The purpose of a ‘last will and testament’ is to direct material
possessions to those whom we wish to receive them, after our death. Wills often go into great depth, and are a
window into how a person wants to be remembered after their death. The shortest
extent will is two words (‘to wife’), and the longest will is that of Frederica
Cook, who died in London in 1925 leaving a will of 1066 pages![i]
It seems that with material goods we even have to be possessive after death! That
being so, the attachment we feel for material goods needs to be ordered toward something
greater. The American Jesuit John Kavanaugh puts it this way: Our very love for the goods of this earth
draws us to the good whose self is love.[ii]
If this transition does not happen, then our attachment is disordered and
self-centred. In other words, material goods are at the service of the
spiritual life, not the other way around.
The material will needs to lead to a spiritual will. This is
the will that we see written in the lives of those who go before us into death.
Yesterday Granny May Howard died after 108 years living in this world. She has left an extraordinary spiritual will
to the five generations of her family that have come after her. Her will is
that of faith, family and perseverance. These wills are always the best and
most fruitful, for they truly are a gift for generations to come. So with this
will of Granny May, we remember a woman who lived her life in faith, who
persevered through the trails of the Stolen Generations without bitterness, and
who lived on a spiritual plane for most of her life.
Gospel today gives us Jesus’ last will and testament. St John
has written it down for us to make it very clear. It is a gift of love: I give you a new commandment, Love one another
as I have loved you. Just as I have loved you, you must love one another.
At first it does not seems to be a free gift, since Jesus is
commanding us to a particular action.
However, remember that he is bequeathing this at the Last Supper, just prior to
offering his life for the salvation of all people. Jesus proves by his life and
witness that love for others is the only way that we can live the life that he
invites us to. You can’t do half measures on this one: it is either all or none! Michael Fallon
teaches us: Only by obeying this command of
Jesus can we live the divine intimacy which he came to share with us. [iii]
After the death and resurrection of Jesus, the church
gradually came to an understanding of what being a Christian entailed. It was
based on self-giving love, the last will and testament of Jesus Christ. Sometime
after 130AD a Roman public servant, writing a government report, recorded of
Christians:
They love all men, and are persecuted
by all. They are unknown and condemned; they are put to death, and restored to
life. They are poor, yet make many rich; they are in lack of all things, and
yet abound in all; they are dishonoured, and yet in their very dishonour are
glorified. They are evil spoken of, and yet are justified; they are reviled,
and bless; they are insulted, and repay the insult with honour; they do good,
yet are punished as evil-doers. [iv]
This is what Jesus meant!
This is the faith and practice that Jesus bequeathed
to the Church, and that the Church has always held firmly. On the other hand, putting
into practice has sometimes been challenging. St Josemaria Escriva, writing last century, notes wryly:
The
Master's message and example are clear and precise. He confirmed his teaching
with deeds. Yet I have often thought that, after twenty centuries, it is indeed
still a new commandment because very few people have taken the trouble to
practise it. The others, the majority of men, both in the past and still today,
have chosen to ignore it. Their selfishness has led them to the conclusion:
'Why should I complicate my life? I have more than enough to do just looking
after myself.' Such an
attitude is not good enough for us Christians. If we profess the same faith and
are really eager to follow in the clear footprints left by Christ when he
walked on this earth, we cannot be content merely with avoiding doing unto
others the evil that we would not have them do unto us. That is a lot, but it
is still very little when we consider that our love is to be measured in terms
of Jesus' own conduct. Besides, he does not give us this standard as a distant
target, as a crowning point of a whole lifetime of struggle. It is — it ought
to be, I repeat so that you may turn it into specific resolutions — the
starting point, for Our Lord presents it as a sign of Christianity: 'By this
shall all men know that you are my disciples.'[v]
This is what gives us life in this world and the next. In the
end, love is all that matters.
May we live
the challenge of the people of God, like Granny May and so many others have taught
us, and may we continue to receive love and life from Christ as the Church has
done for the last two thousand years.
Homily for the Fifth Sunday of Easter, 27th April 2013, OLQP Broome.
[i] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Will_and_testament
[ii] John
F. Kavanaugh, The Word Engaged: Meditations on the Sunday Scriptures Orbis
Books, Maryknoll, New York (1997), pp. 64-66. Found at http://liturgy.slu.edu/5EasterC042813/theword_engaged.html,
last accessed 27th April 2013.
[iii]
Michael Fallon MSC, The Gospel According to St John: An Introductory Commentary,
Chevalier, Kensington, (1998), p.247.
[v] St
Josemaria Escriva, Friends of God, http://www.escrivaworks.org/book/friends_of_god-point-223.htm,
223.
