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 might 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.”
REFLECTION
"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."
Have you ever thought that this is a really hard commandment? There are some people out there that really can irritate and make a persons own skin very uncomfortable. How do you love someone you do not like?
As I meditated on this reflection, I thought about Jesus dying on the Cross. He thought about me while he was dying. I have done some things that literally made him uncomfortable in his skin. Yet, he still loves me, and he still loves you. No matter what we have done. However, it is not unconditional.
There is a condition to His 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.”
When we break one of the Father's Commandments, we commit a sin. We do need to confess our sins. We do need reconciliation in order to continue being in the love of Jesus Christ. This is how we can love one another. We need Jesus.
Please pray for our priests to remain in the love of Christ so that they will be strengthened by Him. Here is the link to the PAPA Prayer for Priests.
