Daily Reflection – 5/14/2020
Sacred Scripture
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 may 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. (John 15:9-17)
Reflection
We live in a world of competing values as well as those calling for our allegiance. At tines, its possible to lose our focus as followers of Christ. Yet, Jesus Christ speaks to us again and again about our relationship with Him and, in that relationship, we learn about His love and its implications for our life.
It starts with, continues through, and ends with His love. We are reminded that we were created in love so that we could become bearers of that love. God created us to love, He created us so that we might all love each other with only one heart, one soul. God created us so that, one day, we might receive within us his Son Jesus, and, through Him, all the Love he is in person as God, the Son and Image of the Father. “As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you.”
Our baptism is the first recalling of that love, promised to us in care and protection for this life and into eternity. It joins us to the community of love received and love shared. But it is also a call to follow in that love . . . to take on the characteristics of care, love and compassion for others. That is what Jesus did over and over again. That is what we are called to do over and over again.
Why? Because you and I are called to bear fruit. You and I are called to take part in making the world a better place for all to live. Especially during this period of pandemic, the need for us to follow through on that call is paramount.
But there is still another even more important dimension. It lies within the gift that Jesus offers. Jesus is inviting us into a relationship of love between the Father and Jesus himself. Jesus wants that for us. Jesus offers that love between the Father and himself to us, “Remain in my love.”
How do we remain in the love of Jesus? Just as we show love to another by spending quality time with that person, we can receive the love of Jesus by spending quality time with Jesus. If we don’t spend quality time with Jesus, how can Jesus spend quality time with us to give us his love? But through prayer and studying His word in scripture, something happens gradually. As we pour out our thoughts to God and think about the words of the Lord to us in the Bible, we gradually soak up the words of God to us and they become part of us. We discover that the words of the Bible are a love letter from God to us. As we spend quality time with Jesus to allow him spend quality time with us, we get new insights into life and into our lives and the world around us. We also become happier and that time in prayer with Jesus every day is the happiest part of the day.
Jesus has chosen you and me to be His bearers of the message. It is a good and joyful thing. We can be that if we allow ourselves to be open to the power of His call. God is calling you and me to do to make a positive change in the world around you? We have to respond because the Lord says, “You did not choose me, but I chose you.”
Prayer of The Day
“Lord Jesus, fill me with your Holy Spirit and make me fruitful in your love, mercy, kindness, and compassion. May there be nothing in my life which keeps me from your love and joy.”
Daily Note
While the grace of God given as a gift in Jesus is first, our reception of that gift is as important if the act of giving is to be completed. We show that we have received this gift when we, like Jesus, also dare to reach out in love. When we speak an enhancing word, perform a loving action, behave a little less selfishly, and a little more selflessly, then the gift is given and received, again and again.
