draws meaning from Jesus' love for "his own ", i.e., "those who love". For John, then, the cross is a revelation of radical love, "as I have loved them".

The reference to friendship is also a reference to revelation. Servants -for example the prophets- are instruments of revelation, as is clear in this text of Amos: "Surely the Lord God does nothing without revealing his secret to his servants the prophets" (3,7; see also: 2 Kgs 9,7; 17,13.23; 21,10; 24,2; Jer 7,25; 25,4; 26,5; 29,19; 35,15; 44,4; Bar 2,20.24; Ez 38,17; Dan 9,6.10; Zac 1,6 and see Rev 11,18). Abraham (Is 41,8; 2 Cr 20,7; see Gen 18,17) and Moses(Ex 33,11)have a very special place in this "movement of revelation"; this last text is very eloquent: "The Lord used to speak to Moses face to face, as one speaks to a friend." This friendship presupposes a very clear understanding of the will of God and his nearness. "The friendship of the Lord is for those who fear him, and he makes his covenant known to them " (Ps 25,14). In the gospel we always see Jesus revealing his Father, as in 12,49-50: "...I have not spoken on my own, but the Father who sent me has himself given me a commandment about what to say and what to speak. And I know that his commandment is eternal life.

What I speak, therefore, I speak just as the Father has told me". Toward the end of this passage, the image of the vine returns, but is now focused on the notion of fruits. The words "I appointed you to go" can be understood in a missionary sense, but it seems preferable to understand them as emphasizing the idea of "bearing fruit." What is clarified here is the final point of the vine image: that to bear fruit is "to keep the commandments". Love, which is always revelatory, must be greater love, and more than referring to being Jesus' disciple, it refers to the very origin of love: Jesus.

What must be understood in this context is that the Father grants all that is asked in Jesus' name. This refers to the fruits, which are like the "greater works" mentioned above. (14,12-13) Thus the love of believers for one another will be a manifestation ("glory") of the Father and thus a revelation of his presence.

Reflection

In our daily speech, few words so overwhelm us as the use of the word "love." We hear it in every song of the day, in the superficial moderator of a television show (about as superficial as the creator of the show), in political language, in references to sex, in the soap operas (even more superficial than talk shows, if that is possible)... It's used in every environment, and everywhere it means something different. Nevertheless, the word is the same! It would be almost arrogant for us to pretend to have the last word, or to pretend that "the mistake is not ours." Let's say, yes, that love in the Christian sense is not synonymous with "rose-colored" love, the sensual, pleasant, sweet, sentimental love of daily, postmodern language. Jesus' love is not one that seeks pleasure, "feeling", or happiness, but one that seeks life and the happiness of those we love. Nothing is more freeing than love; nothing makes others grow like love, nothing is stronger than love. And that love we learn from Jesus himself who by his example teaches us that "love's measure is to love without measure". The cross of Jesus, the great instrument of torture in the Roman Empire (is it an imperial practice to invent tortures?) is transformed –like the other side of the coin- into the greatest expression of love of all time. The cross, symbol of death and suffering, becomes a living sign of fulness of life. In reality, with his final act of love Jesus eliminates the commandment that says we must "love our neighbor as ourselves"; if we must love "like" him, we have to love our neighbor more than ourselves, even to the point of giving our life. The cross is the "school of love"; not because it is good in itself, on the contrary, what is good is to love, even to the cross! The cross as a measuring stick can measure the hatred of Caiphas, and also the love of Jesus; this latter is what interests us. It is love that teaches us to look before all else at the loved one, more than at our own selves; it teaches us not to pay attention to our own lives, but to the lives of those we love; it is love that teaches us to be free even from our own selves, being "servants of others for the sake of love". Nothing is more binding than love, and nothing more freeing than love (for those who give and for those who receive). Certainly, love thus understood is not "rose-colored"; it is strong and committed to the other.

It is not the love of those who call each other "darling" and don't feel any thrust toward "the solidarity that is the true revolution of love" (John Paul II); it is not the love of those who "make love" without carrying the cross and without seeking life; it is not the love of those who speak of "acts of love" and cause tens of thousands of people to "disappear"; nor is it the love of the actress married seven times who says "now finally, with him I am happy"; it is not this; nor the love of those who say "charity correctly understood begins at home" and show themselves absolutely incapable of welcoming the poor. Love that is like Christ's love, that carries one "unto the end", frees humanity -because it is a liberating love-, even though we often resist a love that is "so serious".

Here love is the fruit of a bond, of "remaining" united to him who is true love. And that love presupposes the mandate -"commandment"- that is born of love itself, and as such is free, to love even to the end, to be able to give one's life to engender more life. Love thus understood is always "greater love", like that which leads Jesus to accept the death dealt to him by violent people. We are invited to this love, to love "like" him, moved by an intimate relationship with the Father and with the Son. This love won't be like a delicate breeze, but it will last, like the branch that remains united to the plant in order to give fruit. When love lasts, and when it is mutually present among disciples, it is a clear sign of the intimate union of the followers of Jesus with their Lord, and it is also a symbol of the relationship between the Lord and his Father. This creates a full union among all those who are part of this "family", and brings joy all those belong mutually to one another, thanks to God's primary initiative.

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