Monday, May 14, 2018 St. Matthias,
Apostle 1st Reading:
Acts 1:15-17, 20-26
Gospel: John 15:9-17
Jesus said to his disciples, “As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you; remain in my love. You will remain in my love if you keep my commandments, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and remain in his love.
“I have told you all this, that my own joy may be in you and your joy may be complete. 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)Jesus gave us the commandment of love so that our joy may be complete. In today’s Gospel he said: “I have told you all this so that my own joy may be in you and your joy may be complete. This is my commandment: love one another as I have loved you.” The secret, then, of achieving complete joy is to love others not according to our standard but according to the standard of Jesus.
Jesus specified which kind of love he meant in today’s Gospel when he said that there is no greater love than to give one’s life for one’s friends. In the recollection I handled with the children of M. Lhuillier employees several years ago, I asked a kid what he was willing to give up for love of his family. Without batting an eyelash Christian Abellare replied: “My life.” Probably it was a canned answer. But I just had to trust it was divinely inspired. I had no further questions to ask the kid. Willingness to give up one’s life is after all the greatest love of all.
Growing in the standard of Jesus demands that we die to our inferior standard of love. The battle cry of the kids in that recollection was to achieve joy by putting Jesus first, Others second and Yourself last (J.O.Y.). True joy means putting the standard of Jesus first, and your personal standard last. The more you die to your selfish standard of love, the more Christ lives in you. And because in Christ there is pure joy, a person who is dead to self but alive in Christ is the real joyful person. He’s the one whose joy is complete. May your joy be complete too by loving according to the standard of Christ! – (Atty.) Rev. Fr. Dan Domingo P. delos Angeles, Jr., D.M. –(Atty.) Rev. Fr. Dan Domingo P. delos Angeles, Jr., D.M.
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