Ad Majorem Dei Gloriam (To the Greater Glory of God)

For: Sunday, May 17, 2009

6th Sunday of Easter

From: John 15:9-17

The Vine and the Branches (Continuation)
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(Jesus said to His disciples,) [9] "As the Father has loved Me, so have I loved
you; abide in My love.  [10] If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My
love, just as I have kept My Father's commandments and abide in His love.  [11]
These things I have spoken to you, that My joy may be in you, and that your joy
may be full.

The Law of Love
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[12] "This is My commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.
[13] Greater love has no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.
[14] You are My friends if you do what I command you.  [15] No longer do I call
you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have
called you friends, for all that I have heard from My Father I have made known to
you.  [16] You did not choose Me, but I chose you and appointed you that you
should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide; so that whatever you
ask the Father in My name, He may give it to you.  [17] This I command you,
to love one another."

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Commentary:

9-11. Christ's love for Christians is a reflection of the love the Three Divine
Persons have for one another and for all men: "We love, because He first loved
us" (1 John 4:19).

The certainty that God loves us is the source of Christian joy (verse 11), but it is
also something which calls for a fruitful response on our part, which should take
the form of a fervent desire to do God's will in everything, that is, to keep His
commandments, in imitation of Jesus Christ, who did the will of His Father (cf.
John 4:34).

12-15. Jesus insists on the "new commandment", which He Himself keeps by
giving His life for us.  See note on John 13:34-35.

Christ's friendship with the Christian, which our Lord expresses in a very special
way in this passage, is something very evident in St.Escriva's preaching: "The
life of the Christian who decides to behave in accordance with the greatness of
his vocation is so to speak a prolonged echo of those words of our Lord, 'No
longer do I call you My servants; a servant is one who does not understand what
his master is about, whereas I have made known to you all that My Father has
told Me; and so I have called you My friends' (John 15:15).  When we decide to
be docile and follow the will of God, hitherto unimagined horizons open up before
us....  'There is nothing better than to recognize that Love has made us slaves
of God.  From the oment we recognize this we cease being slaves and become
friends, sons' (St. J. Escriva, "Friends of God", 35).

"Sons of God, friends of God....  Jesus is truly God and truly Man, He is our
Brother and our Friend.  If we make the effort to get to know Him well 'we will
share in the joy of being God's friends' ["ibid.", 300].  If we do all we can to keep
Him company, from Bethlehem to Calvary, sharing His joys and sufferings, we
will become worthy of entering into loving conversation with Him.  As the Liturgy
of the Hours sings, "calicem Domini biberunt, et amici Dei facti sunt" (they drank
the chalice of the Lord and so became friends of God).

"Being His children and His friends are two inseparable realities for those who
love God.  We go to Him as children, carrying on a trusting dialogue that should
fill the whole of our lives; and we go to Him as friends....  In the same way our
divine sonship urges us to translate the overflow of our interior life into apostolic
activity, just as our friendship with God leads us to place ourselves at 'the service
of all men.  We are called to use the gifts God has given us as instruments to
help others discover Christ' ["ibid.", 258]" (Monsignor A. del Portillo in his preface
to St. J. Escriva's, "Friends of God").

16. There are three ideas contained in these words of our Lord.  One, that the
calling which the Apostles received and which every Christian also receives does
not originate in the individual's good desires but in Christ's free choice.  It was not
the Apostles who chose the Lord as Master, in the way someone would go about
choosing a rabbi; it was Christ who chose them.  The second idea is that the
Apostles' mission and the mission of every Christian is to follow Christ, to seek
holiness and to contribute to the spread of the Gospel.  The third teaching refers
to the effectiveness of prayer done in the name of Christ; which is why the Church
usually ends the prayers of the liturgy with the invocation "Through Jesus Christ
our Lord...".

The three ideas are all interconnected: prayer is necessary if the Christian life is
to prove fruitful, for it is God who gives the growth (cf. 1 Corinthians 3:7); and the
obligation to seek holiness and to be apostolic derives from the fact that it is
Christ Himself who has given us this mission. "Bear in mind, son, that you are
not just a soul who has joined other souls in order to do a good thing.

"That is a lot, but it's still little.  You are the Apostle who is carrying out an im-
perative command from Christ" (St. J. Escriva, "The Way", 942).

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Source: "The Navarre Bible: Text and Commentaries".  Biblical text from the
Revised Standard Version and New Vulgate. Commentaries by members of
the Faculty of Theology, University of Navarre, Spain.

Published by Four Courts Press, Kill Lane, Blackrock, Co. Dublin, Ireland, and
by Scepter Publishers in the United States.  We encourage readers to purchase
The Navarre Bible for personal study. See Scepter Publishers for details.

"Ignorance of Scripture is ignorance of Christ."  --  St Jerome

"The Father uttered one Word; that Word is His Son, and He utters Him forever
in everlasting silence: and in silence the soul has to hear it.
   --  St John of the Cross