Illustration: John the Presbyter: by Domenichino (1581-1641)
Pope Francis’ morning meditation in the chapel of St. Marta House
“Re: John the Presbyter’s Letter of Love” (2 John 1:1-9)
Friday, 11 November 2016
2 John 1:1-9
1 The elderto the elect ladyand her children, whom I love in the truth, and not only I but also all who know the truth,
2 because of the truth which abides in us and will be with us forever:
3 Grace, mercy, and peace will be with us, from God the Father and from Jesus Christ the Father’s Son, in truth and love.
4 I rejoiced greatly to find some of your children following the truth, just as we have been commanded by the Father.
5 And now I beg you, lady, not as though I were writing you a new commandment, but the one we have had from the beginning, that we love one another.
6 And this is love, that we follow his commandments; this is the commandment, as you have heard from the beginning, that you follow love.
7 For many deceivers have gone out into the world, men who will not acknowledge the coming of Jesus Christ in the flesh; such a one is the deceiver and the antichrist.
8 Look to yourselves, that you may not lose what you have worked for, but may win a full reward.
9 Anyone who goes ahead and does not abide in the doctrine of Christ does not have God; he who abides in the doctrine has both the Father and the Son.
Pope Francis on Letter of Love
Because Christian love, being rooted in the Incarnation, it is always “tangible” and often demonstrated through “works of mercy”.
There is a risk of believing in a kind of “love” found in novels or a soap operas:
worldly, philosophical, abstract, and soft”.
Don’t be seduced by the “process” of “intellectualizing and ideologizing”, as this “strips away love”; it becomes a “sad spectacle
— of a God without Christ
— of a Christ without the Church and
— of a church without people.”
“The first reading is like ‘a letter from someone in love.
It is a loving conversation between the shepherd and his spouse, the Church.”
This conversation is “very delicate and respectful,” even referring to the Church as the “Elect Lady from God”.
With this “title full of love” that “the shepherd addresses the Church”.
He always remembers with great delicacy that “to follow love” is the commandment we received from the Lord”.
As John’s letter states: “And now I beg you, Lady, not as though I were writing you a new commandment, but the one we have had from the beginning, that we love one another”.
It is an invitation to walk “in love.”
However, the shepherd truly addresses his Church, his spouse, “with great meekness and respect.”
“What kind of love is this?”
“Because this word is used today, but it is continuously used, for many things:
this is love, that is love, this is love”.
Therefore, it is necessary to understand “what love” is.
Is “love, for instance, a novel or a soap opera, since this also says it is love?”.
Or, is “love theoretical, philosophical?”.
In his letter, John cites the shepherd’s words to his spouse and calls for attentiveness: “For many deceivers have gone out into the world”.
These deceivers offer another love, or another explanation of love”, and
“even another explanation of Christian love, since it is so for them”.
“The criteria of Christian love is the Incarnation of the Word”.
In the reading, John makes this point clear: “There are, indeed, many deceivers in the world, who do not acknowledge Jesus’coming in the flesh”.
As the reading continues: “Such a one is the deceiver and the antichrist!”.
A love that does not acknowledge Jesus’ incarnation is not the love God commands us to have.
It is a worldly love.
It is a philosophical love.
It is an abstract love.
It is a somewhat failed love; it is a soft love.”.
On the contrary, “the criteria of Christian love is the Incarnation of the Word”.
“Anyone who says that Christian love is something else is the antichrist and does not acknowledge that the Word became flesh”.
“This is our truth: God sent his Son, who became Incarnate and lived a life like ours”.
Because of this we must “love as Jesus loved; love as Jesus taught us; and follow Jesus’ example.
We must walk along the path of Jesus.”.
Thus, “the path of Jesus gives life”.
The Pope turned to the day’s Gospel reading from Luke (17:26-37) where “Jesus admonishes us: Whoever seeks to gain his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life will preserve it”. Indeed, “he lost his life for love, and found it in the resurrection”. – Footnote below
Therefore, “The only way to love as Jesus loved is to continually set aside our ego and serve others.””.
The Apostle James, in his letter, emphasizes this point “Christian love is a tangible love, because the presence of God in Jesus Christ made flesh is tangible: the Incarnation of the Word”.
Returning to John’s letter, I repeated the words with which the shepherd “admonished” the “Lady”: “Be careful not to ruin what we have built and ensure that you receive full compensation.”
It is an invitation to be wary, and more: “Whoever goes beyond and does not remain within the doctrine of Christ does not possess God. However, whoever remains within the doctrine, possesses the Father and the Son”.
Therefore, the Pope explained, “the Word was made flesh, but you are also within an “incarnation”, in community, in the Church, since whoever goes beyond this doctrine of the flesh, goes beyond and does not remain in the doctrine of Christ, does not possess God”.
And “this going beyond is a mystery: to leave the mystery of the Incarnation of the Word, the Mystery of the Church, because the Church is the community around the presence of Christ, who goes beyond”.
Francis cited the Greek word proagon, which he described as a “very strong” term referring to those “who go, who journey beyond.”
And he said, “from there all the ideologies of love, the ideologies of the Church, the ideologies which remove the Church from Christ’s flesh, are born”.
However, it is precisely “these ideologies which strip away the flesh of the Church”.
It leads people to say: “Yes, I am Catholic, I am Christian; I love the whole world with a universal love”; yet, this “is very ethereal”.
Instead, “”Love is always interior and tangible. It does not go beyond the doctrine of the Incarnation of the Word.”
“The life of the Church, belonging to the Church” is always within, goes beyond, emerges from the Church”.
Thus, “whoever wishes to love not as Christ loves his spouse, the Church, with his own flesh and by giving life, loves ideologically. They do not love with all their body or all their soul.”
“This way of theorizing and being ideological, as well as the proposals of a religiosity that removes the flesh of Christ and the Church, goes beyond and ruins the community and the Church.”
We must never go outside the womb of the Mother Church, the holy, hierarchical Church.
John’s letter reveals his love for the Church and makes it clear that “if we start theorizing about love and journeying in love outside the Church and the Incarnation of the Word, we will arrive at a reality that often appears in the history of the Church, even in our times.
We will arrive at a transformation of what God wanted with the Incarnation of the Word.
We will arrive at a God without Christ, a Christ without the Church, and a Church without people.
Everything will be stripped from the Church in this process.”
Before continuing with the celebration, Francis asked the faithful to pray to “the Lord that our journey in love will never — never — make us an abstract love”.
And that the love may instead be “tangible, with works of mercy”, in order to touch “the flesh of Christ there, of Christ incarnate”.
It is “for this reason that the deacon Lawrence said that the poor are the treasure of the Church, since they are the suffering flesh of Christ”.
The Pope concluded, saying: We ask the Lord for the grace to not go beyond and enter into a process that could seduce many people into intellectualizing and ideologizing love, thereby stripping the Church and Christian love of their essence.
We must avoid becoming a “sad spectacle of a God without Christ, a Christ without the Church, and a Church without people.”
Footnote
Luke (17:26-37)
As it was in the days of Noah, so will it be in the days of the Son of man.
27 They ate, they drank, they married, they were given in marriage, until the day when Noah entered the ark, and the flood came and destroyed them all.
28 Likewise as it was in the days of Lot—they ate, they drank, they bought, they sold, they planted, they built,
29 but on the day when Lot went out from Sodom fire and brimstone rained from heaven and destroyed them all—
30 so will it be on the day when the Son of man is revealed.
31 On that day, let him who is on the housetop, with his goods in the house, not come down to take them away; and likewise let him who is in the field not turn back.
32 Remember Lot’s wife.
33 Whoever seeks to gain his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life will preserve it.
34 I tell you, in that night there will be two men in one bed; one will be taken, the other left.
35 There will be two women grinding together; one will be taken and the other left.” 37 And they said to him, “Where, Lord?”
He said to them, “Where the body is, there the eagles will be gathered together.”).