Gospel: John 15:9-17
Jesus said to his disciples:
“As the Father loves me, so I also love you.
Remain in my love.
If you keep my commandments, you will remain in my love,
just as I have kept my Father’s commandments
and remain in his love.
I have told you this so that my joy might be in you
and your joy might be complete.
This is my commandment: love one another as I love you.
No one has greater love than this,
to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.
You are my friends if you do what I command you.
I no longer call you slaves,
because a slave does not know what his master is doing.
I have called you friends,
because I have told you everything I have heard from my Father.
It was not you who chose me, but I who chose you
and appointed you to go and bear fruit that will remain,
so that whatever you ask the Father in my name he may give you.
This I command you: love one another.”
The Gospel of the Lord.
The Mass intention is for Holy Souls.
Reflection:
In the First Reading today (Acts 1:15-17, 20-26), St Peter led the Church to elect someone who will take the place of Judas Iscariot. St Peter’s criteria was that they choose “one of the men who accompanied us the whole time the Lord Jesus came and went among us, beginning from the baptism of John until the day on which he was taken up from us, become with us a witness to his resurrection.” Matthias was elected. According to Clement of Alexandria, St Matthias was one of the seventy-two disciples that Jesus sent out (Luke 10:1). It has been said that he spent his apostolic ministry in Judea, Ethiopia, and Jerusalem where he was martyred.
St Matthias’ name literally means “gift of the Lord”. Indeed, he was given by the Lord to the Church to be counted among the apostles. As such, he was called to “love one another as I love you” and to “bear fruit that will remain”. We may not have the same name as Matthias. We may not have the privilege of being part of the Church hierarchy. Regardless, we too are called to be a gift of the Lord who is Love (1 John 4:7). We are called to a community of love. “Wherever there are people in need of food and drink, clothing, housing, medicine, employment, education; wherever men lack the facilities necessary for living a truly human life or are afflicted with serious distress or illness or suffer exile or imprisonment, there Christian charity should seek them out and find them, console them with great solicitude, and help them with appropriate relief.” (Apostolicam Actuositatem).
- How can you become a gift of the Lord to others today?
- How can you bear fruit that will remain?
- St Matthias is known to be the patron saint of people who need hope and perseverance as they struggle with any kind of addiction. What pleasures would you like to surrender to God so that He could use you for His glory?
Lord Jesus, thank You for Your Word today. Through the prayers and example of St Matthias, draw us closer to You so that we too may mirror Your love and respond to the demands of that love. We entrust to You those who suffer from various kinds of addiction. Help them realise that it is only in You where their joy would be complete. Amen.
(Pietro)
