Meditation Of His Beatitude Patriarch Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa: Sixth Sunday Of Easter, B
Below you can find the Meditation of His Beatitude Patriarch Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa, Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, for the Sixth Sunday Of Easter, B, Sunday 28 April 2024.
Jn 15:9-17
Last Sunday we began meditating on chapter XV of John's Gospel, in which Jesus speaks of the bond that unites him to his own, which is likened to the vine and its branches: not two different things, not two different lives, but the same life which circulates and bears fruit (Jn 15:1-8).
Today our meditation continues (Jn 15:9-17), leading us to ask a fundamental question: what is the fruit that Jesus is talking about. We said that the branch must bear fruit. Such a good vinedresser, such a beautiful vine, a branch so united to the vine, what kind of good fruit will it produce?
Today’s passage, which follows last Sunday's passage, we learn about the kind of fruit.
Jesus often states in John’s Gospel, that he knows the Father loves him. And he repeats this today, but he adds something important, namely, that as the Father loves him, he loves his disciples (John 15:9).
Jesus does not say that as the Father loves Him, so He loves the Father.
He certainly does as well, but Jesus' words go further: as the Father loves Him, so He loves others, loves His own.
Jesus wants to tell us that the love between two people cannot remain closed, which ends within an interchange. Because after all, it would not be love.
If I love a person and that person reciprocates my love and everything ends there, it is certainly a beautiful, rewarding experience, but also a very poor one, because I receive nothing more than I have given.
If I don't lose anything, if I don't risk, if I don't get out of this reciprocity, I will always end up at the same level in giving love.
Jesus' love is not only reciprocal but also open. Not just an exchange between two people, but it’s a gift, available to all who want to take part in it.
This is a mature love, the kind that knows how to give itself, its love to others, the kind that keeps nothing for itself…
This Meditation was originally publsihed on the website of the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem. Please click here to read the full text.