From the responsorial psalm: “He raises up the lowly from the dust; from the dunghill he lifts up the poor To seat them with princes, with the princes of his own people. The Lord will give him a seat with the leaders of his people.”
A reading from the holy Gospel according to John (Jn 15:9-17)
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.”
The love of the Father is the same love Jesus commands the disciples to remain in. By keeping the Father’s commandments, Jesus remains in his love. Jesus tells this to the disciples so that their joy might be in them and be complete. No one who is commanded to feel joy experiences it; love isn’t love if it holds one captive. How is it Jesus can say, “If you keep my commandments, you will remain in my love?” What seems a mystery is integral to how God made us. As Saint Augustine says, “You have made us for yourself, O Lord, and our heart is restless until it rests in you.” Jesus’ commandment to love one another as he loves us is his invitation to rest our hearts in his.
God, free me today in realizing that in doing as you commanded, Jesus was able to say, “It was not you who chose me, but I who chose you. . . . This I command you: love one another.” Chosen by Christ as friend and doing what he commands, I am able to boldly ask you anything in his name. Grant me the grace, Lord, to remain in your love even to the point of dying to self in the commandment to love one another. Accomplish through your Son, what I can’t accomplish on my own. Saint Matthias, pray for us!
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.