Reflection for May 15, Friday of the Fifth Week of Easter: John 15:12-17

Gospel: John 15:12-17

Jesus said to his disciples: “This is my commandment: love one another as I love you. No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. You are my friends if you do what I command you. I no longer call you slaves, because a slave does not know what his master is doing. I have called you friends, because I have told you everything I have heard from my Father. It was not you who chose me, but I who chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit that will remain, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name he may give you. This I command you: love one another.”

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Reflection:

What would happen if we follow this love commandment of Jesus?

There would be no more betrayal, hatred and separation amongst married couples only love. But the sad reality is we choose to turn a deaf ear to this love commandment of the Lord. For the simple reason that we love ourselves more than we love Jesus and our fellowmen.

There’s a saying that before we give love we have to love ourselves first. For how would we know how to give love if we have not experienced loving ourselves first? However this statement does not jibe on how Jesus interprets love or on how Jesus gives the truest meaning of love.

For Jesus to love is not to love oneself first, to love is to lay down ones life for the beloved, for Jesus to love is to forgive the many hurts that has been hurled and inflicted upon us by our beloved. For at the end of the day if we love the way Jesus loves us what would remain is love no hatred but only love.

But how do we love? We love selectively and we love with measure, we calibrate the love that we give by the love that we receive. And we oftentimes do not love our fellowmen when they do not fulfill our selfish expectation for them. Let us love without condition and let us love without expecting love in return for this is how Jesus loved us.

 How do we love?  -  Marino J. Dasmarinas