NOTES for Joh 14:10-21
In the Last Conversation with the disciples, the Lord says two symmetrical things that mark the Christian's path. Like mileposts, these words stand on our road. "Whoever has My commandments," says the Lord, "is the one who loves Me." At the same time He says, "The one who loves Me will keep My commandments." If He had said only the first, it would have made Christianity a religion of law, in principle no different from the Old Covenant. If the Lord had said only the second, then our faith would have depended on elusive movements of the heart, which sinful humanity does not have the strength to control.
But precisely the paradoxical combination of these two, essentially opposite, statements places Christ Himself at the center and opens the possibility of salvation and life for everyone and always. Some of us are more inclined to try to fulfill the Lord's word, and through this we can come to know Him and love Him so that this love transforms the whole person. Others, by contrast, come to know Christ through the word, through the Church, or through any number of other paths, and for love of Him they begin in practical life to try to do what they had never even thought about before.
In the natural sciences there is a concept: a system with autocatalysis. These are systems in which two processes accelerate each other so that uncontrolled growth of the system begins. Explosive and chain reactions happen this way, for example. Combustion in active media happens this way... Perhaps what the Lord offers us is also a system with autocatalysis. Love for Jesus, the desire for communion and unity with Him, changes our life and moves us to fulfill His will. The experience of practical love for people, the experience of keeping the commandments, leads to the point where you can no longer live a single day without Jesus. And the result is autocatalytic, "uncontrolled" growth of the Kingdom of Heaven in your heart.