(Gv 14,23) R. Hallelujah, hallelujah. If you love me, you will keep my word, says the Lord, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him. R. Hallelujah.
No one has a greater love than this: to give one's life for one's friends. + From the Gospel according to John 15:9-17 At that time, Jesus said to his disciples: "As the Father loved me, I also loved you. Stay in my love. If you keep my commandments, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father's commandments, and I remain in his love. I have said these things to you so that my joy may be in you and your joy may be full. This is my commandment: that you love one another as I have loved you. No one has a greater love than this: to give one's life for one's friends. You are my friends, if you do what I command you. I no longer call you servants, because the servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, because everything I have heard from my Father I have made known to you. You have not chosen me, but I have chosen you and have appointed you to go and bear fruit. And let your fruit remain; that all that ye may ask of the Father in my name may I grant you. I command you to love one another. Word of the Lord.
FAUSTI: We are dizzyingly taken in the Love of the Father and the Son, participants in the Trinitarian Life. We are called to dwell in His Love for us, which is the same as the Father has for Him and for us. This is our true home, where we can live and rediscover our identity as children and brothers. The only love between Father and Son also circulates in us and makes us dwell in the Son as the Son in the Father. "You will dwell in My Love" Jesus makes it clear that, in order to dwell in His Love, it is necessary not only that His Words dwell in us, but that we observe His commands. These commands, which make us walk as He did, are actually one command. Just as His Word is one and multiple, so are His commandments multiple and one: it is the command of Love that moves and orders all our actions. Whoever does not love, does not dwell in Love. We can love because He first loved us; we can observe His command because He observed the command of the Father, who sent Him to witness His Love for us. Jesus is the first man to dwell in the Love of the Father; He is the Son who fulfils His will because He loves His brothers and sisters. We too dwell in Him, in His Love, if we love each other as He loved us. To dwell in His Love, we must observe His commands, which are reduced to one: fraternal love, which is halved until it is reciprocal. The Love that Jesus showed to us on the Cross is the source of our love for others: one can love if and how he is loved. Just as Jesus dwelt in the Love of the Father, loving his brothers and sisters, so we dwell in His Love of the Son, doing the same. The command to love God becomes the command to love man. In fact, love for God and love for man are a single reality, just as the love of the Son for the Father and for us is the same love of the Father for the Son and for us. Love is One; it is God. Jesus is always and everywhere our friend. In turn, we too are his friends, if we respond to his love, doing as he did. I no longer call you servants": "Servant" is an honorary title. Servants of the king are the greats of the court, servants of God are the prophets and the righteous. The servant does the will of his Lord, but with a relationship of subjection, not equality. Jesus does not want servants, but friends, equal to Him. In fact, we are not subjects of the Law, but we live in the freedom of beloved children. If Moses gave us the Law, from the fullness of the Word become flesh, we receive grace upon grace; the grace of the truth of the Son, who puts us in communion with the Father. The origin of the choice is His gratuitous love for us. "The Lord has bound himself to you and chosen you, not because you are more numerous than all other peoples - you are in fact the smallest of all peoples - but because the Lord loves you" (Dt 7:7). We were chosen not to be servants but friends of God, united to Him in the one love. Our vocation is sure, because it is "His", it is He who chooses us and calls us. And His choice is irrevocable, proof of betrayal and denial. Here we do not speak of the choice of the twelve and their sending on mission, but of the present and future disciples, who must go where Jesus himself went: towards the fullness of the Father's love, loving their brothers and sisters to the point of placing their lives at their service. This is the much fruit that glorifies the Father. It is that "much fruit" that the Son himself will bear when, giving his life for his brothers and sisters, will draw everyone to itself. This is the fundamental mission of the Church, the salt of the earth, the light of the world, (Mt 5:13...) and the perfume of Christ for all (2 Cor 2:14). Seeing how the disciples live, they all find what they desire in the depths of their hearts: the beauty of Love that saves the world.
(Gv 14,23)
RispondiEliminaR. Hallelujah, hallelujah.
If you love me, you will keep my word, says the Lord,
and my Father will love him, and we will come to him.
R. Hallelujah.
No one has a greater love than this: to give one's life for one's friends.
+ From the Gospel according to John 15:9-17
At that time, Jesus said to his disciples: "As the Father loved me, I also loved you. Stay in my love. If you keep my commandments, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father's commandments, and I remain in his love. I have said these things to you so that my joy may be in you and your joy may be full. This is my commandment: that you love one another as I have loved you. No one has a greater love than this: to give one's life for one's friends. You are my friends, if you do what I command you. I no longer call you servants, because the servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, because everything I have heard from my Father I have made known to you. You have not chosen me, but I have chosen you and have appointed you to go and bear fruit.
And let your fruit remain; that all that ye may ask of the Father in my name may I grant you. I command you to love one another.
Word of the Lord.
FAUSTI: We are dizzyingly taken in the Love of the Father and the Son, participants in the Trinitarian Life.
RispondiEliminaWe are called to dwell in His Love for us,
which is the same as the Father has for Him and for us.
This is our true home, where we can live and rediscover our identity as children and brothers.
The only love between Father and Son also circulates in us and makes us dwell in the Son as the Son in the Father.
"You will dwell in My Love" Jesus makes it clear that, in order to dwell in His Love, it is necessary not only that His Words dwell in us, but that we observe His commands.
These commands, which make us walk as He did, are actually one command.
Just as His Word is one and multiple, so are His commandments multiple and one: it is the command of Love that moves and orders all our actions.
Whoever does not love, does not dwell in Love. We can love because He first loved us; we can observe His command because He observed the command of the Father, who sent Him to witness His Love for us.
Jesus is the first man to dwell in the Love of the Father; He is the Son who fulfils His will because He loves His brothers and sisters.
We too dwell in Him, in His Love, if we love each other as He loved us.
To dwell in His Love, we must observe His commands, which are reduced to
one: fraternal love, which is halved until it is reciprocal.
The Love that Jesus showed to us on the Cross is the source of our love for others: one can love if and how he is loved.
Just as Jesus dwelt in the Love of the Father, loving his brothers and sisters, so we dwell in His Love of the Son, doing the same.
The command to love God becomes the command to love man. In fact, love for God and love for man are a single reality, just as the love of the Son for the Father and for us is the same love of the Father for the Son and for us.
Love is One; it is God. Jesus is always and everywhere our friend.
In turn, we too are his friends, if we respond to his love, doing as he did. I no longer call you servants": "Servant" is an honorary title.
Servants of the king are the greats of the court, servants of God are the prophets and the righteous.
The servant does the will of his Lord, but with a relationship of subjection, not equality.
Jesus does not want servants, but friends, equal to Him.
In fact, we are not subjects of the Law, but we live in the freedom of beloved children.
If Moses gave us the Law, from the fullness of the Word become flesh, we receive grace upon grace;
the grace of the truth of the Son, who puts us in communion with the Father. The origin of the choice is His gratuitous love for us. "The Lord has bound himself to you and chosen you, not because you are more numerous than all other peoples - you are in fact the smallest of all peoples - but because the Lord loves you" (Dt 7:7).
We were chosen not to be servants but friends of God, united to Him in the one love.
Our vocation is sure, because it is "His", it is He who chooses us and calls us.
And His choice is irrevocable, proof of betrayal and denial.
Here we do not speak of the choice of the twelve and their sending on mission, but of the present and future disciples, who must go where Jesus himself went: towards the fullness of the Father's love, loving their brothers and sisters to the point of placing their lives at their service.
This is the much fruit that glorifies the Father.
It is that "much fruit" that the Son himself will bear when, giving his life for his brothers and sisters,
will draw everyone to itself.
This is the fundamental mission of the Church, the salt of the earth, the light of the world, (Mt 5:13...)
and the perfume of Christ for all (2 Cor 2:14).
Seeing how the disciples live, they all find what they desire in the depths of their hearts:
the beauty of Love that saves the world.