Homily for Fifth Sunday of Easter C – 15 May 2025

HE IS GLORIFIED, AND GOD IS GLORIFIED IN HIM

One day, as Mother Teresa of Calcutta and her Missionaries of Charity were tending to the poorest of the poor on the streets of Calcutta, they happened across a man lying in the gutter, very near death. He was filthy, dressed in little more than a rag and flies swarmed around his body. Immediately, Mother Teresa lovingly lifted him up him, cleaned his body, spoke to him softly and laid him comfortably in her ambulance. A passerby was repulsed by the sight of the man and exclaimed to Mother Teresa, “I wouldn’t do that for a million dollars.” Her response was immediate, “Neither would I!”

Why then would Mother Teresa do that? The Gospel passage for this Sunday Jesus says an extraordinary thing considering the circumstances. The Gospel starts off with the introduction: “When Judas had gone out from the upper room, Jesus said …” With Judas leaving it has just become evident that Jesus is about to be betrayed and yet he is able to say that now he is glorified, and God is glorified in him and will soon glorify him further.

The context is the Last Supper. That same night Jesus will be betrayed by Judas and arrested in the Garden of Gethsemane. His terrible death on the cross the following day will take place. And in these circumstances Jesus speaks of glory! He says that he has been glorified and that God has been glorified in him.

WHERE IS THE GLORY?

We might naturally ask: Where is the glory? What is the glory? In terms of the glory and fame that people seek in the world as we know it, Jesus’ statement seems absurd. Where is the glory in the betrayal of Jesus by one of his closest followers for three years, a man he trusted, a man who had heard him preach and teach. Judas had witnessed Jesus’ compassion for people and had seen the miracles that Jesus had performed and yet now he betrays Jesus – a betrayal that will lead to the most cruel and horrible death imaginable. What is the glory that Jesus is referring to?

The clue to answering these questions lies in the new commandment that Jesus gives in this same Gospel passage. He says that his followers are to love one another, just as he has loved them. We are to love one another just as Jesus loves us. The key to understanding the glory that Jesus is speaking about is a sacrificial love which is entirely for the other. There is nothing sentimental or self-serving about this kind of love. It is a gritty, determined love.

In today’s Gospel, which forms part of what is called the Last Supper discourse, or farewell address, Jesus speaks of the ultimate revelation that God is love. This will happen when he is lifted up for all to see, giving himself in love even to death on a cross. In the cross God’s love is most perfectly revealed. Jesus on the cross declares the supreme glory of God to be love. This is the most perfect expression of God's glory. The Father then further glorifies Jesus through resurrection.

JESUS ON THE CROSS IS THE ULTIMATE EXPRESSION OF GOD’S LOVE FOR US

That’s why in the Catholic Church we always have a crucifix, a cross with a corpus on it. It is not that we are denying that Jesus rose from the dead, neither are we denying that his resurrection is immensely significant. Jesus’ resurrection, the Father glorifying the Son, follows naturally from the death of Jesus on the cross. Jesus on the cross in the ultimate expression of God’s love for us. And the link between this expression of love and the glory that Jesus speaks of, is that for God, his love is his glory.

The Last Supper context of today's passage reminds us that this love is made present again when we celebrate the Mass. When we celebrate the Mass, we participate again in the love of Jesus expressed in his death and resurrection. We receive the sacrament of Jesus giving himself to us out of love just as he gave himself to us on the cross.

If God’s glory is made known in love shown and expressed, it is no surprise to discover that Jesus asks all who believe in him to do what he has done to show God's glory. If we love others as he has loved us, what we say and what we do, will give God glory. Our love for others will be signs of God’s presence. Through love that we give, people will know that we are disciples of Jesus. Mother Teresa glorified God in the love she showed.

There was an old priest with me in Rome, whom I think was a holy man. One night we had a meal together and he shocked me by saying that sometimes he anguished the whole night about whether he had ever really and truly loved another human being. It’s a question we would do well to ask ourselves, and we would do well not to answer it too quickly. This priest whom I am talking about was no fool, or selfish person. You see we are complicated creatures and our motivation for doing things, even the best of things, can be tainted, even selfish. True love, pure love, the way God loves, is entirely for the other and seeks no reward for ourselves.

WE ARE MADE FOR LOVE

St Paul’s, Hymn to Love, in 1 Corinthians 13, is a good yardstick for the kind of love Jesus is speaking about: “Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful ... Love bears all things ...”

This is a daunting challenge for us who are commanded by Jesus in today’s Gospel to love one another even has he has loved us. There is no cause for despair, but we are called to enter consciously on this journey to true love. Jesus shows us the way. We are to be love in the way that he was love on the cross. By being love, by loving one another, we show ourselves to be Jesus’ disciples and we show God’s glory to the world.

This commandment of Jesus goes to the heart of who we are as human beings. We are made for love. Love is the essence of what it means for us to be human. It is in this respect that we are made in the image of God, who is Love. Our lives here on earth are about being transformed into love.

This commandment to love is a good way for discerning God’s will for our lives. This could be in the little decisions and choices we have to make each day or our overall vocation and life direction. Our daily choices and decisions as well as our overall life decisions and vocation should be guided by the principle of the path of greatest love, in other words, what best enables us to love more perfectly.

In loving one another we find our happiness because we are living according to our true nature and the purpose for which God created us. By loving we also come to share in the life of God’s love for all eternity. We need to consider the question of love seriously and begin again to love each day again and again. We were made for love, to love and to be loved.