Confidants, not doers: the friendship of Jesus and between brethren
(Jn 15:12-17)
«Greater love hath no man than this, that one lay down his life for his friends» (v.13).
Total mutual love, which waits for nothing, for nothing, is generally not possible from the condition of precarious creatures, who willingly desire relationships seeking completion.
Unfortunately, such love-Eros not infrequently comes into being summarily. And it happens by confusing gratuitousness and necessity, by mixing the purpose with the means; by entangling individual need with self-giving.
The authentic love movement comes.
It is a Current of resemblance of the divine condition. Transparent syntony with generative value, brought by the Son: "as" and "because" [I have loved you] (v.12 Greek text).
Offhand we might not understand. But only from the acceptance of the proposal "from above", genuine, Provident, can a shift of gaze begin that activates the path of rebalancing, discoveries, selflessness, and return of the Gift.
The circle of empathic initiative and response is the core of the experience of Loving Faith [replacing religious devotion].
Once one has experienced the intoxication and sense of fullness of being, one will never want to leave this new cosmic and personal relationship.
Jn does not speak of love of enemies as Mt 5 does in the Sermon on the Mount, but insists on mutual love (within the community of believers) as a relationship with the divine life itself.
The fourth Gospel is concerned with the consistency and quality of relationships between church members: the first ones deputed to the proclamation of peace, justice and love in the existential peripheries.
Precisely to the distant ones they will preach the new face of God, of society, of person, and they will not be able to live in the duplicity of discipleship.
Of course, that of God's intimate life is not sacrificial love; it does not demand a spirit of common nomenclature, renunciation, mortification and effort, but rather fidelity to one's deepest vocation.
We are "friends" (vv.14-15) no longer servants of God. The term alludes to equality and mutual benefit in growth, which envelops every firm domestic dimension.
A relational configuration that in an atmosphere of agape makes each discover his or her own Name - as well as that of the Church capable of communion.
It is the seal of the focal and missionary physiognomy, and vice versa.
Ecclesial Communion itself will not be that of religious uniformity, but the fruit of the exchange of gifts.
Conviviality of differences and recovery of opposites, in view of the shared enrichment of each, in coexistence.
One-sidedness is also banished in terms of the very participation in the overriding current of love that willingly descends on our senses of permanence, to move us.
The confrontation with daily history coming out of the sacristies forces us to purification and essentiality, makes us creative and available to God's future.
The healthy pluralism of different colours, approaches and styles in the way of living and implementing the Gospel, intends the Voice of the Spirit that helps discernment; it makes us dare.
A variegated, open polyhedron that turns on each particular voice. Counterforce that reflects the peculiar relationship that exists between divine Persons.
The Word of Deliverance itself can thus be firmly reformulated in an unprecedented and personal way, in order to correspond with new answers to new questions.
People and Church allow themselves to be challenged and keep themselves open, because they originate from the unpredictable Mystery and are precisely animated by personal Faith.
Women and men, new mothers and new fathers, open to the Gratis that welcomes the opposite - and for the unexpected - participate.
Koinonia' dispossessed, open to the gift and for the gift. Made aware of the depths of God's heart, and of its communion-eucharistic quality.
Such is the Church of Friends. Fraternity ready for the mission: "I have called you friends" (v.15) "I have constituted you so that you may go" (v.16) in the same defenceless Openness.
Difference between Religiousness and Faith? Friendship, which is stronger than both cerebral alchemy and voluntarism.
The Friend shares intentions, cultivates communion of life.
The "servant" (v.15) remains unreliable and resentful, because he is a mere executor of others' orders.
External directives do not concern one's own seed, the irreducible hidden roots, the Source from which the heart draws and which belongs to it.
It is our Core that is at stake: it manifests itself spontaneously; and it exists not by initiative, but by innate, constitutive and given character (v.16).
The trustworthy Friend is glad not only when he realises himself, but also when he can expand and cheer up the life of his beloved.
And he willingly ousts himself from the first seat in favour of the beloved.In this way - and it is worth repeating because of its terrifying relevance - in the Fourth Gospel the notes and appeals about love do not seem to be addressed to the distant.
Rather, these appeals are addressed to members of communities, so that they do not allow themselves to be carried away by ridiculous infatuations, which are inevitably transient and which would turn into a feeling of sadness or sadness.
In Jn, we see a particular concern for individuals and the climate among friends of the Faith.
This is because those who pretend to make recommendations about fine manners, roadmaps, humility, transparency, forgiveness, sharing, should first embody in themselves the spirit of selflessness and truth that they preach to others.
In short, the Lord does not ask for 'fruits' [multiple pious, outward-looking works, often tinged with exhibitionism] nor small gloating intimacies, but only one work: Love without duplicity.
In the unique and unprecedented personalisation of the 'Fruit' (v.16), Christ does not remain a Model to imitate, but a real Life that continues in the disciples.
Unique tiger in the engine, inviting the mystery of the founding Eros that dilates the I into the Thou:
In Friendship; in the opposing feelings that surface; in the growing unity of thought and aspiration; in the people who draw near; in the communion of desire and circumstance... the wills unite.
In such divine-human empathy [which is more persuasive than voluntarism] the codes of behaviour, the extrinsic, external project, to which (before) they bow, now weave a dialogue.
Finally, they come together - by 'name' [a term that in the Gospels indicates in particular the rawness of the Lord's actual event, as well as our personal interpretation and actualisation of it].
Here is the igniting and pouring out of Communion, on a high ground of understanding; without concealed conflict. And without servitude.
In short, in the Ideal as in the Dream we prefer Friendship.
And let us walk the Path of Faith in the Crucified One - that of the snub and imbalance of love.
To internalise and live the message:
"I can't live without you": How do you distinguish a self-deluded sentimental sphere, from a working proposal of union of life?
