The common gospel message is love

May 21, 2006 -- Sixth Sunday of Easter

By Fr. Michael Stubbs

	Fr. Mike Stubbs

Whenever I ask an engaged couple, why they want to get married, they invariably answer, because we love each other. But then, as we discuss the meaning of love, it often turns out that they understand that term in different ways.

The four gospels bear clear testimony to the importance of love for Jesus Christ. At the same time, they offer us different perspectives on its meaning. This Sunday, we will take a glimpse into one such perspective.

In Sunday's gospel reading, John 15:9-17, Jesus gives his disciples the commandment, "Love one another as I love you." To understand that commandment more clearly, it is useful to compare it to similar teachings in Matthew and Luke. In Luke's version, it is a scholar of the law, not Jesus, who voices the commandment, "You shall love the Lord your God, with all your heart, with all your being, with all your strength, and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself." (Luke 11:27). Matthew's version resembles that very closely, except it is Jesus himself who pronounces the commandment, "You shall love the Lord your God, with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the greatest and the first commandment. The second is like it: you shall love your neighbor as yourself." (Mt 22:37-39)

First of all, note that John's gospel, as it urges us to love our fellow human beings, proposes a more difficult measure of love than Matthew and Luke.

John's gospel instructs us to love "as I love you." And Jesus loves us to the extent of dying for us. As the gospel reading points out, "No one has greater love than this, to lay down one's life for one's friends."

In contrast, the commandments of love in Matthew and Luke instruct us to love your neighbor "as yourself." Self love, rather than Jesus' love, serves as the norm.

Secondly, John's version of the commandment of love differs considerably in scope compared to Matthew's and Luke's. In John's gospel, Jesus is speaking to his band of disciples when he tells them to love one another. He is talking about love within the community of believers. They are to treat each other as friends. (The word "friend" appears three times in the passage.) The love is inwardly focused.

In contrast, the love commanded in Matthew and Luke reaches beyond the community. Rather than telling us to love our friends, Jesus challenges us to "Love your enemies." (Luke 6:27)

The commandment of love in Luke's gospel might appear to limit that love, when it presents our neighbor as the object of our love. On the other hand, the parable of the Good Samaritan, which accompanies the commandment of love, extends the meaning of neighbor to include anyone encountered on the road of life, even a member of a scorned ethnic group such as the Samaritans. Our neighbor may turn out to be an enemy. Nonetheless, we are called to love that person.

All four gospels consistently call us to love. They voice that call with different nuances and various insights. At a particular moment in our life, one gospel may address our situation more clearly and speak more loudly to our heart. But they all call us to follow Christ in love.

(Fr. Stubbs, a priest of the Archdiocese of Kansas City, Kansas, has a master's degree in theology from Harvard.)