Reflection for May 8 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 the love of Jesus were truly alive in our families?

There would be less conflict, less pride, less domination, and less hurtful behavior. Instead, our homes would become places of forgiveness, humility, understanding, patience, and love. Peace would reign in our relationships because the love of Jesus would dwell in our hearts. When Christ is at the center of our family life, we learn to listen with compassion, forgive with sincerity, and love without conditions.

But when we remove the love of Jesus from our lives, division and pain slowly enter our homes. Pride, selfishness, dishonesty, infidelity, jealousy, and misunderstandings begin to weaken the unity of the family. Without the love of Christ, our relationships become fragile because we rely only on our human strength instead of the grace of God.

That is why Jesus commanded His disciples to love one another as He loved them (John 15:12). Jesus desired His followers to live in harmony, humility, trust, and genuine concern for one another. He knew that their mission of evangelization would only bear fruit if they remained united in love.

Jesus understood that without His love dwelling in their hearts, His disciples would struggle with jealousy, pride, and misunderstanding. Instead of building one another up, they would pull one another down, and their mission would fail. Love was not merely a suggestion from Jesus; it was the very foundation of their mission and their witness to the world.

The same is true for us today. We cannot truly succeed in our mission for Jesus or experience lasting harmony in our families unless we learn to embrace, share, and live out His commandment of love every day. Love is not simply spoken through words; it is revealed through patience, sacrifice, forgiveness, kindness, and humility.

Do our words, actions, and attitudes bring the love of Jesus into our homes, or do they create wounds and division? If Jesus were to look at our family relationships today, would He truly see His love alive in us?— Marino J. Dasmarinas