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Gospel Reading for May 5, 2024 – John 15: 9-17
HEIGHT OF PERFECTION
Jesus said to his disciples: “As the Father loves me, so I also love you. Remain in my love. 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.
“I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and your joy might be complete. 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.”
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Jesus calls us his friends because he loves us and he laid down his life for us to be saved from eternal damnation. He tells us to love one another as he loves us. St. Paul’s letter to the Corinthians describes love fully well – “Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.” (1 Corinthians 13: 4-7). When we think of people we call our “friends,” can we say we love them enough to lay down our life for them? To be able to truly love is to reach the HEIGHT OF PERFECTION as a human being.
Lord, teach us to love others the way you love us!
