Gospel JN 15:12-17
Jesus said to his disciples:
“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.”
“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.”
Love one another. I've heard this before. But how? By laying down one's life for one's friends. That's asking a lot. I think the closest I've come to this is by loving my wife - expressed through the sacrament of marriage. I gave up my life as a single person and vowed to stay faithful to her in sickness and in health, in good and bad. I've also laid down my life for my sons. I've had fleeting moments of how my life with Marie would be different if we didn't have kids - the freedom, fewer complications. But when I reflect on the joy that they have brought me - to see God shape their lives right before my eyes, there's no way I would trade what I have now for a childless life. Marie and the boys - we're all in this together. Iron sharpens iron.
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