GOSPEL, John (15: 12-17)
Gospel of Our Lord Jesus Christ according to Saint John
Jesus the True Vine
12 “This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. 13 No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. 14 You are my friends if you do what I command you. 15 I do not call you servants any longer, because the servant does not know what the master is doing; but I have called you friends, because I have made known to you everything that I have heard from my Father. 16 You did not choose me but I chose you. And I appointed you to go and bear fruit, fruit that will last, so that the Father will give you whatever you ask him in my name. 17 I am giving you these commands so that you may love one another.
The Gospel of the Lord
REFLECTION
This I command you: that you love each other.
Today’s gospel presents us with a new testament to the love of Jesus with his disciples and brotherly love.
“This is my commandment: that you love one another as I have loved you … Jesus says that this is “His” commandment…
Believers are to love one another because he previously loved them. Love yourselves as I have loved you. Evidence of this love? “No one has greater love than the one who gives his life for his friends. You are my friends if you do what I say. ”.
Jesus’ friendship with the disciples is justified because he gives his life for them; because he has revealed all his secrets to them; because simply, He chooses them as friends and Our Father will grant to the friends of Jesus what they ask of him in the name of Christ.
The necessary fruit of this friendship with Jesus is the complete and selfless love shown by his followers to share of themselves with the needy, lonely, depressed, elderly, sick …
God, who is love, also loves man; his love has come down to us through Jesus Christ. Moreover, he is giving himself to us continually by the Holy Spirit, who is the spirit of love. Loving our brothers and sisters with the love that Christ has for us, we return to the Father the love that manifests us in Christ.
Love begins and ends in God, passing through our brethren. To love, in the Christian language, is nothing more than to correspond to God’s love. To share with others the love and friendship that we received freely from Christ.
PRAYER
Thank you, Jesus, for choosing us as your friends.
Teach us to respond to your friendship and your will so that we will bear abundant and lasting fruit.
Ensure that, living in communion with you and with our brethren, we will achieve the happiness of your friendship forever. Amen.