Monday of the Fifth Week of Easter

 Lectionary: 285

“Whoever loves me will keep my word,
and my Father will love him,
and we will come to him and make our dwelling with him.
Whoever does not love me does not keep my words;
yet the word you hear is not mine
but that of the Father who sent me.

Reading the Gospel according to Saint John is never as simple as reading a novel,  a newspaper, or even an op-ed. The Lord's words seem cryptic at first; and certainly require patient pondering to become clear. 

Nor do I find the reading made any simpler by our lectionary's leapfrogging from chapter 12 to chapter 14, verse 21. It's dizzying. But, looking back, we see that we are somewhat familiar with: 

• the Lord's washing the feet of his disciples; 
• his assurance that, If you ask anything of me in my name, I will do it;" 
• “If you love me, you will keep my commandments." and 
• "I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate to be with you always, the Spirit of truth."
• Whew! That's a lot!

In any case, here we are at verse 14: “Whoever has my commandments and observes them is the one who loves me."

Gerard Manley Hopkins, a devout Jesuit and one of England's finest poets, translate the prayer of Saint Francis Xavier:

O DEUS EGO AMO TE by Gerard Manley Hopkins (Public Domain)

O God, I love thee, I love thee-

Not out of hope of heaven for me

Nor fearing not to love and be

     In the everlasting burning.

Thou, thou, my Jesus, after me

     Didst reach thine arms out dying,

For my sake sufferedst nails, and lance,

Mocked and marred countenance,

     Sorrows passing number,

     Sweat and care and cumber,

Yea and death, and this for me,

     And thou couldst see me sinning:

Then I, why should not I love thee,

Jesu, so much in love with me?

Not for heaven's sake; not to be

Out of hell by loving thee;

Not for any gains I see;

But just the way that thou didst me

I do love and I will love thee:

What must I love thee, Lord, for then?

For being my king and God. Amen.

The prayer, fervently prayed, perhaps proves nothing. But read devoutly it expresses our fervent hope that God the Father will look on us through the affectionate eyes of Jesus and receive us into paradise.