Skip to main content

Love One Another










Love One Another
Jn 15: 9 – 17
Sixth Sunday of Easter

In today’s reading, Jesus tells his disciples that the way to remain in him is by keeping his commandments: “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.” Jesus remained in the Father’s love because he has kept the Father’s commandments. In a similar way, we will remain in Jesus because we keep his commandments.
Then Jesus says something quite new.  He gives them a commandment that is both unique and challenging, saying: “This is my commandment: love one another as I love you.” He commands them to love one another, not just with any kind of love but with the kind of love that he has shown them. The love that they must have for one another should not be any less than the love that Jesus had for them. This is quite an extraordinary commandment. To love in the way Jesus loved them was an initiation to a whole new way of life!
 After having given them this new commandment to love one another, Jesus then qualifies this kind of love. He says: “ No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.” Here, Jesus elaborates the kind of love he was referring to. It was to be a love for one’s friends; a love that was ready to give of itself fully, even to the point of laying one’s own life.
In saying this, Jesus presents to us a new dimension to the love that he was referring to. This love is a love between friends. The bond that this love creates is one of deep friendship; it is so deep that laying one’s own life for the other becomes an ordinary response of the one who loves.
In quite a unique way, Jesus seems to tell us that the context of this love is one of friendship; a friendship so deep that one’s own life becomes known to the other. It is a friendship where one’s aspirations, hopes and fears are mutually shared and understood with one another. This is why Jesus tells his disciples: “I no longer call you slaves, because a slave does not know what his master is doing. I have called you friends.”
In laying down his life for us and in calling us friends, Jesus initiates us into a whole new kind of relationship with him. He is now a friend. He is no longer a master, a Lord or a superior of sorts. He is now a friend. And he is willing to stake his own life for us whom he considers as his friends.
Being a friend, Jesus shares with us our hopes and joys, our sorrows and pain, our dreams, frustrations and disappointments, our life and our love. He is no longer a stranger to our situation. He is a friend, walking with us, willing to give himself totally to us at any cost, even at the cost of his own life. This is the kind of love that Jesus has for us. He now asks us to love one another in a similar way.
To love as Jesus loved is perhaps a tall order especially for us who have our own limited understanding of love. And yet, as Jesus says, loving one another as he loved us is the way to “remain in his love. “ The life of Jesus is one of love. Remaining in him means precisely that – that we are to be filled with this kind of love and that we are to live our lives animated with this kind of love.
In a world that is filled with so much violence and hatred, loving like Jesus becomes a hope to a tired and weary humanity. In a world where divisions and conflicts are a daily occurrence even in our own communities, loving and treating people as friends in the same way that Jesus treated us as his friends becomes a ray of hope and encouragement for a world that continues to suffer the consequences of its own divisions and conflicts.  To love as he has loved us is an invitation to a whole new way of life. And to live as friends of him who lays down his life for us his friends will always be a real joy in our hearts, a joy that only Jesus can complete. Amen.


“ Love is patient; love is kind; love is not envious or boastful or arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice in wrongdoing, but rejoices in the truth. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. “ ( 1 Corinthians 13: 4 -7)

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Jesus The Living Bread

Jesus The Living Bread Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ Jn 6: 51 – 58 Introduction Today is the Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ. Today, we remember Jesus giving himself as food and drink for the life of the world. The Gospel 51  I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Whoever eats of this bread will live forever; and the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.” 52  The Jews then disputed among themselves, saying, “How can this man give us his flesh to eat?” 53  So Jesus said to them, “Very truly, I tell you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. 54  Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood have eternal life, and I will raise them up on the last day; 55  for my flesh is true food and my blood is true drink. 56  Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood abide in me, and I in them. 57  Just a...
3 comments
Read more

The Road to Emmaus

The Road to Emmaus Lk 24: 13 - 35 Third Sunday of Easter Introduction Our reading is about the two disciples who were travelling to Emmaus. As they traveled, Jesus accompanies them and listens to their stories. As the night drew near, they beg Jesus to stay with them. There, while at table, in the breaking of the bread, they recognize Jesus who immediately vanishes from their sight. The Gospel Now on that same day two of them were going to a village called Emmaus, about seven miles from Jerusalem, 14  and talking with each other about all these things that had happened. 15  While they were talking and discussing, Jesus himself came near and went with them, 16  but their eyes were kept from recognizing him. 17  And he said to them, “What are you discussing with each other while you walk along?” They stood still, looking sad. 18  Then one of them, whose name was Cleopas, answered him, “Are you the only stranger in Jer...
Post a Comment
Read more

Parables of the Kingdom

Parables of the Kingdom 16 th Sunday in Ordinary Time Mt 13: 24 – 43 Introduction Today’s reading presents to us three parables. As Jesus said, parables unlock the secrets of the Kingdom that have remained hidden from the world. The Gospel 24  He put before them another parable: “The kingdom of heaven may be compared to someone who sowed good seed in his field; 25  but while everybody was asleep, an enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat, and then went away. 26  So when the plants came up and bore grain, then the weeds appeared as well. 27  And the slaves of the householder came and said to him, ‘Master, did you not sow good seed in your field? Where, then, did these weeds come from?’ 28  He answered, ‘An enemy has done this.’ The slaves said to him, ‘Then do you want us to go and gather them?’ 29  But he replied, ‘No; for in gathering the weeds you would uproot the wheat along with them. 30  Let both of the...
2 comments
Read more