C: 6th Sun of Easter (26 May 2019) - WORD, LOVE AND PEACE (Jn 14:23-29)

“Those who love me will keep my word… Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you (Jn 14:23, 27)”

Word, love and peace… these three words appear plentifully in our Gospel today (Jn 14:23-29). The lexeme logos(“word”) occurs thrice in our narrative (vv. 22, 23a, 23b), while the verb agapaō(“love”) four times (vv. 22a, 22b, 23, 28) and the substantive eirēnē(“peace”) twice (vv. 27a and 27b). Noticing the frequency of Jesus’ mention of these three, we begin to infer that they are, indeed, all interconnected, especially at a moment when Jesus had begun to impart his teachings to his disciples in anticipation of his earthly departure. Truly, his message at this point of his life matters since this served as his parting instruction to his followers when he entrusted them his mission from the Father. But more importantly, these three terms, particularly in our present-day context of much conflict, division and animosity, can also accompany us in our ongoing Easter reflection and communal discernment.

Logos. This term is normally translated as “word” which we instinctively associate to a plain babbling or opening of the mouth in order to produce a communicative voice. Conversely, logosis not just a sound; appropriately, it is a phoneme that is based on a well-reasoned order of thinking designed to establish a harmonious communication. Indeed, if we look at the English cognates of logos—e.g.,logic, biology, dialogue, logistics, logarithm—we can notice that they are attuned to describing a science or a disciplined activity meant to produce a higher structure and order of things. Thus, contrary to our normal impression that it is a plain sound, logoshas an intrinsic power to build and to create when used and shared properly. Thus, the logos“became flesh and lived among us” (Jn 1:14).

Agapaō. This action word has the basic meaning of “love,” but is always compared with another verb of loving which is phileō.Most spiritual writers claim that the former is a reference to Christian love (equivalent to the notion of sharing and fellowship in “agape”) while the latter is to human love. However, this distinction cannot be sustained especially in the Gospel of John where the two are interchangeably used. What we only know is that the evangelist has a preference for agapaō, having used it around 37 times as opposed to the 13 times of phileō. Nonetheless, a specific point of interest in our enquiry is that out of the 37 occurrences of agapaō, 30 of these are found in chapter 13 onwards when the Paschal Mystery of Jesus had just commenced! Thus, the kind of love contained in agapaōin John is something connected to suffering, death and having a new life.

Eirēnē.This lexeme occurs only 6 times in the Gospel of John out of its 92 NT appearances. Noticeable in all these 6 usages is that eirēnē (“peace”) is described as something dispensed by Jesus to us. Three times it was used as a greeting of the Risen Christ in “Peace be with you!” (Jn 20:19, 21, 26), two times as a gift of Jesus to his disciples (14:27a, 27b), and once as a prayer of Jesus that they would someday have peace (16:33). This specific usage of eirēnētells us then two things: that the provenance of any kind of peace is God, and that a unified collective effort can bring forth peace as its end-product.

Putting these three words together, viz. logos,agapaōand eirēnē, we come up with the crux of the Sixth Sunday of Easter: we should all pray and work together for peace, in a deliberative mature way of healthy exchange of words, while sharing the spirit of love that knows how to suffer for each other. May we all have wisdom in our words, compassion in our love, and commitment in our peace-building.

- Rex Fortes, CM