BECAUSE HE PROMISED
There is a moment at the end of this Sunday’s Gospel that feels almost like a quiet doorway into the whole Christian life. Jesus says, “Whoever has my commandments and observes them is the one who loves me… and I will love him and reveal myself to him.”
It’s simple. It’s direct. And it’s far more demanding than it first appears.
We sometimes hear “commandments” and think of the Ten Commandments of the Old Testament – the laws given to shape a people and guide them toward God. Jesus doesn’t erase those commandments; he fulfills them. He distills them down to their beating heart: love God, love your neighbor, and love yourself.
We often forget that last part. Jesus doesn’t say, “Love your neighbor instead of yourself.” He says, “Love your neighbor as yourself.” That means the love we offer others is meant to flow from a place of reverence for the life God has placed within us. Not pride. Not self-indulgence. But a sacred love for the person God created us to be.
It’s hard to love our neighbor if we quietly believe we ourselves are unworthy. It’s hard to be patient with others when we are harsh with our own hearts. It’s hard to forgive when we don’t believe we deserve forgiveness. Jesus knows this. He knows that love has to take root in us before it can bear fruit around us.
So when he speaks of “my commandments,” he is inviting us into a way of life shaped by love – love that begins with God, flows into our own hearts, and then moves outward into the world. This is not sentimental love. It is not a feeling that comes and goes. It is a choice, a discipline, a way of seeing.
And Jesus tells us that when we live this way – when we hold his commandments as sacred – something extraordinary happens: he reveals himself to us.
That line is easy to glide past, but it is the promise our whole faith counts on. Jesus is not a memory. He is not a figure from long ago. He is not a story we admire from a distance. He is alive, present, and committed to making himself known to us. But he reveals himself in ways that require a certain kind of vision – the vision that comes from a heart that is shaped by love.
When we love God, our eyes begin to look for God. When we love our neighbor, we begin to see Christ in the faces around us. When we love ourselves, we begin to trust that God might actually want to draw close to us.
An open, loving heart sees God. Love sharpens our sight. Love clears away the fog of fear, resentment, self-doubt, and judgment. Love makes room for God to be recognized in the ordinary moments of our days – in a kindness offered, in a burden shared, in a moment of unexpected peace, in the quiet strength that carries us through a difficult time.
Jesus promises the Holy Spirit in this same Gospel – the Advocate, the Helper, the One who will remain with us. But the Spirit does more than comfort. The Spirit forms our hearts so that we can recognize the presence of Christ. The Spirit teaches us how to love in the way Jesus commands. The Spirit opens our eyes to the ways God is already revealing himself.
And so this Gospel invites us to ask: Where is Jesus revealing himself to me? Where is love trying to take root? Where is the Spirit nudging me toward a deeper, more generous way of living?
We don’t have to be perfect. Jesus never asks for perfection. He asks for willingness – the willingness to hold his commandments to love close, to let love shape our choices, and to trust that he will meet us there.
If we live with that kind of openness, we will not miss him. He will reveal himself. He promised.
In God’s Unending Love,
Gwen Coté
