John 15:9-11
9As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love. 10If you obey my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have obeyed my Father’s commands and remain in his love. 11I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete.
Lectio (taking a bite):love, love, love, love, love: one of the easiest words about Jesus to say; I think if the word got acted on 1% of the times it gets spoken, we’d be a pretty cool planet. Jesus obeyed his father’s commands (he says), and asks to obey his commands. And they are: Love God and love your neighbor. Not love God then your neighbor, but God and neighbor: simultaneously.
Meditatio (chewing on the story): Now, since I can’t see touch hear taste or smell God (despite what others may be pretending about their own sensory abilities) then perhaps- perhaps?- to love God is to love one’s neighbor? One and the same, maybe? Absolutely it is easier to stand in front of the altar or jump around in front of the altar and shout “I love God!” But- watch Jesus: there he goes again toward more lepers, and toward that mob with the rocks, and toward that slobbering demoniac, and near and sitting down with those damn tax collectors! Harumphh! You’d never catch me acting that…oh wait. Uh-oh. Maybe that’s how Jesus loved his father, who he couldn’t see touch hear taste or smell, either. (Yikes..)
Oratio (savoring the essence): Jesus told his disciples this so that HIS joy would be in them.When he is able to share himself, he is joyful.To be full of himself would have been , for Jesus, painful in some ways. For Jesus to have stroked, coddled, fussed over himSelf would have been the antithesis of who he was. What he was revealing, was the life of a person whose chains of Self had been loosened, destroyed. Love, therefore, is the giving away of one’s Self. The reward for sharing love (that kind of love) is Joy.
Contemplatio (digesting the word and allowing it to nurture the body): Err on the side of giving away too much. The pain will be short-lived. Right now, therefore, I go to look for more books for the Relay Book Sale. I’ve passed many by thinking, “Maybe I’ll need that..” Nonsense. I’m defining myself by my STUFF when I do that. My STUFF is all mixed into the definition of my SELF, and it’s a mess that needs cleaned up, beginning immediately. (I’m not even taking the time here now to find something cute to end this with) Bye..
addendum- 5 hours later: I packed 4 boxes with about 80 books. I closed my eyes and the false longings of my heart (ha!) against some of them. If I don’t move them out, they will follow me for another 20 years, or be a decision for my survivors, whichever comes first. This way, a lot of them will get turned into $ for the church’s Relay for Life team. And the rest will begin new lives in someone else’s garage.
