GOSPEL POWER |MAY 9, 2021 SUNDAY | 6th Sunday of Easter

Gospel: Jn 15: 9 - 17

Jesus said to his disciples: “As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you; abide in my love. If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in his love. I have said these things to you so that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be complete. “This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved 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 do not call you servants any longer, because the servant does not know what the master is doing; but I have called you friends,

because I have made known to you everything that I have heard from my Father. You did not choose me but I chose you. And I appointed you to go and bear fruit, fruit that will last, so that the Father will give you whatever you ask him in my name. I am giving you these commands so that you may love one another.”

REFLECTION

Jesus envisions a nonstop circulation of love, originating  from the Father, mediated by the Son, and flowing  unhampered among his disciples and all believers of all  times. Such an unbroken linkage of love is possible only through  obedience to his love-commandment. True loving cannot be other  than a conscious decision put into action. Jesus knows that human  love is imperfect and conditional. Unless there is a motivation from  outside the self, it would be easy for human beings to abandon the  cause in the face of hatred and threat to personal security. Thus, Jesus  issues the love-commandment, accompanies it with the promise of  complete joy, then takes the final step that will equip us to obey —  he lays down his life as a sacrifice of loving obedience. Now we are  empowered to love with the very love of God.

PRAYER

Lord Jesus, grant that our lives may be unblocked channels that allow  your love to circulate freely in the world. Amen.