Jesus said to his disciples:
“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, whom the world cannot accept,
because it neither sees nor knows him.
But you know him, because he remains with you,
and will be in you.
I will not leave you orphans; I will come to you.
In a little while the world will no longer see me,
but you will see me, because I live and you will live.
On that day you will realize that I am in my Father
and you are in me and I in you.
Whoever has my commandments and observes them
is the one who loves me.
And whoever loves me will be loved by my Father,
and I will love him and reveal myself to him.”
LOVE ONE ANOTHER AND DEFEND THE TRUTH
We live in a culture in which keeping the commandments of Jesus (Jn 14:15) is becoming, increasingly, a sign of contradiction (Lk 2:34) that will not infrequently attract mockery, disdain, and persecution. Many people have embraced what St John Paul II called a culture of death by encouraging—and even legalizing—abortion, euthanasia and transgender ideology as well as other forms of moral depravity, pornography and its commercialization not least among them.
God has placed us in this generation for a purpose. When He sent out the disciples to proclaim the Good News to all creation (Mk 16:15), He was also speaking to us, sending us out as Apostles to this culture in which we find ourselves. Precisely because there exists so much darkness and sin in the world, there is an even greater need for the Light that is Christ Jesus. This is our moment as Christians to speak to a world that is famished for the Truth. There is so much ignorance and lies being spread all over the place, many people have the platform and the audience, but they use them to spread hatred and division. The Christian message has never been more needed!
But how are we to speak Truth into a world filled with so much noise? By keeping the commandments of Jesus. By being Christians, not only in word, but—very importantly—in deed. We are told that in the early ages of the Church, people were attracted to Christianity because of how the Christians loved each other. As the Church Father Tertullian observed: “[I]t is mainly the deeds of a love so noble that lead many to put a brand upon us. ‘See,’ they say, ‘how they love one another,’ for themselves are animated by mutual hatred; ‘how they are ready even to die for one another,’ for they themselves will sooner put to death” (Apologeticus 39). Indeed, even Jesus says that the world will know we are His disciples by how much we love each other (Jn 13:35).
Love, of course, is the summary of the commandments of Jesus (cf. Rom 13:10, Gal 5:14). And love can be expressed in concrete acts, deeds: feeding the hungry, giving drink to the thirsty, clothing the naked, sheltering the homeless, visiting the sick and the imprisoned, burying the dead and instructing the ignorant, counseling the doubtful, admonishing sinners, bearing wrongs patiently, forgiving offences, comforting the afflicted, praying for the living and the dead (CCC 2447)
We are also shining the Christian Light when we defend the Truth that has been revealed to us by God (cf. Jn 16:13, CCC 51), and handed down through the ages by the Apostles, popes, bishops, priests, martyrs, saints, and even our parents. We know that Truth is not just some relative, abstract concept, but a Person: Jesus Christ (Jn 14:6) who came down to save us and show us the way of Love. Defending the truth is defending Christ. The Apostle exhorts us to always be prepared to make a defense for our hope (1 Pt 3:15). We defend the Truth by accepting it as the Church has handed it down to us, not falling into the pride of forcing it to contort and accommodate our own opinions; then by making every effort to understand it in light of the Church’s Magisterium and Tradition, and live according to what it demands of us; and also by passing it on to our friends, acquaintances, siblings, children and all around us “with gentleness and reverence” (1 Pt 3:16).
We show our love for Jesus by loving one another, even those who oppose us. We show this love, too, by defending and holding onto what He has taught. Living in this way, we will bring the Good News and joy of His resurrection to a world that is in so much need of this refreshment, of this Light. Of course, there will be opposition, hurdles and obstacles. But Jesus has given us the Spirit of Truth who gives us, in turn, His many gifts, among them Fortitude, which enables us to face all challenges courageously as we labor to cast out the unclean spirits and heal the paralyzed (cf. Acts 8:6-8), with the Good News that Jesus Christ indeed died, but then He rose again and defeated all that would frighten us, just as He promised.
