Let Yourself Be Loved

Chosen to Be Witnesses

He is risen.

Everything we believe rests on that reality.

In the first reading, Peter speaks with certainty:

God raised Jesus on the third day and allowed Him to be seen by “the witnesses chosen by God in advance.”

Those witnesses became the foundation of the Church’s proclamation of the Resurrection.

And yet, when we read the Gospels, we might wonder:

Why did Jesus choose these guys?

The apostles could be slow to understand.

They argued about who was greatest.

They struggled with pride, ambition, fear, and selfishness.

They misunderstood Jesus.

They abandoned Him.

And still, these were the men He chose to become witnesses to the risen Christ.

Perhaps part of the answer is that a Christian witness is not simply someone who loves Jesus.

A witness is someone who has allowed himself to be loved by Jesus.

What the Resurrection Revealed

Before the Resurrection, the apostles spent plenty of time competing.

Who was the greatest?

Who would be first?

Who was closest to Jesus?

But after encountering the risen Christ, something begins to change.

Instead of constantly trying to prove themselves, we begin to see them helping and supporting one another.

In today’s Gospel, Peter and the beloved disciple run together toward the tomb.

The beloved disciple arrives first.

But he waits.

Peter enters.

Then the other disciple follows.

There is something different here.

The light of the Resurrection has begun to shine through all those old questions about status and importance.

Standing before the risen Christ, they are beginning to understand how little their competition matters.

The Resurrection exposes our selfish pretenses.

And that realization could crush us.

We could hide.

We could pretend we understood everything all along.

We could try even harder to prove that we are good, important, successful, or worthy.

Or we could simply let ourselves be loved.

The Beloved Disciple

John’s Gospel never gives this disciple a name.

He is simply “the disciple whom Jesus loved.”

For years, we might assume he ran faster to the tomb because he loved Jesus more.

Perhaps.

But there is another possibility.

Maybe he ran because he had allowed Jesus to love him more deeply.

That is how the Gospel identifies him.

Not as the smartest disciple.

Not the most important.

Not even the one who loved Jesus best.

The beloved disciple.

He understands himself first through the love he has received.

And perhaps that is why, standing before the empty tomb, he sees and believes.

Love has prepared him for faith.

The First Letter of John puts it beautifully: love begins not with our love for God, but with His love for us.

Christianity begins with being loved.

Mary and the Love That Breaks Through

Mary Magdalene also comes to the tomb carrying enormous grief.

She loves Jesus deeply.

And because she believes she has lost Him, she weeps.

Her grief is so overwhelming that at first she cannot recognize the risen Christ.

Until He calls her by name.

“Mary.”

His love breaks through.

Her hope had been limited by what she thought was possible in this world.

Jesus shows her a love that reaches beyond death.

The risen Christ does that for all of us.

He meets us behind the defenses we build.

Behind the need to prove ourselves.

Behind our failures, pride, fear, and grief.

And He loves us there.

Being the Beloved

Could someone describe you as a beloved disciple?

More importantly, could you describe yourself that way?

For many of us, that can be harder than it sounds.

We are comfortable trying to be the good girl.

The good mom.

The dependable person.

The one who has everything handled.

We can spend our lives trying to prove that we are worthy of love.

Easter announces something completely different.

We do not earn Christ’s love by becoming impressive enough.

We receive it.

Through Baptism, God’s love has been poured into our hearts. We have been raised with Christ, as St. Paul tells us today, and given a new identity.

Beloved.

The love of the risen Christ can wash away all the selfish pretenses we use to protect ourselves.

And when nothing stands between us and His love, that love begins to change how we live.

That is when we become witnesses.

For Moms

Motherhood gives us endless opportunities to measure ourselves.

Was I patient enough?

Did I handle that correctly?

Am I doing enough?

Is someone else doing this better?

We can build an entire identity around trying to prove that we are a good mother, a good wife, a good Catholic, a good person.

Easter invites us to put all of that down.

Before you are the one who takes care of everyone else, you are someone Christ loves.

Before you accomplish anything today, He loves you.

Before you fix what you did wrong yesterday, He loves you.

Our children need mothers who love Jesus.

But perhaps even more, they need to see mothers who know how to receive His love.

Because when we know ourselves as beloved, we have much less to prove.

And much more love to give.

Family Practice

At bedtime this week, make the Sign of the Cross on each child’s forehead and say simply:

“You are loved by God.”

Then let them do the same for you.

Let Easter begin with remembering who you are: beloved sons and daughters of the risen Christ.