6th Sunday of Easter 2026 - Deeply in love with Jesus Christ

 

There’s a catholic philosopher and author I very much enjoy named Dr. Peter Kreeft. Dr. Kreeft is a professor of philosophy at Boston College. He’s a convert to Catholicism from Calvinism, and the author of over eighty books, including a spiritual autobiography that came out a few months ago. I got to meet Dr. Kreeft and have dinner with him when he came to give a lecture at our seminary about 10 years ago.

Dr. Kreeft tells the story about a time he was invited to give a talk at a small monastery up in Connecticut.  And at the end of his visit, the monastery’s holy abbot approached Dr. Kreeft and said, “I’d like to ask you a question, Doctor. And it’s the same question we ask every visitor to our monastery. And the question is, “If you could ask God to give any gift possible to these monks, what would you ask for?”

Dr. Kreeft, thought about it for a moment, and said, “I would ask God to make every single one of you fall totally in love with Jesus Christ for the rest of your life. That is the gift for which I would ask.” At his answer, the abbot smiled and some of the monks began to chuckle.  Not thinking it was a terrible answer, Dr. Kreeft asked the abbot why the monks were laughing at him. And the abbot said, we are not laughing at you or your response, it’s just that last month, Mother Theresa visited us, and she gave the exact same answer: that you may fall totally in love with Jesus Christ.

Why would Dr. Kreeft consider this the greatest gift you could wish for someone? Why do Mother Theresa and the Saints consider falling totally in love with Jesus Christ the greatest of all gifts? Why would they say that if you could give one gift to your spouse or child, one gift to your neighbor, one gift to a stranger, to the sick, imprisoned, or orphan, the best gift you could want for them is to love Jesus Christ? What’s behind this answer? I promise it’s not false piety. They are serious, dead serious. It’s what I want for all of you more than anything.

The reason Dr. Kreeft, Mother Teresa, and the saints say that the greatest gift is to fall totally in love with Jesus Christ is precisely what today’s Gospel reveals. In this passage, Jesus shows us what loving him actually means, and what flows from it.

First, notice that Jesus treats love for him as the center of the Christian life: “If you love me, you will keep my commandments.” He does not say merely, “If you admire me,” or “If you find my teaching interesting.” He speaks of love. Why? Because Christianity is not merely a moral system or a set of religious ideas. It is a living relationship with Jesus Christ. To love him is the heart of everything.

And then Jesus shows why that love is the greatest gift. Whoever loves Jesus is drawn into the very life of God. “The Spirit of Truth will be with you” “He remains with you, and will be in you.” You are in me and I in you.” “Whoever loves me will be loved by my Father.” “I will love him and reveal myself to him.” This is extraordinary. To love Jesus Christ is not merely to become a better person, though it does make us better. It is to enter into communion with the Blessed Trinity—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. To have a living relationship with God who Is a Communion of Love.

That is why the saints are so serious about this. If a person falls in love with Jesus Christ, then obedience ceases to be mere external rule-following. His commandments are no longer just burdens imposed from outside. Love transforms obedience into a participation in the life of God. Love makes life possible.

And Jesus promises even more: “if you love me, I will not leave you orphans”. Those are deeply consoling words, because one of the deepest fears in the human heart is the fear of being abandoned. Have you ever loved someone who didn’t love you back? It hurts.  Have you ever given your heart, your loyalty, your trust, only to be ignored, rejected, or abandoned? The human heart longs for more than the wound of loneliness and abandonment. Again, we were made for communion, for love that endures.

And so Jesus speaks addresses this directly: I will not leave you orphans. In other words: I will not leave you alone, to fend for yourself. I will not leave you to wander through life aimless, confused, in darkness, trying to make sense of everything by your own strength.

“I am with you always” the Lord says, and he is through the power of the Holy Spirit.

The one who loves Christ receives not merely good advice, or an inspiring example from the distant past, but the living presence of God dwelling within him. The Holy Spirit is with those who love Jesus Christ, reminding us of all that Jesus teaches, because God knows, we are prone to forget. The Holy Spirit comforts us, because God knows, we are prone to suffering and trial. The Holy Spirit convicts us because God knows how easily our fervor for pursuing holiness can diminish.. The Holy Spirit guides because God knows how easily we become lost amidst the confusion and chaos of the world.

Loving Jesus Christ is the key to everything worth having. It’s the key to a happy marriage, it’s the key to a healthy priesthood, it’s the key to withstanding the social pressures that bombard the young, particularly on social media. It’s the key to discovering who you were meant to be, to unlocking the potential of your mind and heart and unique soul.

When we understand the importance of loving Jesus Christ, we come to understand what motivated the saints to serve God with such heroic virtue. Love of Jesus: it’s what impelled St. Francis to embrace the leper even though he was initially repulsed, it impelled St. Vincent de Paul to care for the plague victims at the risk of his life. It impelled St. Francis Xavier Cabrini to leave her native Italy to serve the immigrants here in the United States, and St. Junipero Sera and St. Rose Philippine Duchesne to educate and serve the Native Americans, and St. Mother Theresa to serve the poorest of the poor, St. Maximilian Kolbe to take the place of the concentration camp prisoner about to be executed.

Love of Jesus Christ transforms ordinary people to do extraordinary things, and it can for us as well, if we let it, if we make loving Jesus our greatest aim.

How can we grow in our love for Jesus? “If you love me, you will keep my commandments.” This is where today’s Gospel begins: Breaking the commandments is not just breaking rules, sin turns the heart away from the beloved. Sin extinguishes the fire of love. Obedience, however, proves love, reinforces love, seeks the beloved in the face of obstacles.

Prayer, of course, increases love because love requires presence. You do not fall in love with a person you never spend time with or talk to or listen to or spend time pondering.

Charitable service increases love. Jesus identifies himself with others: “whatever you did for one of these least brothers of mine, you did for me.” Service trains the heart away from selfishness, which is the great enemy of love. It stretches the soul. It makes us imitate the one who “came not to be served but to serve.”

The Sacraments, especially the Eucharist and Confession increases love: for confession restores the union that what was weakened or lost by sin; in Communion, we become what we receive, Jesus Christ who is love incarnate.

We come to holy mass seeking to love, to express love, to grow in love, to fall deeply in love with Jesus, that love may guide us every day, in all of our relationships, in our brokenness, in our trials, that love may heal us, sustain, transform us, animate us for the glory of God and the salvation of souls.