No greater love!

John 15:9-17

I have loved you just as My Father has loved Me. Stay in My love. If you obey My teaching, you will live in My love. In this way, I have obeyed My Father’s teaching and live in His love. I have told you these things so My joy may be in you and your joy may be full. “This is what I tell you to do: Love each other just as I have loved you. No one can have greater love than to give his life for his friends. You are My friends if you do what I tell you. I do not call you servants that I own anymore. A servant does not know what his owner is doing. I call you friends, because I have told you everything I have heard from My Father. You have not chosen Me, I have chosen you. I have set you apart for the work of bringing in fruit. Your fruit should last. And whatever you ask the Father in My name, He will give it to you. “This is what I tell you to do: Love each other.

Food for thought!

I want to invite you to imagine your end; I mean your death. Try to imagine yourself dying. In your imagination, you are sure the hour of your death is come. See yourself calling all your dear ones to gather around you (your spouse, your children, whole family, your mother, friend...?). You know you have a few hours to live. What would you tell them?

This is what Jesus is doing in today's Gospel reading. As soon as Judas left the Last Supper, Jesus began to address the eleven disciples, using the words of today's gospel. Judas has left the group, and will soon come back accompanied by the soldiers who will arrest Jesus. Before Judas comes back, Jesus said, «Just as the Father has loved me, I have loved you.»

 

Back to our imagination. What are the words, the message, that you would like to say to your dear ones as you lay dying? Those words are sacred; those words are genuine. That moment is a moment of truth because no one says lies as they lay dying. You can't deceive on your death-bed. What you say is said straight from the heart. This is what Jesus is doing in today's gospel reading. By the way, on the 9th of May we shall celebrate the Ascencion of the Lord. So in a way, this is a farewell of Jesus. This is a moment of great revelations; this is the moment we say it all; the moment we reveal our secrets.

I have loved you! Jesus confesses publicly. No one can have greater love than to give his life for his friends. Jesus continues his confession. Jesus is saying that the best gift of love is love itself; the most godly thing we can give, is love. This is what Jesus has done: «I've loved you the way my Father has loved me.»

The problem with many people is this, they have never been loved; they have never experienced being loved. And if you have never been loved, you cannot love. Why? Because love, before it is given, it is received. And no one can give what they don't have. This is why Jesus says, «I've loved you the way my Father has loved me; love one another as I have loved you»

Do you think you are loved? And I don't mean ONLY being loved by someone; I mean ALSO being loved by God. Do you think the Lord loves you? Can you cite anything in your life as proof of the love of God for you? Do you think God loves you? Do you know that God loves? Did you know that you are a friend of Jesus?

Jesus calls you and me his friends. He tells us that he does not call us servants any more; he calls us friends. The greatest men of the Old Testament were referred to as «servants». It was an honour to be called a servant of God; it was a title of the highest honour. Moses was called a servant of God (Deut.34:5); so was Joshua (Josh.24:29); so was David (Ps.89:20). It is a title which Paul counted it an honour to use (Tit.1:1); and so did James (Jas.1:1). In other words, the greatest men in the past had been proud to be called the servants of God. And Jesus says: «I have something greater for you yet, you are no longer servants; you are friends.» Christ offers us an intimacy which not even the greatest men of old knew before he came into the world.

Jesus calls us his partners. A servant is never partner of his master. His master never opens his mind to him. But Jesus says: «You are not my servants; you are my partners. I have told you everything; I have told you what I am trying to do, and why I am trying to do it. I have told you everything which God told me.» Jesus has shared his mind with us, and opened his heart to us.

Jesus calls us his ambassadors. «I have chosen you,» he says, «to send you out.» He did not choose us to live a life retired from the world, but to represent him in the world; Jesus called you and me to make him present wherever we are. Jesus called us, first to come in to him, and then to go out in his name into all the world. Yes, we are called first in order to go for Jesus into real world and witness for Jesus. "I have set you apart for the work of bringing in fruit. Your fruit should last."