“I have called you friends, because I have told you everything I have heard from my Father.”
Jesus is who he says he is. He says in these few words that he has revealed everything he has heard from the Father, laying this as the foundation for a relationship with him. If Jesus has heard from the living God, and he says that this is the basis of friendship, then it is worth the time to consider how I relate not only to God the Father but also those around me, my friends formed by Jesus’ command to love one another.
God, help me understand that in your relationship with your Son, you shared everything with him that he needed to establish a pattern for others to follow; namely, the commandment to love one another.
For me to spend even five minutes in quiet prayer is to enter dense woods with heavy undergrowth. So many brambles and so much debris to maneuver around, things that trip up my steps, it’s hard to find God in that. I don’t want any consolation, any sixth sense, any goosebumps to affirm that God is near. I want to remember him today and ask him to accompany me all the way through. Be with me, God, and let me care nothing for worldly success.
Today the words of Jesus, as well as the words of the first reading, embrace everybody. I almost resist that command to love, to embrace. Yet, Jesus also says, “You are my friends if you do what I command you.” This is a two-way street: Jesus calls us friends because he manifested truth, mercy itself, and we manifest that in turn by loving one another and doing what he commands. “You are my friends if you do what I command you.” Tethered to this command, there is no wrong step in loving others.