Oblates of St. Francis de Sales

New DeSales World Newsletter - Summer Edition

Sixth Sunday of Easter (May 25, 2003)

Readings Acts 10: 25-26, 34-35, 44-48 Ps 98: 1-4 1 Jn 4: 7-10 Jn 15: 9-17

Suggested Emphasis

"Love one another as I have loved you."

Salesian Perspective

Jesus taught us about a type of love that is very different from the love we often experience in the world. By His words and by His deeds, He showed us how the Trinity Itself loves. This love is a self-emptying love, a self-sacrificial love, and love so focused on the other that the self is forgotten. In the great Paschal mystery, we see Jesus so absorbed in love of the Father that He willingly sacrificed His very self for this love. His love of the Father’s will is all that matters.

St. Francis de Sales is a spiritual master in the school of this love. His great work, Treatise on the Love of God, traces a journey into the very heart of the love of the Trinity. At the very end of this two-volume work, Francis reaches Calvary. For Francis, this is the true academy of love. When the human will surrenders itself to the will of the Father in an act of self-donation, love blossoms. Nothing enflames the human heart as this act of self-emptying love.

You may ask how St. Francis de Sales and St. Jane de Chantal can be known for developing a philosophy of life that is optimistic, gentle, humble, and caring, if it is centered on Calvary. How do joyful friendship and devotion spring from such a source? Yet, this is exactly what we celebrate today. Easter, the Resurrection, the new life promised by God, are ours when we follow this path. While we will always pass through Calvary, Jesus has shown us that the true end of this sacrificial love is a sharing in the very life of the Trinity Itself. This life, the true destiny of the human spirit, is the love that never ends.

We don’t have to look far to locate opportunities for self-sacrificial love. As St. Francis de Sales knew so well, they are present in every walk of life and in every situation of life. They come in small, medium, and large. The daily desire and ability to embrace them is a key to holiness. Let us listen to Jesus: “All this I tell you that my joy may be yours and your joy may be complete.”

Rev. Michael S. Murray, OSFS, is Executive Director of the
De Sales Spirituality Center in Washington, DC