Oblates of St. Francis de Sales

New DeSales World Newsletter - Summer Edition

6TH SUNDAY OF EASTER (May 21, 2006)

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.

Francis de Sales wrote: "The death and passion of our Lord is the sweetest and the most compelling motive that can animate our hearts in this mortal life…The children of the cross glory in this, their wondrous paradox which the world does not understand: out of death, which devours all things has come the food of our consolation, and out of death, strong above all things, has issued the all-sweet honey of our love. O Jesus, my Savior, how worthy of live is your death, for it is the supreme effect of your love." (Treatise, Part 12, Chapter 13)

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 the Executive Director of the De Sales Spirituality Center.