“If you love me you will keep my commandments” (Jo. 14:15).
There’s a conditional quality to the word “if” in our Gospel today. “If” is a dependent word: it points to a certain situation that may or may not exist, may or may not work out, depending on the circumstances. So if we love Jesus (or maybe not) we will keep his commandments; and depending on that (whether we love him and keep his commandments), then Jesus will ask the Father to send us the Holy Spirit. All of this is conditional, reflected by the “if” with which we started; everything hanging or depending on that slender thread of “if.” As Jesus says, “If you love me…” (Jo. 14:15).
Others have noted the significance of the word. In Thomas Tallis’ well-known anthem based on this passage, sung by your wonderful choir a little bit later, the word “if” gets something like an extra beat, as if to underscore the word’s critical character; to remind us that things depend on that first word. We begin, in the passage and in the anthem, by standing a while with the word “if.” If we love him we will keep his commandments. It’s contingent, conditional, dependent; for the grammarians a gloriously tentative subjunctive. Only if we love will Jesus pray to the Father to send the Holy Spirit.
There’s a fickle quality to love that’s in keeping with the word “if.” “She loves me, she loves me not…” goes the children’s game, with love having a sort of “spin the bottle” variableness at its heart. In a similar way, we strike up friendships that have no rational basis, but simply a mysterious quality of fellow feeling that draws us together. Where we end up seems sort of random in either case.
Or think of the great romances, where something is always getting in the way of love. In stories, people are always trying to come up with “life hacks,” like love potions or hypnotism, to overcome love’s fickle nature. But if there weren’t an obstacle, an open question whether it would all work out, it wouldn’t be a romance! “If you love me…” (Jo. 14:15). We have to wait to see the ending to know whether things worked out.
Jesus, however, is pointing toward a different kind of love in our Gospel today; or at the very least a different aspect of love. When he links love to keeping the commandments, Jesus reminds us that part of love is following through; being faithful; staying the course. Love is not just a feeling but a fixed intention. As St. Paul says in First Corinthians, “love is patient; love is kind; love is not envious or boastful or arrogant or rude… It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things” (1 Cor. 13:4-5, 7). So, if we love him, we will keep his commandments: through our patience, our kindness, and our willingness to follow through.
Remember the promise of the Holy Spirit, in our Gospel today, sent by the Father. If our love is to be trustworthy and true, we will need the gift of the Holy Spirit that comes from God. We don’t have this power within ourselves, but it depends upon God. An old hymn says that the Holy Spirit is “the fire of love” within us. The Holy Spirit kindles that fire in each of our hearts, turning the conditional, contextual, dependent nature of our love into something steadfast and sure. So Jesus asks the Father to send the Holy Spirit to give us every grace required for following through.
Maybe the last thing to say about the “if” that stands at the head of our reading today, is that it stands in contrast to God’s love for us. Our love may be fickle, but God’s love is fixed. There’s no “ifs, ands, or buts” about it. It’s his love for each of us that stands as the prior condition for our love of God. It says in the First Letter of John that “We love because he first loved us” (1 Jo. 4:19). God is reliable in a way we are not. Love fails; friendship fades; we cannot understand our own hearts, much less control them. But God’s love for us cannot fail or fade. It is not conditional, contingent, or dependent on anything we do. God simply is, and his love for us is certain and sure.
Our confirmands this morning are witnessing to this ever present reality of God. They renew their baptismal promises this morning, promising to follow Jesus as his disciples within the context of this community. Each of us has the opportunity to join in these affirmations, remembering our own baptism. The Holy Spirit is present and given, through the prayer of the community and the laying on of hands by the bishop. The fire of God’s love is being kindled within us today. “If you love me you will keep my commandments” (Jo. 14:15). “We love because he first loved us” (1 Jo. 4:19).