The Vine and the Branches

Today's Reflections

 

 

 

 

The Vine and the Branches 

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Jn 15:9-17

[Jesus said to his disciples,] ⁹“As the Father loves me, so I also love you. Remain in my love. ¹⁰If you keep my commandments, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and remain in his love.

¹¹“I have told you this so that my joy might be in you and your joy might be complete. ¹²This is my commandment: love one another as I love you. ¹³No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. ¹⁴You are my friends if you do what I command you. ¹⁵I 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. ¹⁶It 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. ¹⁷This I command you: love one another.”

Reflection:
 

Love one another as I love you. United with Jesus in baptism, we keep his commandment to love in the same way he loves us. We must share with others his love for us.

How do we love?

To express the word “love,” we use the numbers “143,” meaning “I love you.” Pursuing this play with numbers, we can come up with three types of love.

First is 143-2. It means “I love you… if.” It is the conditional kind, love with strings attached, love given in exchange of and expecting a return. We love a person hoping to get luxury, fame, glory, comfort, or material security.

Second is 143-7. This is “I love you… because.” It is love based on attraction or admiration,  on likes and dislikes. A person is loved because of physical appearance or social status or material possessions. It is love out of gratitude.

Third is 143-9. It is “I love you… in spite of.” This is love for who and what a person is. God loves us in spite of our mistakes, in spite of our sins, and in spite of our infidelity. God loves us for what we are and whoever we are. God’s love is not selective or exclusive. God loves all, sinners and saints alike.

How do we love God?And how do we love our fellow men and women?