A reading from the holy Gospel according to John
Jesus said to the disciples: “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.”
Jesus tells the disciples in today’s Gospel that he calls them friends. In doing that, at the same time he expresses his oneness with the Father in doing his will: “because I have told you everything I have heard from my Father.” As the Son of God, Jesus takes initiative of loving others to extremes, even to the point of laying down his life for them. As the beloved Son, Jesus tells the disciples, “It was not you who chose me, but I chose you.” To receive that love, Jesus appoints the disciples to go and bear fruit that remains. Rather than leave them wondering how they are to do this with their human limitations, Jesus commands them to love one another. In return, whatever they ask of the Father in Jesus’ name, he will give them.
God, help me understand the words Jesus spoke to his disciples: “You are my friends if you do what I command you.” Such a command might seem contradictory to free will, yet to live in the love of God and to do his will is to live in truth. And what is the command that Jesus gives? It is the same by which he lived, died, and rose from the dead: loving your own to reconcile them to you. Help me, God, know and do your will as your Son does, in perfect obedience to his friendship and to his command to love one another.
Lord, thank you for the gift of your friendship. Grant me the grace to remain in you today by doing your will and asking you for what I need.
Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit, as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.