John 15, 9-17:
Sunday, 9th May 2021 (6th ET B)
On this Sunday of the Easter Season, the Evangelist John insists on the need to live the commandment of Love in order to remain united to Jesus and to the Father.
The word “love” is one of the words most frequently on everyone’s lips. It applies to many feelings and attitudes, and depending on who it is addressed to, it has different components. The love of father-mother; of spouses; of siblings; of friends…. There are also feelings that we call “love” and which are impregnated with a certain selfishness. This word is very overused.
The true meaning is the one that St. Paul shows in his letter to the Corinthians or the one that St. John tells us in his letters or Gospel. “God is love. It is total and unconditional surrender; it is free. It is demonstrated by deeds: he gave us his Son, who gave himself up to death out of love.
In us this love is not born “from the goodness of our heart”, but is like a spark of the love that God communicates to us. “Love is of God, and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God”. God’s love for us only asks that we “return” it by loving others. “Love one another as I have loved you”.
We have been chosen to live by loving, and love is to be the fruit of our lives.
When love is self-giving, it fills our hearts with happiness.
Juan Ramón Gómez Pascual, cmf
