From: John 15:12-17
The Law of Love
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Commentary:
12-15. Jesus insists on the “new commandment”, which He Himself keeps by
giving His life for us. See note on John 13:34-35.
Christ’s friendship with the Christian, which our Lord expresses in a very special
way in this passage, is something very evident in St. Escriva’s preaching: “The
life of the Christian who decides to behave in accordance with the greatness of
his vocation is so to speak a prolonged echo of those words of our Lord, ‘No lon-
ger do I call you My servants; a servant is one who does not understand what
his master is about, whereas I have made known to you all that My Father has
told Me; and so I have called you My friends’ (John 15:15). When we decide to
be docile and follow the will of God, hitherto unimagined horizons open up before
us.... ‘There is nothing better than to recognize that Love has made us slaves of
God. From the moment we recognize this we cease being slaves and become
friends, sons’ (St. J. Escriva, “Friends of God”, 35).
“Sons of God, friends of God.... Jesus is truly God and truly Man, He is our Bro-
ther and our Friend. If we make the effort to get to know Him well ‘we will share
in the joy of being God’s friends’ [”ibid.”, 300]. If we do all we can to keep Him
company, from Bethlehem to Calvary, sharing His joys and sufferings, we will
become worthy of entering into loving conversation with Him. As the Liturgy of
the Hours sings, “calicem Domini biberunt, et amici Dei facti sunt” (they drank
the chalice of the Lord and so became friends of God).
“Being His children and His friends are two inseparable realities for those who
love God. We go to Him as children, carrying on a trusting dialogue that should
fill the whole of our lives; and we go to Him as friends.... In the same way our
divine sonship urges us to translate the overflow of our interior life into apostolic
activity, just as our friendship with God leads us to place ourselves at ‘the ser-
vice of all men. We are called to use the gifts God has given us as instruments
to help others discover Christ’ [”ibid.”, 258]” (Monsignor A. del Portillo in his pre-
face to St. J. Escriva’s, “Friends of God”).
16. There are three ideas contained in these words of our Lord. One, that the
calling which the Apostles received and which every Christian also receives does
not originate in the individual’s good desires but in Christ’s free choice. It was not
the Apostles who chose the Lord as Master, in the way someone would go about
choosing a rabbi; it was Christ who chose them. The second idea is that the A-
postles’ mission and the mission of every Christian is to follow Christ, to seek ho-
liness and to contribute to the spread of the Gospel. The third teaching refers to
the effectiveness of prayer done in the name of Christ; which is why the Church
usually ends the prayers of the liturgy with the invocation “Through Jesus Christ
our Lord...”.
The three ideas are all interconnected: prayer is necessary if the Christian life is
to prove fruitful, for it is God who gives the growth (cf. 1 Corinthians 3:7); and the
obligation to seek holiness and to be apostolic derives from the fact that it is
Christ Himself who has given us this mission. “Bear in mind, son, that you are
not just a soul who has joined other souls in order to do a good thing.
“That is a lot, but it’s still little. You are the Apostle who is carrying out an impe-
rative command from Christ” (St. J. Escriva, “The Way”, 942).
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Source: “The Navarre Bible: Text and Commentaries”. Biblical text from the
Revised Standard Version and New Vulgate. Commentaries by members of
the Faculty of Theology, University of Navarre, Spain.
Published by Four Courts Press, Kill Lane, Blackrock, Co. Dublin, Ireland, and
by Scepter Publishers in the United States.
Liturgical Colour: White.
First reading | Acts 15:22-31 © |
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Responsorial Psalm |
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Psalm 56(57):8-12 © |
Gospel Acclamation | Jn10:27 |
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Or | Jn15:15 |
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Gospel | John 15:12-17 © |
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