What a beautiful gospel passage to write a reflection on: the overriding principal of this passage is Love. When we are asked who is God, one of the many answers to this question is “GOD IS LOVE”. When we think of God, what comes to mind is the abundance of Love that He has shown to us. His love is so vast that He was willing to sacrifice His only Son to give us the promise of eternal life and forgiveness.
This is all a call-to-action. Jesus says “If you keep my commandments, you will remain in my love” and then He tell us “This is my commandment: love one another as I love you.” We all know how much God loves us and that His love is enduring and everlasting. God is now telling us we must love others as He has loves us. We are all sinners and when we make mistakes, God still loves us. It is easy to love those who love us or agree with us, but God want us to love all of His children, even those who don’t like us or disagree with us.
In addition, God tell us “If you keep my commandments, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and remain in His love. We are being told we must follow His commandments to remain in His love. This is a big challenge for all of us in the very secular society we live in today. We must remain strong in our beliefs even when it goes against the norms of today’s society. We must stand for life from conception to natural death. We must learn to be selfless, not selfish and learn to care for others’ needs over our needs. We must help those in need and care for the disadvantaged. God is our ultimate role model. We are sinners and we will never be able to match the love He has shown us, but we need to try as best we can to follow in His example.
The other theme of this passage is JOY. We should bask in the knowledge that Jesus loves us and will always love us. How great is it to know that God will always be there for us in good times and bad? He will always be by our side. We may not always get the outcome we want but how powerful it is to know that God will be with us each step of the way. How can we not rejoice in His bountiful love.
This past year has been difficult on all of us and we have all faced many challenges. Our country is divided, our leaders don’t compromise, and we don’t listen to each other. Lives have been lost due to Covid 19 and people are hurting and scared. Let’s take this moment to show the love to others as God has shown His love to us.