7th of May

Gospel text

(Jn 15,12-17): 

Jesus said to his disciples, «This is my commandment: love one another as I have loved you. There is no greater love than this, to give one's life for one's friends; and you are my friends if you do what I command you. I shall not call you servants any more, because servants do not know what their master is about. Instead I have called you friends, since I have made known to you everything I learned from my Father. You did not choose me; it was I who chose you and sent you to go and bear fruit, fruit that will last. And everything you ask the Father in my name, he will give you. This is my command, that you love one another».

The Application

Jesus gives us a new identity so that others may discover what is the essence and the finality of our life. For Christians, everything begins with love and ends in love. Love one another' is not a new commandment, for it has existed since the Old Testament. However, the newness is found in Jesus Christ, 'as I have loved you'.

What are the proofs that Jesus presents to us as a perfection of his love for us? Firstly, he tells us that he has told us everything and shared everything, including his closeness. He holds nothing back. He would have us know him as he is.  He has revealed not only his identity, but he has also made us discover his Father in him.

He accepted us as we are, chose us and raised us from ordinary children, to children of God, children worthy of divine love. Third, He gave His life for us, for the salvation of the world. Now He desires us to bear the fruits, the fruits God intended.

Action of the day : Be faithful and bear fruit.

«This is my commandment: love one another as I have loved you»

Fr. Carles ELÍAS i Cao

(Barcelona, Spain)

Today, our Lord exhorts us to fraternal love: «Love one another as I have loved you» (Jn 15:12), that is to say, as you have seen me loving and you will still see me love. Jesus speaks to you as a friend, for He has told you that his Father calls you, that He wants you to become an apostle, and that He expects you to bear fruit, a fruit that is manifested through love. St. John Crysostom affirms: «If love would be spread all over, an infinite goodness would be born out of it».

To give love amounts to create life. Spouses know it well, for they love each other, they make a reciprocal donation and they assume the responsibility of becoming parents by accepting, at the same time, the abnegation and self-denial of their time and their own being in favour of those they must take care of, must protect, must educate and, in short, must form as persons. Missionaries know it too, when they offer their life for the Gospel, with the same Christian spirit of sacrifice and abnegation. And friars, priests and bishops also know it, and with them all of Jesus' disciples who commit themselves to our Savior.

A little before, Jesus already told you which the requirements for love and bearing fruit are: «Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit» (Jn 12:24). Jesus invites you to lose your life, to deliver it to Him without any fear, to willingly die, if need be, to be able to love your brother with Christ's love, with supernatural love. Jesus invites you to attain an operative, benefactor and concrete love; this is how apostle James understood it when he said: «Suppose a brother or sister is without clothes and daily food. If one of you says to him, ‘Go, I wish you well; keep warm and well fed’, but does nothing about his physical needs, what good is it? In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead» (2:15-17).