+ It may almost sound like a campaign kind of logic: Jesus
in the gospel passage could be observed to be building himself up when he says there is no greater love than to lay down
one’s life for one’s friends – and you can see I have done that, so am I
not wonderful? – will you not elect me to public office? Well, the truth of the
matter is that he is more than wonderful,
because he is not just “some man” who “laid down his life for his pals.” The
real story here is that he is the “God-Man,” who nevertheless laid down his
life in order to save his enemies (not
his friends). The whole reason Jesus came to us at all is because our
relationship of friendship with God was so shattered and so broken that it
could never be put back together again by anyone living on this planet. So he
came from “beyond the stars” to save us, forgive us our sins and throw open the
gates of heaven so we could enter and rejoice with him and all others who want
to be there – forever!
And so now, it is at this
point, because Jesus did what he came to do: prove his love by dying on the Cross
and rising again: that he can add just one more thing – to “seal the deal”: he tells us how to retain his salvific
actions in our own histories and lives: remain
in my love, remain in this friendship, love one another – self-sacrificially –
like I did do for you, and even if needs be, in some rare cases to the point of
death – you must do everything that I
have commanded you to do out of love for me.
And
these things are not burdensome, there are not hundreds of commands written in
some lofty code as in the days of Moses: what I give you are the Beatitudes, I give you my sayings; I give you my parables; I give you my sermons. The message hidden in all these
manifestations is actually very simple: GOD
IS LOVE! That is what I came to tell you! And – since your baptism – you live in God – therefore you live in love – so keep that love alive –
experience the great dynamic energy that it engenders – and you will be
saturated in joy and peace and hope; and with St. Paul, you will be able to go
out and bring this message to all nations
– beginning with the people I place right around you.
It was an exciting
evangelistic undertaking that would be underway in a couple of weeks’ time with
the arrival of the Spirit on Pentecost – and arming his beloved apostles with
faith and love – the world would never be the same!
With gratitude in our hearts,
O Lord, we thank you for all you have done – in loving us so very, very much –
and we recommit ourselves today to surrendering
ourselves entirely to your will and care: you are God, you can never let us
go astray if we cling to you, adore you and glorify you with all our hearts!
Sing
joyfully to the Lord, all you lands; break into song; sing praise.
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