The following homily was given by Arlington Bishop Paul S. Loverde on April 18, Wednesday of the Second Week of Easter, at Mount St. Mary’s Seminary in Emmitsburg, Md.
The opening verse of today’s Gospel account is so familiar to us: “God so loved the world that he gave his only-begotten Son, so that everyone who believes in him might not perish but might have eternal life.” One scriptural commentator has called this verse “everybody’s text.” Yes, it is so familiar that we run the risk of missing its fundamental, powerful message.
This verse is so fundamental and powerful because it tells us, briefly yet profoundly, (1) who God is; (2) why He gave us — sent to us — His only-begotten Son; and (3) how we should live.
(1) This verse tells us who God is. God is love! Because He is love, He freely desires to share His own life with us, He desires to save us. So, then, our salvation has its origin in God precisely because He loves us. He began the process of our being saved by giving us His own Son, by sending this Son to us. As the Easter “Exultet” reminds us, to free a slave, He gave away His Son.
Moreover, His love is all embracing! “God so loved the world. …” Notice: not one nation, not just the good people, not only the people who love Him. No, God so loved the world. Jesus is the fullest revelation of this love. How much does God love us? Look at the crucifix! This much! St. Augustine puts it so beautifully: “God loves each one of us as if there was only one of us to love.”
(2) This verse tells us why God gave us His Son. Why? Was it not to bring us the good news of His love? To bridge the gap created by sin, evil and death? To show us how to live in this world so as to be able to live forever in the next? To destroy the permanence of evil, sin and human death? To have Jesus become for us “the way, the truth and the life”? Even the evil of those senseless and horrendous killings at Virginia Tech on Monday (April 16) will not prevent God’s love from giving eternal life!
At baptism, we are united to Christ, we are actually inserted into Him. If we remain united to Him, we shall not perish, but shall have eternal life. We stay united to Him by faith! As Pope Benedict XVI wrote, faith “is a fundamental option that affects every domain of our existence. Faith is not a merely intellectual, or merely volitional, or merely emotional activity — it is all these things together … Faith is a supremely personal act.”
(3) This verse tells us how we should live. How? By responding to God’s love with love. Our response of love includes the “obedience of faith,” trust, living in the truth and walking in the light. The only adequate response to love is love!
Finally, this verse tells us how our lives as priests should be lived. We must be living signs of God’s love, each one of us a “sacramentum caritatis.” So, then, the essence of our preaching should echo this verse: “God so loved the world … ” The core of our sacramental ministry should enable people to be touched by and transformed by the love of God made visible in Jesus Christ. The basic thread of our priestly witness should be God’s love acting through us. St. John Vianney put it so beautifully in words you see every day here as you pass his statue: “The priesthood is the love of the heart of Jesus.”
In the end, God’s love for us — absolute and ever faithful — and our response of love to Him are all that matters, because in responding to His love, even though imperfectly and unevenly, we allow Him to send Jesus to us so that Jesus, Lord and Savior, might give us eternal life. Yes, St. Alphonsus’ prayer says it all: “Lord, grant that I may love Thee always and then do with me what Thou wilt.” And, likewise, the prayer of St. Ignatius of Loyola: “Give me Thy love and Thy grace; with these I shall be rich enough and desire nothing more.” Amen.

(c) Copyright 2007 by Arlington Catholic Herald