Friday, May 4, 2018
5th Week of Easter
1st Reading: Acts 15:22-31
Gospel: John 15:12-17
Jesus said to his disciples, “This is my commandment: love one another as I have loved you. There is no greater love than this, to give one’s life for one’s friends; and you are my friends if you do what I command you.
“I shall not call you servants any more, because servants do not know what their master is about.
Instead I have called you friends, since I have made known to you everything I learned from my Father.
“You did not choose me; it was I who chose you and sent you to go and bear fruit, fruit that will last.
And everything you ask the Father in my name, he will give you.
“This is my command, that you love one another.
D@iGITAL-EXPERIENCE
(Daily Gospel in the Assimilated Life Experience)
Today’s Gospel reading rolls out love as the greatest commandment of God. Many people find this commandment very difficult. But think about this: If instead of “Love one another” Jesus commanded us to like one another, would things turn out to be any better? No law can bind the heart of a human being. How can it be bound to like even the unlikable? The good news is that Jesus is not expecting us to like everybody even as he asks us to love everybody. While liking everyone is not possible because the heart cannot be bound by any commandment, loving others is possible because love is a function of the willpower. A wife, for example, can decide to save the marriage for the sake of the children. She can even decide to continue loving her husband even if the chance of converting him is slim.
Let’s play with words to emphasize our message. The word “like” has the letter ‘I’ while the word ‘love’ has the letter ‘O’. When I say ‘I like,’ the emphasis is the letter ‘I’ (self). When I say ‘I love’ the emphasis is the letter ‘O’ (nothingness). When we like a person we gratify ourselves; the focus is the self. But when we love, one’s preoccupation is the good of the beloved. For the good of the beloved we are willing to be reduced to nothing. When love is true, the amount of love invested in a relationship is inversely proportional to the degree of personal gain expected from the beloved.
Because true love is a matter of the will power, only human beings are capable of loving. By commanding us to love, Jesus is acknowledging our capacity for the greater operations not given to animals but entrusted to human beings alone. Love makes us more human.
What merit is there in liking people who appear attractive to us? Let us exercise our capacity to love not only because loving is a God-given command but because loving is an exercise of one’s gift of humanity.- (Atty.) Rev. Fr. Dan Domingo P. delos Angeles, Jr., D.M.
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