May 14, 2014 Monday, 6th Week of Easter St. Matthias, Apostle 1st Reading: Acts 1:15–17, 20–26 Gospel: Jn 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)
During our Marian pilgrimage to Europe last month I learned that people in Portugal say “obrigado” when they want to say “thank you”. How strange that gratitude should sound like an obligation. But seen in the light of today’s Gospel reading it appears that love is indeed an obligation because it is given as a commandment.
But the fact that love is a command does not take love away from the genus of spontaneous acts. The love which Jesus pronounced as a commandment finds us willingly loving in spontaneous response to God’s act of loving us first. Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI’s first encyclical letter “Deus Caritas Est” explains: “Love is not a commandment but ‘a sweet response when we reflect on the fact that it was God who first loved us (1 John 4:10)’.
This free response to God’s love propels us to loving God in the neighbor. If anyone says, “I love God,” yet hates his brother, he is a liar. For anyone who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, cannot love God, whom he has not seen” (1 John4:20). Love of neighbor distinguishes our love for God from other forms of love. It is a very important distinction in the light of Jesus’ identification with the least of our brothers and sisters. “Whatsoever you do to the least of my brothers”, Jesus said, “You do it unto me.” (Matthew 25:40). This is a tall order since loving the neighbor is never easy, yet gratitude to God takes us to seemingly impossible things, our love being strong – stronger even than death. – Rev. Fr. Dan Domingo P. delos Angeles, Jr., DM. Email: dan.delosangeles@gmail.com. Website: www.frdan.org.
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