(1 John 3:18-21)
11. True Love (1 John 3:18-21)
If you remember, my friends, yesterday I ended my homily at this sentence, which should still be in your hearts, since it was the last you heard: Little children, let us not love in word only and speech, but in deed and in truth. The question is, in what deed or in what truth do we recognize one who loves God or loves a sister or brother? John told us earlier at what point love becomes perfect; it is what the Lord too told us in the gospel: "Greater love no one has than this, that he lay down his life for his friends." John said, *As he laid down his life for us, we too should lay down our lives for the brethren." This is the perfection of love; it's not possible to find any greater.
But love isn't perfect in everyone. No one in whom it is imperfect should despair if what can be perfected has already been born. Of course, if it's born it has to be cherished and brought by the right kind of nourishment to its proper perfection. We asked where this rudimentary love begins, and we found the answer immediately: "If anyone has the world's goods and sees his brother in need and closes his heart against him, how can the love of God abide in him?" This is where love begins, dear friends: to give of what you have to spare to one who is in need, to one in some difficulty; it is to give of your temporal abundance to free a sister or brother from temporal distress. This is where love starts. When it's begun in this way, if you nourish it with God's word and with the hope of a future life, you'll come at last to the perfection of love. Then you will be ready to lay down your life for your sisters and brothers.
But because many deeds of this kind are done by people with some other intention in mind, by people who don't lovétheir
TRUE LOVE, (55 sisters and brothers, let us ask again: what deed, what love does he mean? Can there by any plainer deed than giving to the poor? Yet many do it for display, not out of love. Can there be any greater deed than dying for others? Many want to be thought to do this; yet they do it out of vainglory, to get a name, not out of love that comes from their depths.
It remains that those people truly love their sister or brother who reassure themselves, in their hearts before God, where he alone sees, and question in their hearts whether they truly do what they do for love of their sisters and brothers. And that eye which penetrates their hearts, where no human being can reach, is their witness. So Paul the apostle, because he was ready to die for his brethren, said, "I will myself be spent for your souls." But because God saw this in his heart, and the people he was addressing did not, Paul told them, "For me it is a very small thing to be judged by you or by any human day," meaning tribunal. And he shows us in another place that these things are often done out of empty display, not on the solid ground of love. When he was speaking the praises of love he said, "If I give away all I have to the poor and if I deliver my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing." Can anyone do this without love? We must answer yes. There are people who have no love who brought division to our unity. Look at them and you will see many who give large amounts to the poor. You'll see them ready to undergo death, to the point that if they don't find a persecutor they destroy themselves. There is no doubt that they do this without love.
So let us withdraw into our consciences. The Apostle says, "For our boast is this, the testimony of our conscience." Let us withdraw into our consciences. The same Apostle says, "But let each one test his own work, and then his reason to boast will be in himself alone and not in another." Let each of us test his or her own work, whether it springs from the vein of love, whether the branches of good deeds come from the root of love. But let each one test his own work," Paul says, "'and
56 / LOVEONE ANOTHER, MY FRIENDS then his reason to boast will be in himself alone and not in another": not when someone else bears witness to you but when your own conscience does it.
This then is what John is teaching us here. By this we know that we are of the truth, when we love in deed and in truth, not just in word and speech, and we reassure our hearts before him.
What does before him mean? It means there, where God sees us. This is why the Lord himself says in the gospel, "Beware of practicing your righteousness before men in order to be seen by them; otherwise, you will have no reward from your Father who is in heaven." And what does '"'do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing" mean if the right hand" isn't a pure conscience and the "left hand" isn't worldly desire? Many people perform marvels through worldly desire. That's the left hand working, not the right. It's the right hand that must work while the left hand remains ignorant. Then no worldly desire is mixed in when we do something good out of love. But how can we be sure of this? You are before God. Question your heart, look at what you've done and what you were seeking when you did it. Was it your salvation? Or was it empty human praise? Look within yourself, for nobody can judge someone he doesn't see.
If we reassure our hearts, let it be before him. For if our hearts condemn us—if they accuse us from within, because we don't act with the intention we ought to have—God is greater than our hearts, and he knows everything. You hide your heart from other human beings. Hide it from God if you can! There was a sinner once who was afraid and confessed to him, **Where shall I go from your spirit? And where shall I flee from your face?" He was looking for a way to escape God's judgment, and he didn't find any. Where is God absent? "If I ascend into heaven you are there," he says; "if I descend into hell you are present." Where will you go? Where will you flee? Do you want some advice? If what you want is to flee from him, flee toward him. Flee toward him by confessing to him, not by hiding from him. Hide from him you can't, but you can confess to him. Tell him,
TRUELOVE / 57
"You are my refuge," and let love be nourished in you, because only love leads you to life. Let your conscience bear witness to you that it is of God. If it's of God, don't desire to display it before people, because their praise isn't going to raise you up to heaven or their censure cast you down. Let him behold you, who gives you the crown. Let him be the witness, who is the judge by whom you'll receive it. God is greater than our hearts, and he knows everything.
Beloved, if our hearts do not condemn us, we have confidence before God. What does it mean to say, if our hearts do not condemn us? If our hearts respond to us in truth that we love, that the love in us is genuine, that it's sincere, not feigned, that it seeks the salvation of others, not expecting any profit from them beyond their salvation, then we have confidence before God; and we will receive from him whatever we ask because we keep his commandments. Our confidence isn't in the sight of other people, then, but where God himself sees, in our hearts. And we will receive from him whatever we ask, but only because we keep his commandments. What are his commandments? Do I have to be continually repeating it? "A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another." It's love he's talking about, love he's commending to us. Whoever has love of sisters and brothers, and has it before God, where God sees, and whoever's heart when it is honestly questioned makes no other response than that it contains a genuine root of love for good fruits to come from, this person has confidence before God. And whatever such persons ask they will receive from Him, because they keep his commandments.