Reading
John 15:12-17
12 My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. 13 Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. 14 You are my friends if you do what I command. 15 I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you. 16 You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you so that you might go and bear fruit—fruit that will last—and so that whatever you ask in my name the Father will give you. 17 This is my command: Love each other.
Comment
The love that Jesus asks us to exercise is a commandment rather than an emotion. This means that it must go beyond the feelings of the moment and particular likes, but it must represent a real choice. Love does not exclude the duty of correction, which must always be accompanied by gentleness and vigilance over oneself (Gal 6:1-2).
There is a close relationship between love and faith. Without the witness of charity, our faith is in vain and will not be credible.
We will be friends of Jesus if we do what he commanded (v. 14). The love that is required of us is therefore an effective love, a faith that becomes industrious, not a sterile assent of the intellect or a devout sentimentality.
There is no room in the disciples for any form of spiritual pride because it is Jesus who chose them - "You did not choose me, but I chose you" (v. 16), regardless of their merits, just as Israel was constituted by God his chosen people to be independent of all merit.
Even the disciples have been "appointed" (v. 16): Jesus has entrusted them with a real and proper mandate, so that they may bear fruit. The fruit of this election is described by the New Testament and consists of good attitudes (Gal 5:22-23), righteousness (Phil 1:11), praise (Heb 13:15), and above all in the preaching of the gospel of salvation (Mt 28:18-20; Rm 1:13-16).
The investiture that Jesus bestows on his disciples is related to his example of total love (v. 12). Christians are called to follow the example of Jesus' sacrificial love on the cross, giving themselves to one another without reserve.
Jesus assures that the prayer made in his name - that is, according to the needs of the kingdom of God - will be answered (v. 16). We must commit ourselves above all to asking for the mutual love that Jesus commands because this can only be obtained as a supernatural gift. There is no greater good because if there were charity everywhere, no other law would be necessary for men.
Prayer
Teach us to love, o Lord, as you have loved us; so that active charity produces fruits of conversion, to the praise of your Name. Amen.
- Rev. Dr. Luca Vona
