Don’t watch the lips, look at the feet!

Rev. Marcel Divine Emeka Okwara CSsR

Homily for 6th Sunday of Easter, Year A

St. Gerard Majella Church, Baton Rouge, LA

May 25, 2014

Today’s gospel taking from John 14:15-21 is a continuation of Jesus’ farewell speech to his disciples. In this speech, the Lord makes a connection between love and obedience. He says, “If you love me, you will keep my commandments.” I once told a friend that in a traditional African society, people hardly say, “I love you.” Even those in marriage hardly say that. Then my friend asked me, “Then how do you know that someone loves you?” I replied, “You know by the way they treat you.”

To Jesus, the best test of love is faithfulness. It was through faithfulness and obedience that he demonstrated his love for his Father; and it is by our obedience that we must demonstrate our love for him. Love is not just a sentiment or emotion. It is rather an expression that is demonstrated through faithfulness and commitment. Put differently, love is a moral expression revealed in obedience. There are people who profess love in words but who, at the same time, bring pain, misfortune, and heartbreak to the same people they claim to love. There are young people who say they love their parents, yet, they cause them sorrow, anxiety and sleeplessness. There are husbands who say they love their wives and wives who say they love their husbands, yet through their inconsideration, irritability and thoughtless unkindness bring pain and grief to the very one they claim to love. But love should go beyond the profession of it. It is a reality demonstrated only in true obedience, faithfulness and good deeds.

Now, Jesus asks no small thing from his disciples when he said, “If you love me, you will keep my commandments.” Keeping the Lord’s commandments is not going to be easy. Anyone who tells you it’s easy is probably not observing it. The Lord knows it is not going to be that easy, hence he said in John 15:5: “I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; for apart from me you can do nothing.” Following the Jesus’ teachings requires effort. To be a disciple of Jesus means “to follow after him." It means following the way of Jesus who is the Way; it means keeping and living the truth of Jesus who is the Truth; it also means accepting the life of Jesus who is the Life. Loving the Lord means taking seriously what he took seriously.

What do we do to those we love? We try to have their best interest in mind; we try to please them; we try to avoid anything that is capable of destroying or disrupting our relationship with them. We try to visit and call them often on the phone. To those we love, we cherish. To those we love, we please. To those we love, we keep in touch with. To those we love, we remain faithful to. That’s what Jesus expects from us. If we really love him, we will cherish him above all else. If we really love him, we’ll strive to please him by being obedient servants. If we love Jesus, we will keep him in our hearts and thoughts. If we really love the Lord, we will keep in touch and in contact with him by visiting and calling him often in prayer.

But does this mean that every time we sin we do not love him? Although we love Jesus, but any time we commit sin we love something or someone else more than we love him. To love Jesus with all our heart, soul, mind and strength entails putting nothing, no matter how small or big or important before him. Loving Jesus is not just an emotional feeling. It is something deeper and greater than that. It will require changing our lives, our lifestyles, reforming our lives, working on our personalities and characters, stretching ourselves to please him and to make him proud, so that when he looks at us he will say: “This is my son; this is my daughter; I am pleased with him; I am pleased with her.” Galatians 5:24 say, “Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the sinful nature with its passions and desires.”

St. Paul loved Jesus so much to the point of declaring, “I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me” (Galatians 2:20).  St. Peter loved the Lord that when Jesus asked him thrice, “Simon, son of John, do you love me?” He confidently replied, “Yes, Lord, you know I love you (John 21:15)”

Two words that go side by side with each other are love and obedience (faithfulness). Both words are in a relationship. One cannot do without the other. If you want to know those who love you, check out how they treat you before and behind you. Those who love Jesus will obviously want to please him. Obedience to his commandments is the greatest and the surest demonstration of our love for him. Don’t watch the lips, look at the feet! It’s not just what the lips says that matters most, it's what the feet does thereafter.