This weekend’s Gospel from John drops us in at the end of the Last Supper as Jesus gives his disciples a new commandment on how to live and love. The old directive was to ‘love your neighbor as yourself.’ Jesus takes this up a few notches and says we are to love another as Christ loved us. So, what does that kind of love – depth of love – Christ centered love - look like? Perhaps the easiest way to understand this is through stories by Parker Palmer, Jean Vanier and Greg Boyle. Take a listen to the invitation that is before us each and every day – of how we are called to “ventilate the world” with love, tenderness, compassion, forgiveness and mercy.

1. 19 May 2019 5th Sunday of Easter Princeton, NJ
This morning’s Gospel of John drops us in at the end of the Last Supper as Jesus gives his disciples a new
commandment on how to live. The old directive was to love your neighbor as yourself. Jesus takes this up
a few notches and says that the love we are to have for each other is to be modelled on how Christ lived
and loved – because we all belong to Christ. So, if we are to love each other as Christ loved us…what does
that kind of love – depth of love – Christ centered love - look like?
For Jesus it was feeding the hungry, healing the sick, loving the outcasts, and dining with the sinners. You
could say that his love had a way of turning lives upside down...it was so radical that it turned his society on
its head. And what this new commandment – which is repeated 12 more times - reminds us is that each day
we are all called and challenged to love in such a way that it turns lives on their heads – but too often we
miss the opportunity or ignore it or are just too self-absorbed to even give it a thought.
So allow me to share with you three examples of what this life changing, head turning, Christo-centered
love looks like.
In his most recent book, “On the Brink of Everything”, Parker Palmer writes about how elders have many
gifts that can be shared with the younger generation…but that the young are often unaware of the gifts that
they have for elders. As one who just turned 80, he writes, “For the young bring the gifts of energy, vision,
and hope that hard experience has stolen from many of us. [So] I disagree with the elders who say, “We
must keep the young from making the same mistakes we made.” They’re going to make mistakes, but
they’re not going to make the same ones we did. They are not us, their world is not the same as the one in
which we grew up in, and it’s possible that they’re wiser than we were.
But as I enter the late autumn of my life and given all of my mess-ups, how have I managed to survive
myself? And a few answers become clear: grace and forgiveness, the unconditional love of family and
friends and the openness of family and friends (young and old) who’ve shared their stories with me, helping
me to feel less alone in my struggles. More grace. More forgiveness. More loving and open friends.”
Two weeks ago the Canadian theologian and philosopher and founder of the L’Arche Communities and who
many called a living saint, Jean Vanier died at the age of 90. It all began in 1964, living outside of Paris,
where he witnessed how too many people who had varying degrees of disabilities were suffering in
psychiatric hospitals and other institutions. So he invited two such men – Phillippe and Raphael – to live
with him in his small home. He thought he was doing a good deed for them – only to learn that it was not
for them – but with them – his friends and his equals. He once said, “Before meeting them, my life had
been governed largely from my head and my sense of duty. They brought out the child in me. I began to
love from my heart. When those ingrained in a culture of winning and of individual success really meet
people like Phillippe and Raphael and enter into friendship with them, something amazing and wonderful
happens. They are changed at a very deep level. They are transformed and become fundamentally human.
In one of his talks in 2006 Vanier said this, “The quest is not just believing in [and loving] God, but believing
in [and loving] other people. It is about believing in ourselves as children of God and that we are called to
see other people as God sees them, not as we would like them to be seen. This can be done only when we
are in relationship with another, when we take the time to connect, to listen – really listen – to what
someone is saying, to hear the story behind the story.”
1 Deacon Jim Knipper

2. Fr. Greg Boyle, is the founder and Director of Homeboy Industries, the world largest gang-intervention and
rehabilitation program and he recently told the following story.
“This past year I was asked to give a talk at Gonzaga University to 1,000 people and to bring two homies
with me (former gang members active within Homeboy). One of them was a guy named Mario who is one
of the most tattooed people who ever came through Homeboy Industries. His arms are all sleeved out, his
necked blacken by the name of his former gang, head shaven and covered with tattoos…forehead, cheeks,
chin and even his eye lids. Up to this point in time I had never been in public with him and as we walked
through the airport people were staring and moms were clutching their kids close to them. And I thought –
wow that is interesting because if you came to Homeboy and asked anyone who was the kindest and
gentlest person who worked there they would quickly say – Mario. He sells baked goods at the counter. He
is living proof that only the soul that ventilates the world with tenderness and love has any chance of
changing the world.
“So the nighttime talk comes and I invite Mario up for five minutes to share his story. He was terrified but his
talk was filled with stories that touched the heart. Well the time came for Q&A and the first question was
from a woman and it was for Mario. So he came forward, clutching the microphone, still terrified and he
said, “Yes?” And the woman asked, “You say you are a father and that you have a son and a daughter who
are about to enter their teenage years, what advice do you given them? What wisdom do you impart to
them?
“Mario clutches his microphone and he is just beyond petrified and is struggling as to what to say…when his
finally blurts out, “I just…and he stops…and he retreats back to clutching his microphone…but he wants to
get this whole sentence out, as tears run down his face…”I just don’t want my kids to turn out to be like me.”
And there’s silence. Until the woman who asked the question stands and now it is her turn to cry and she
says, “Why wouldn’t you want your kids to turn out to be like you? You are loving. You are kind. You are
gentle. You are wise. I hope your kids turn out to be just like you.” And with that, a thousand perfect
strangers stand and they will not stop clapping and all Mario can do is hold his face in his hands as he is so
overwhelmed with emotion that this room full of perfect strangers, had turned him on his head and returned
him to himself – and they were returned to themselves.”
‘Loving one another as Christ loved us’ means being opened to the times we can reach out to others and
turn their lives on its head – like the times when the young can teach the old… or the times when we pause
to listen and communicate with those who are different from us. Or in the words of Greg Boyle – “It is times
when we go from here to stand with the demonized so that the demonizing will stop…and when we stand
with the disposable so that the day will come when we stop throwing people away. And when we stand with
those whose dignity has been denied and we stand with those whose burdens are more than they can
bare…and we stand with the poor and the powerless and the voiceless and make those voices heard.”
This is the invitation that is before us each and every day – to “ventilate the world” with love, tenderness,
compassion, forgiveness and mercy. This is the new commandment Christ gave us…this is what we are
called to do….for it is where the Spirit flows….it is where Christ dwells…it is where God is present…it is,
indeed, the places and the times that we need to be present – to be engaged – to be vulnerable – to be
humble – and to be willing to love as Christ so loves us.
2 Deacon Jim Knipper