Obedience:  First Step to Authentic Love
          As Jesus prepares his disciples for his impending return to the Father, he continues to remind them about the core of their discipleship and vocation: “If you love me, you will keep my commandment...whoever has my commandments and observes them is the one who loves me.” This is where the core of Christianity is found: keeping the word of God as the manifestation of love, the love which is also our own identity. Obedience to the Gospel and the virtue of love go hand in hand. One only loves genuinely if the Gospel is the one that guides one’s path, one’s moral decisions and lifestyle. And, when I speak of the Gospel, I don’t refer to the kind of gospel” that one just wants to follow out of personal convenience but, rather, the totality of our faith. That’s why cafeteria Catholicism doesn’t make sense, where one picks and chooses what to believe and what to follow, considering faith solely as a private affair with God without any connection to those people around us. The God Incarnate, whom we adore, specifically reminded us in the Gospel today that we can only love if we keep his word. His “word” or teaching has a context—it has a tradition; it isn’t a matter of personal opinion, but of revealed truths.
     In any kind of endeavor, especially when it comes to important offices and
responsibilities, we place huge regard on the value of credibility and accountability. We see this, for example, with people holding public office. If they lie or have done something that tarnish’s their office, one would hear a clamor for resignation. The point is: credibility and accountability are important values that we hold highly. The same seriousness and
accountability should be applied to our spiritual life. It is our witnessing to faith, our
seriousness to live the Gospel values, even in the midst of opposition and inconvenience, that makes faith truly alive and strong. In my practice of faith, what is the most valuable thing for me? Does the Gospel inform my important decisions in life? What is the role of my faith in my moral decisions? Ultimately, the litmus test, if we are indeed keeping the word of God, meaning we are loving genuinely, is if we are transformed by the faith that we embrace and become agents of transformation as well. Would it be easy, would it be
perfect? Of course not. But, we trust in the promise of Christ to the disciples: “The
Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you
everything and remind you of all that I told you.” We have received this same Spirit by
virtue of our baptism and more vividly in the sacrament of confirmation, but the Spirit needs our collaboration, because we can only remain in God and abide in him if we do it freely, consciously and joyfully. How good are we in keeping God’s word? - Fr. Cary