GOSPEL, John (15: 9-17)

Gospel of Our Lord Jesus Christ according to Saint John

 

Jesus the True Vine

⁹ As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you; abide in my love. ¹⁰ If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in his love. ¹¹ I have said these things to you so that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be complete.

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

The theme of this Sunday’s gospel is Christian love, in direct relation to the obedience and joy brought by Christ:

“I have said these things to you; so that my joy may be in you and your joy be complete … You are my friends, if you do what I command you”.

Obedience to this precept creates a radiant joy in the believer who comes to understand the need that comes from within, of our condition as loved and born of God by the Spirit of Jesus.

The commandment of love, which Jesus Christ gives us, is joyful news based on the affection and sincerity of his teachings: “Love yourselves as I have loved you” in the model “As the Father loved me, I also loved you”

 When Jesus says: “as I loved you” he is alluding to the surrender of his life, the ultimate proof and guarantee of love, because “no one has more love than the one who gives his life for his friends”: Specifically to those in need, the lonely, abused, persecuted, in sorrow, alone,  elderly, sick, imprisoned …

The one and triune God of our faith is a circle of love. As Gods’ unmistakable proof of His love of man, He has shown this by the love that has come down to us from Jesus Christ.

God revealed himself as love by giving us his Son, Jesus, as our Saviour. The fundamental law of the Church, the presence of Jesus on earth, is the law of love; having love for one another.

Christians manifest the very life of God within themselves, the very same moment that they communicate it.

 

PRAYER

Thank you Lord Jesus because you freely accepted us as your friends, who know your secrets and keep your commandments with joy, overcoming the master / servant relationship. Amen