Gospel: John 15:12-17
Jesus said to his disciples:
“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 HC – Angela B’s Intentions OL – Patrick Marley RIP
Reflection:
Contrary to a popular song in the 90s, our God is not someone watching us from a distance. The proof is that Jesus calls us His friends. Being our friend, He desires to be with us and reveal to us “everything I have heard from my Father.” No one would reveal their lives to someone else, unless they are friends. But Jesus is different. And because He is our friend, it follows that we should treat each other as friends, that we “love one another”. St Paul wrote: “Be friends with one another, and kind, forgiving each other as readily as God forgave you in Christ.” (Ephesians 4:32).
Kimberly Hahn, a prominent Catholic speaker and author, commented that “God did not create man and woman because He was lonely. Rather, as an expression of His life-giving love, the Triune God created us for the joy of creating us and making us life-giving lovers like Himself. Man and woman were made to reflect God’s inner life and love.”
- How do you live your friendship with Jesus?
- How does Jesus reveal to you everything He heard from His Father?
- How do you reflect God’s inner life and love to a world that needs these?
Lord Jesus, thank You for Your Word today. May every good works we do be rooted in friendship with You so that we may “go and bear fruit that will remain”. Amen.
(Pietro)
