Monday, 30 April 2018
5th Week of Easter
1st Reading:
Acts 14:5-18
Gospel: John 14:21-26
Jesus said to his disciples, “Whoever keeps my commandments is the one who loves me. If he loves me, he will also be loved by my Father; I too shall love him and show myself clearly to him.”
Judas—not the Iscariot—asked Jesus, “Lord, how can it be that you will show yourself clearly to us and not to the world?” Jesus answered him, “If anyone loves me, he will keep my word and my Father will love him; and we will come to him and make a room in his home. But if anyone does not love me, he will not keep my words, and these words that you hear are not mine but the Father’s who sent me.
“I told you all this while I was still with you. From now on the Helper, the Holy Spirit whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and remind you of all that I have told you.”
D@iGITAL EXPERIENCE
DAILY GOSPEL IN THE ASSIMILATED LIFE EXPERIENCE:
Before undergoing his Passion and Death, Jesus bequeathed to us the commandment of love. The law is stated in two parts: “Love one another” is the first part, while “as I have loved you, the second.” The first part constitutes the mandate, while the second, the standard. We are to love one another and our love should be up to the standard of Jesus’ love for us.
How much does God love us? Not an inch, not a foot but as far as open and outstretched arms could point to. Such standard of loving was even made permanent by the piercing of nails. Even if you were the only creature in this world needing salvation, Christ would still come down to be crucified for you.
Had Christ not given us the standard that he himself illustrated by his dying on the cross, we would have had all the reasons to ignore the command. In the first place, we would have found it weird that he should command us to love. How can one be commanded to love? Love is spontaneous while a command is rigid. Love is free flowing while a command is stiff. Love is endless and boundless while a command is measured by the parameters of legality.
But Christ didn’t just command us to love one another without doing it himself. To learn to fulfill this commandment one needs to visit the cross – the showcase of how human beings should be loved. So if we haven’t really been to the cross for love of someone, then we haven’t really loved yet.
In this election period we let us love the corrupt political candidates by removing them from the occasion of sin. Since political power is one big occasion for them to commit sin, let us remove them from such occasion by not voting for them. That’s love! – (Atty.) Rev. Fr. Dan Domingo P. delos Angeles, Jr., D.M.
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