Reflection for the Fifth Sunday of Easter 2010
Hosea 14:1-9 (NAB:2-10), John 13:31-35
1 May 2010

by Marcia Ziska, OSB

Tonight’s two readings from the prophet Hosea and the gospel of John offer us both challenge and hope as disciples of Jesus. Beginning this 5th week of Easter, Hosea invites the people of Israel “to repent and return to God.” Israel, in looking after other idols, had once again broken its covenant. The people failed in trusting and loving Yahweh, their God. If Israel chooses to be contrite, and re-establish its covenant with Yahweh, then restoration will happen. God’s anger will be turned from them and God will heal their disloyalty. In between those two profound actions—God’s turning from anger and healing their disloyalty—God says clearly, “I will love them freely.” What a feeling of re-assurance to be released from the bondage of sin and loved, loved unconditionally, with no strings attached.

At the beginning of our gospel, Judas, the betrayer, departs from the intimate gathering of Jesus with his disciples. His departure sets in motion the events that bring about Jesus’ glorification, namely: betrayal, arrest, torture, and death. In his death on the cross, Jesus returns to God. God’s presence as infinite love is now manifested in Jesus. Gail R. O’Day, author of the Gospel of John in The New Interpreter’s Bible, states: “Who God is, who Jesus is, and who they are to each other and to the believer is fully revealed in Jesus’ death, resurrection, and ascension.” While this reality, indeed this mystery, is not easy to comprehend, it is central to what we believe and what we profess each time we recite or pray the Apostles Creed.

The gospel continues with Jesus lovingly telling his disciples that he is going away. His hour is upon him and, in the midst of that hour, he charges them with a new commandment: ‘love one another.’ He had already shown his love to them by washing their feet — so they know, as do we, that this new commandment is all about foot washing, sharing love within the Church. It’s about serving one another, caring for one another, and as St. Benedict so aptly puts it in Ch 72 on the good zeal of monks: “showing respect to the other, supporting with the greatest patience one another’s weaknesses of body or behavior, and earnestly competing in obedience to one another.” So here in the middle of our Easter season celebration we are invited to reflect upon what our discipleship might look like in the midst of a church racked with scandal, distrust, fear, and with such important issues facing our country like: financial regulation, immigration reform, and better stewardship of our natural resources.

I don’t propose that there is anything easy about keeping this new commandment. As I have pondered the ways in which I wash the feet of my sisters, I have more questions than answers. In the midst of betrayal and even death, Christ continued to love. So even when I am tired and want some solitude, I feel it important to be with my sisters for our house meeting and special gatherings. When I feel lonely, misunderstood, or neglected, I still want to be kind and gracious in responding to others. I desire God’s love to shine through me. As I prepare to leave for Rome in twelve days and have deadlines to meet, I take a deep breath and say, what Sr. Virginia so often said to me, “this too shall pass!” Daily, I want to be aware of the God-life that resides in me. Jesus was able to give away his life because of his relationship with God and God’s love for the entire world. Likewise, it is my relationship with God in the midst of this community of believers, you, my sisters, that sustains me — helps me participate in daily prayer, be present at the common table, visit the residents in Dooley, welcome the guests and the retreatants, be attentive to their needs. We are not alone; we have each other and what a gift that is!

Jesus’ love had no limits. Jesus and God were one and together their love knew no bounds. That is our challenge....to allow the love of God, the love of Christ to flow in and through us and outward to others. It is our hope, as well, for in allowing ourselves to be channels of this type of love, we will then give witness to a deeper meaning of discipleship.

© 2010 Benedictine Sisters of Mount St. Scholastica
Atchison, Kansas