The encyclical “Deus Caritas Est” of Pope Benedict XVI presents the core of Christian revelation, namely “God is Love” (1 Jn 4:8,16). It is in the Johannine writings that God is presented as love. It is one of the three definitions of God that we find in the Johannine writings. The other two definitions are “God is Light” (1 Jn 1:5) and “God is Spirit” (Jn. 4:24). These three definitions are interrelated. “God is Light” means that God is one who reveals himself to man. “God is Love” means that God reveals himself to us by communicating his life with us, establishing with us a relationship of love. “God is Spirit” means that this relationship of love is established by communicating to us his own Spirit, which is the Spirit of Love and Life. It is Jesus who revealed God as Love especially during his own public ministry. The Cenacle becomes the final stage of Jesus’ revelation of God as Love. The moments Jesus spent together with his disciples in the Cenacle both before (Jn 13-17) and after (Jn 20-21) his glorification were moments of intense experience of this revelation. Since the Cenacle is the birth place of the Eucharist and Priest, the Cenacle experience can become a school of priestly formation. I am presenting below some of the aspects of the Revelation of God-Agape in the Cenacle and their formative value for our priestly life and ministry.
1. Cenacle: Place of Revelation of God-Agape (Jn 13-17)
Jesus Christ is the Incarnate-Love of God (DCE 12-17). According to the Gospel of John, Jesus is the Word [Logos] (Jn 1:1-2) namely, the revelation of God: “No one has ever seen God. It is God, the only Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, who has made him known” (Jn 1:18). The whole life of Jesus as Son of God was a revelation of God the Father. His words, his deeds, and his miracles were all manifestations of God’s love for man. His passion, death, and resurrection were the culminating moments of this love: “No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends” (Jn 15:13). The Book of Glory (Jn 13-20), where John describes the glorification (passion, death, and resurrection) of Jesus is introduced by the words: “Now before the festival of the Passover, Jesus knew that his hour had come to depart from this world and go to the Father. Having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end (Jn 13:1). It is with these words that Jesus is entering the Cenacle. Thus the Cenacle is presented as the place of revelation of the maximum love of God. The expression “to the end” (telos in Greek) can be translated as “end” or “perfection”. Therefore, the glorification of Jesus is the revelation of his maximum love for those who are his own. This maximalism on the part of Jesus (God) is the basis for the “apostolic maximalism of love” which is the core of the spirituality of the Apostolic Sodales.
2. Agape and Priestly Ministry (Jn 13:1-20)
The washing of the feet of the disciples by Jesus was a sign (prophecy in action) of his death. This is indicated in the dialogue between Jesus and Simon Peter in this context: “He came to Simon Peter, who said to him, ‘Lord, are you going to wash my feet?’ Jesus answered, ‘You do not know now what I am doing, but later you will understand’” (Jn 13:6-7). This shows that in the washing of the feet there is a hidden meaning which is not evident at the moment, but will be clearly understood in the future, namely after the death of Jesus. When Peter insisted not to wash his feet, Jesus says: “Unless I wash you, you have no share with me” (Jn 13:8). The term “share” (meros in Greek and ‘heleq in Hebrew) means “heritage” and is used in the Old Testament to indicate the promised land of Israel which became a type of eternal life in the New Testament. Hence the words of Jesus means that to resist the washing of the feet by Jesus is to resist the death of Jesus and consequently to risk eternal life. Therefore, the washing of the feet is a prophetic sign of Jesus’ death which is the culmination of the revelation of God’s love (agape) for man.
In the washing of the feet, the agape takes the form of service which is characteristic of Jesus’ life and ministry “who came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many” (Mk 10:45). In washing the feet of the disciples, Jesus not only manifests the agape which takes the concrete form of service culminating in his death, but also gives an example for his disciples to imitate: “if I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet. For I have set you an example that you also should do as I have done to you” (Jn 13:14-15). We, as priests, are called to reveal the agape in our life and pastoral ministry. The term “ministry” comes from the Greek term diakonia which originally referred to the table service, which is a service of love. Our priestly ministry should take on the character of a service of love to the extent of laying down our lives for those who are entrusted to our pastoral care.
3. Agape, Eucharist, and Priest (Jn 13:21-30)
The agape which is revealed in Jesus, especially in his sacrificial death has a dynamic and enduring presence in the Eucharist which he instituted in the Last Supper. He anticipated his death and resurrection by giving his disciples, in the bread and wine, his very self, his body and blood as the new manna [Jn 6:31-33] (DCE 13). Although John in his Gospel does not speak of the “Institution of the Eucharist”, he speaks of the supper (Jn 13:2) and a giving of bread (Jn 13:21-30). The giving of bread in John’s presentation is symbolic. Jesus is presented with two of his disciples, John and Judas, one on the right and the other on the left respectively. The giving of the bread is symbolic of the sacrament of the Eucharist. Eucharist is the sacrament of the offer of the love of God or agape in Jesus to those who are his own in the world (Jn 13:1). John, the disciple whom Jesus loved, reclining next to him, is symbolic of those who accept the offer of love and respond to it positively. Judas is symbolic of those who give a negative response to the offer of agape. This negative response is indicated in different ways: “After he received the piece of bread, Satan entered into him” (Jn 13:27). Again it is said: “So, after receiving the piece of bread, he immediately went out. And it was night” (Jn 13:30). Entrance of Satan into Judas, and Judas going out into the night, are indications that the reception of the bread, representing reception of the Eucharist offer of the divine agape, without proper disposition will result in condemnation. Night represents darkness. Jesus being the Light, going away from Jesus into the night implies going away into darkness, into condemnation. John here presents a scene of contrast between those who give a positive response to the divine offer of agape in the Eucharist resulting in life and those who give a negative response to the offer of agape resulting in condemnation. We, as priests, being dispensers of the mystery of the Eucharist, are called upon to live a Eucharistic life of agape which would become a challenge for the people to respond.
4. Agape: A Call to Maximalism
of Love (Jn 13:31-35)
When Judas had gone out, Jesus announced his glorification (death and resurrection), which is the culmination of the revelation of agape. “Now the Son of Man has been glorified, and God has been glorified in him” (Jn 13:31). The going out of Judas marked the definite coming of Jesus’ hour of glorification, since Jesus’ death was confirmed through the betrayal of Judas. But for John the death of Jesus is the supreme manifestation of Jesus’ love of the Father and of the children of the same Father. Jesus offered his life in loving obedience to the will of the Father (Lk 22:42) and as an expression of his love for his disciples (Jn 15:13). It is a manifestation of the “maximalism” of love that Jesus lived.
After having declared the maximalism of love that he lived, Jesus requires of his followers that same maximalism of love, giving them the new commandment: “I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another” (Jn 13:34). The particular “as” (kathos in Greek) has a double meaning, namely that of a “model” and that of a “source”. Jesus’ love is not only a model, but also a source for our love. We will be able to love as Jesus loved, only if we remain in the love of Jesus. This is again presented in the context of the allegory of the Vine and Branches: “As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you, abide in my love” (Jn 15:9).
One of the specific aims of the Priestly Secular Institute of the Apostolic Sodales is to “promote that spirituality that arises from the Cenacle, which is the expression of the Apostolic Maximalism, namely to announce the infinite love of God who wants to form a holy people in Christ, united in a fraternal bond (Constitution 4a). Another specific aim of the Institute is “fraternal assistance to the lay and consecrated ecclesial forces that work for the apostolate of Apostolic Maximalism” (Constitution 4d). We as members of the Institute can achieve these aims only in so far as we love one another drawing inspiration and strength from the love of Jesus.
5. Agape and Call to Discipleship (Jn 13:36-38)
When Simon Peter said to Jesus, “Lord where are you going?” He answered “where I am going you cannot follow me now; but you will follow afterward” (Jn 13:36). “Following Christ” is the keynote of discipleship. When Jesus told Peter that he is not able to follow him now, Peter said to him, “Lord why can I not follow you now? I will lay down my life for you” (Jn 13:37). Following Christ implies a commitment to Christ, a love of Christ, that goes to the extent of laying down one’s life for him. It is a question of loving Christ above everything else, even above one’s own life. So discipleship is an expression of agape which is exclusive and definitive (DCE 11). Peter is not yet capable to live this agape and therefore is not able to respond fully to the call of discipleship. His love has to be purified and to grow. This is what is meant by Jesus’ words “You will follow afterward” (Jn 13:36).
After the resurrection of Jesus, we see Peter as having grown in his discipleship. On the seashore of Tiberius, Jesus asked Simon: “Do you love me more than these?” (Jn 21:15) and after having predicted his martyrdom, tells him: “follow me” (Jn 21:19). Peter grew in his agape and is now capable of responding positively to the call to discipleship. But it should be noted that this growth took place gradually through his life-experiences, especially through his experience of sin and repentance. Priests, as disciples of Christ, have to grow in agape, being purified through their life-experiences of sin and repentance.
6. Agape and Sacramental Brotherhood (Jn 14:1-31)
In the farewell discourse at the Last Supper in the Cenacle, Jesus promises the Spirit (Jn 14:15-17) and the indwelling presence of the Three Persons of the Holy Trinity in the believers (Jn 14:23). The Spirit of God is the Spirit of Agape, which moved God the Father to send his only begotten Son into the world to redeem man (Jn 3:16) and moved Christ to lay down his life for his friends (Jn 15:13) and was made available to the believers after the resurrection (Jn 20:22). The Spirit, in fact, is the interior power which harmonized their hearts with Christ’s heart and moves them to love their brethren as Christ loved them when he bent down to wash the feet of the disciples ( Jn 13:1-13) and above all when he gave his life for us (Jn 13:1). The Spirit is also the energy which transforms the heart of the ecclesial community, so that it becomes a witness before the world to the love of the Father who wishes to make humanity a single family in his Son (DCE 19).
It is this Spirit of Agape which is at work behind the indwelling presence of the Three Persons of the Holy Trinity in us. This is indicated in the fact that the condition for having the presence and communion of the Trinity is always loving Jesus and keeping his commandments: “If you love me, you will keep my commandments. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Paraclete” (Jn 14:15-16). The commandment of Christ is always and only the commandment of loving one another (Jn 13:34-35). “Love of neighbor grounded in the love of God, is first and foremost a responsibility for each individual member of the faithful, but it is also a responsibility for the entire ecclesial community at every level (DCE 20). This is true also on the level of priests. Since all the priests share in the same priesthood of Christ, there is a sacramental brotherhood existing among the priests. Therefore, the commandment of Jesus to love one another should have its practical realization on this level of sacramental brotherhood. The agape lived on the level of sacramental brotherhood should become a model for the agape to be lived by the ecclesial community. It is also a constitutional requirement for the Apostolic Sodales: “Priestly brotherhood and unity which should constitute a model of charity for the whole Church” (Constitution 5d).
7. Agape of Jesus: Source of Communion (Jn 15:1-17)
The allegory of the Vine and the Branches in the farewell discourse is an illustration of the ecclesial communion that is brought about by the agape. The Johannine imagery of the Vine and Branches is parallel to the Pauline imagery of the Body of Christ that illustrates the Church as communion. The agape of God’s love was definitively revealed in the sacrificial death of Jesus Christ and this act of oblation gets an enduring presence through the Eucharist. The love of God for man becomes a union with God through sharing in Jesus’ self-gift, sharing his body and blood. It is this sacramental “mysticism” grounded on Jesus’ (God’s) love that is illustrated in the allegory of the Vine and Branches.
This sacramental
“mysticism” is social in character, for in sacramental communion I become one with the Lord, like all other communicants. As
St. Paul says, “Because there is one bread, we who are many are one body, for we all partake of the one bread” (I Cor 10:17).
8. Agape: the Foundation of the Call and Mission (Jn 15:12-17)
In the second part of the allegory of the Vine and Branches Jesus refers to his agape for his disciples qualifying them as “friends: (philoi in Greek). In Greek there are four words for love:storge, eros, philia, and agape. Storge refers to the love between blood relatives, while eros refers to the love between man and woman, based on their sexual character. Philia refers to love of friendship, while agape refers to the divine love. The New Testament writers prefer the term agape. It is only in John that we find the usage of the term philia, the love of friendship, used to express the relationship between Jesus and his disciples, and that with an added depth of meaning (DCE 3). It shows the intimacy of the relationship between Jesus and the disciples which is characteristic of friends who share with each other all the secrets of their life: “I have called you friends, because I have made known to you everything that I have heard from my Father” (Jn 15:15). It is this intimate relationship that is behind the call and mission of the disciples: “You did not choose me because I chose you. And I appointed you to go and bear fruit, fruit that will last” (Jn 15:16). It is an invitation to acknowledge the divine initiative behind our call and mission and live our call and fulfill our mission with a sense of responsibility.
Though discipleship is common for all Christians, priests who are called to be stewards of the divine mysteries have to live in a special way the intimate relationship of love into which Jesus has taken them. It is this relationship that should become the source of strength for the priests to live up to their call and to fulfill faithfully their priestly commitments. The Constitution of the Apostolic Sodales, after having described the “Commitments”, says: “The life of union with God constitutes for the Sodalis the source from which he draws the strength to live his own priestly vocation and the commitments taken in the Institute” (Constitution 35).
9. Agape in Conflict
with the World [Eros] (Jn 15:18-16:4)
In this part of the farewell discourse, Jesus is warning his disciples about the hatred that they will have to experience from the part of the world: “If the world hates you, be aware that it hated me before it hated you” (Jn 15:18). The “world” here refers to the unbelieving world. The term “world” (kosmos in Greek) in John is used in different ways. The two important usages are, one referring to humankind as object of God’s love (Jn 3:16) and the other referring to those who do not believe in him. It is in this sense that it is used in this context. This seems to be a reflection of the double aspect of love at work in man. The two Greek word Eros and Agape represent these two aspects. Eros is human love which is ordained towards Agape the divine love. Eros is the “possessive love” while agape is “oblative love”. These two are conflicting but complementary. It is through a process of purification that the eros will grow into agape. This process of purification will involve self-denial, carrying the cross, and dying to one’s self. This is the paschal mystery that we are called to live with Christ. It is a path leading through the Cross to the Resurrection (DCE 6-7).
In living this paschal mystery, the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Agape will be our helper, who will see that we come out victorious bearing testimony to Christ: “When the Advocate comes whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of Truth who comes from the Father, he will testify on my behalf. You also are to testify, because you have been with me from the beginning” (Jn 16:26-27). However, the work of the Spirit will be effective only in so far as we are open to his work in us. Here again the Constitution speaking of the life of piety of the Apostolic Sodales, says that it should be animated by “docility to the Spirit, who invokes the Father in our hearts, and forms Christ- the firstborn of many brothers (Rom 8:29)- in us as He did in Mary” (Constitution 37).
10. Agape: Source of Joy and Victory over the World (Jn 16:16-24)
In this section, Jesus speaks about the pain of the disciples at the departure of Jesus and assures them that their pain will turn into joy. “Very truly, I tell you, you will weep and mourn, but the world will rejoice; you will have pain, but your pain will turn into joy” (Jn 16:20). In fact, when the risen Lord appeared to the disciples they rejoiced: “After he said this, he showed them his hands and his side. Then the disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord” (Jn 20:20).
This experience of pain turning into joy is not to be understood exclusively referring to the historical events of Jesus’ death and resurrection. It is symbolic of our paschal experience of dying and rising with Christ. The pain and sorrow that we experience in the process of dying with Christ through a life of self-denial and renunciation, will turn into joy in the process of living with Christ, sharing in his love and glory and victory over the world.
In this process, faith has a decisive role. When passing through suffering which we cannot understand, it is faith in God’s love that should sustain us. Pope Benedict XVI says: “Even in their bewilderment and failure to understand the world around them, Christians continue to believe in the “goodness and loving kindness of God” (Tit 3:4). Immersed like everyone else in the dramatic complexity of historical events, they remain unshakably certain that God is their Father and loves us, even when his silence remains incomprehensible” (DCE 38). The Constitution tells us that the Apostolic Sodales shall strive on a personal level to respond to the boundless love of the Father and of Christ, the Priest, through their efforts towards holiness (Constitution 6.1).
11. Agape and Life of Prayer (Jn 17:1-26)
Life of agape is impossible without a life of prayer. Jesus, after having explained to his disciples the different aspects of agape at work in him and in them, enters into prayer along with them, showing thus the importance of prayer in living the agape. Pope Benedict XVI says: “It is time to reaffirm the importance of prayer in the face of activism and the growing secularism of many Christians engaged in charitable work” (DCE 37).
Prayer is an expression of our agape, namely our relationship of love to God and love to one another. The priestly prayer of Jesus has three parts. 1) Jesus prays for his glorification which will ultimately result in the glory of God [expression of his love of God the Father] (Jn 17:1-8). 2) Jesus prays for his disciples: for their protection and for their sanctification [expression of his love for the disciples] (Jn 17:9-19). 3) Jesus prays for the believers to come: for their unity [expression of his love for all believers] (Jn 17:20-26). In other words “praying is loving”. In prayer we express our love towards God (in terms of praise, thanksgiving, acceptance of his will, petition, etc.), and our love towards one another (in terms of petition and intercession). By expressing our love, we grow in love. Thus a life of agape is simultaneous with a life of prayer. The Constitution speaks of the Life of Piety, that should characterize the Apostolic Sodales, which presents a regular program of prayer (Constitution 35-42).
12. Agape and Apostolic Commissioning (Jn 20:19-23)
The risen Lord meets his disciples again in the Cenacle and, after having given them assurance of the victory of agape, commissions them with the same mission entrusted to him by the Father. “Jesus said to them again, ‘Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you…If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained’” (Jn 20:21-23). The mission that the disciples are entrusted with is the same as that of Jesus. Jesus’ mission was indicated at the very beginning of his public ministry in the words of John the Baptist: “Here is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world” (Jn 1:29). Jesus’ mission was to take away the sin of the world. “The sin” (Hé Hamartia in Greek) in the singular according to John is not a sinful act, but the sinful condition of the lack of life. Jesus told the Jews: “I am going away, and you will search for me; but you will die in your sin” (Jn 8:21). Jesus came to take away the condition of sin (death) by giving life to the world. “I came so that they might have life and have it abundantly” (Jn 10:10). It is the same mission that the risen Lord is entrusting his disciples.
While entrusting the disciples with his mission, he also gives them his Spirit, the Spirit of Life, the Spirit of Agape: “When he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, ‘Receive the Holy Spirit’” (Jn 20:22). It is the Spirit of God, the Spirit of Agape, which was at work in Jesus, and which came out victorious through his death and resurrection, that he gave to his disciples so that they will continue to fulfill his mission on earth with the help of the same Spirit.
The agape which was at work in Jesus is at work in the Church. We are ministers of this agape. And it is with this faith and hope that we have to fulfill our priestly mission in the Church. Pope Benedict XVI concludes his encyclical thus: “Love is possible, and we are able to practice it because we are created in the image of God. To experience love and in this way to cause the light of God to enter into the world- this is the invitation I would like to extend with the present encyclical” (DCE 39).