If
you love me, you will keep my commandments.
When I was a high school student, it was this verse that made me close
the Bible and give up. I had decided to
read the New Testament, and this verse made me stop. “If you love, you will keep My commandments.”
The inference I arrived at: “If you don’t
keep My commandments, you don’t love Me.”
And, in the back of my mind: Love God with all your heart, mind, soul,
and strength. I had read His commandments, and they were
impossible for me. Therefore, I put the
Bible down. I thank God that He would
not let me keep it down, but this verse haunted me for years.
Now, it is
true that this passage does apply to each of us. It has to, or we would not be children of
God. But, in order to gain encouragement
and confidence in this Word, I look first at who our Lord is speaking to. He is speaking to His Apostles, whom He was
going to make the foundation of His Church.
The Twelve were going to be the beginning of the Church. Therefore, the adherence to this command is
going to begin, first, with the Catholic Church itself, of which Christ has
promised “the gates of the netherworld shall not prevail against it.”[2] It
is because of this that we can place our trust in the Church’s teachings—this and
the fact that He is shepherding us through His Church.
St. John Chrysostom surmises: “Our
Lord having said, ‘Whatsoever you shall ask in My name, that I will do,’ that
they might not think simply asking would be enough, He adds, ‘If you love Me,
keep My commandments.’ And then I will
do what you ask, seems to be His meaning. Or the disciples having heard Him say, ‘I go
to the Father,’ and being troubled at the thought of it, He says, ‘To love Me
is not to be troubled but to keep My commandments. This is love: to obey and believe in Him who
is loved. And, as they had been
expressing a strong desire for His bodily presence, He assures them that His
absence will be supplied to them in another way: ‘And I will pray the Father,
and He will give you another Comforter’.”[3] Because of this, even if I become faint,
wondering if the Holy Spirit is really with me, I can go to the Church because
I know He is there, and I am reassured.
God allows these times of weakness in order that I do not become
presumptuous, so that I do realize my insufficiency, that I am weak without
Him. Because the Catholic Church is the
Body of Christ, I go where I know Strength is.
St. Gregory, being one of the
teachers in the Church, tells me: “The Holy Spirit kindles in everyone in whom
He dwells the desire of things invisible. And, since worldly minds love only things
visible, this world receives Him not, because it rises not to the love of
things invisible. In proportion, as
secular minds enlarge themselves by the spread of their desires, in that
proportion they narrow themselves with respect to admitting Christ.”[4] For this reason, I know that it is God who
instills thoughts and desires of Himself in me, and I can rejoice over the fact
that He is providing evidence that He is doing a work in me, keeping me safe.
Reassurance of this comes from St.
Augustine when he says: “Thus the world--i.e. the lovers of the world--cannot,
He says, receive the Holy Spirit--that is to say, unrighteousness cannot be
righteous. The world--i.e. the lovers of
the world--cannot receive Him because it sees Him not. The love of the world has not invisible eyes
wherewith to see that which can only be seen invisibly. It follows: ‘But you know Him for He dwells
with you.’ And that they might not think
this meant a visible dwelling, in the sense in which we use the phrase with
respect to a guest, He adds, ‘And shall be in you’.”[5] Because the Holy Spirit is present in the
Church, and since I am a part of this organism, desiring the transformation
into the image of the Head, I can be reassured once again that He also dwells
in me.
Because the Catholic Church loves
Christ, the Church keeps His commandments.
Now, yes, there are some that do not keep His commandments; therefore,
Christ instituted the Sacrament of Reconciliation, wherein He forgives our sins
when the Church forgives them (Jn 20:23).
Because the Catholic Church loves Him and obeys His commandments, He
asked the Father, and the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Truth, was given to her
(the Bride of Christ) to be with her always, the Spirit of Truth which the
world cannot accept because it neither sees nor knows it. But the Church does know it because it
remains with her and will be in her. Although
Judas was one of the Twelve at this time and although he was going to turn away
to disobedience, nevertheless, Christ kept His Church. In this I can have confidence.
As a result, this verse no longer
haunts me. Because of the desires God
has instilled in me, I know that He is keeping me—as long as I don’t turn away
in mortal sin, which I pray that He keeps me from.
[1] New American Bible,
Revised Edition., (Washington, DC: The United States Conference of Catholic
Bishops, 2011), Jn 14:15–21.
[2] Ibid.,
Mt 16:18.
[3] Aquinas, St. Thomas. Catena Aurea - Gospel of St.
John - EasyRead Version (Kindle Locations 7420-7424). Kindle Edition.
[4] Ibid., (Kindle Locations 7446-7448). Kindle Edition
[5] Ibid., (Kindle Locations 7448-7452). Kindle Edition
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