THE FACE OF TRUE LOVE!

Friday, May 27, 2011 

Easter Weekday

By Lorenz S. Centino, Jr.

John 15: 12 - 17

12        "This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.

13        Greater love has no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.

14        You are my friends if you do what I command you.

15        No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you.

16        You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide; so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he may give it to you.

17        This I command you, to love one another.

PERSONAL REFLECTION:

A BLESSED FRIDAY TO ALL!!!

My reflection today will be a continuation of yesterday’s reflection.

Degrees of friendship can be outlined in many ways as interpersonal relationship happens in different contexts. Friendship is even used in online interactions like in friendster and facebook. In general friendship connotes a mutual bond that connects people to each other that creates mutual recognition or support from each other. Friendship, at a deeper and more PERSONAL level, connotes an interpersonal and mutual affection between and among friends. At this level, FRIENDSHIP is a kind of relationship wherein LOVE can easily be shared and lived. When love and friendship are shared, life becomes meaningful despite its many struggles and hardships.

The Gospel yesterday challenges us to KEEP Jesus’ COMMANDMENTS as a constitutive element of our LOVE for him. Today Jesus gives us the SOCIAL DIMENSION of our love for him—LOVING ONE ANOTHER! To love Jesus is to love others too. It is his command to us: “This I command you, love one another.”  And he makes this command as a STANDARD to our FRIENDSHIP with him. He said, “You are my friends if you do what I command you.” Thus, to be a friend with Jesus is to become a friend to everyone. In the context of Jesus’ command, to be a friend with everyone is to love one another. This challenges us to examine the way we relate with others. Do we relate with them in the spirit of friendship? This could happen only if we abide by the command of Jesus to love one another.

It is very interesting to note that Jesus did not say “love others” but “love one another.” This only goes to show the “MUTUALITY” and “RECIPROCITY” of the love-commandment of Jesus. It was not meant to be a one-sided love affair. Love must be mutually shared. Moreover, Jesus makes himself as the PRIME MODEL of loving. He said, “…love one another as I have loved you.” What kind of love did Jesus lived and shared to be imitated? It is the kind of love that makes one willing to lay down his life for his friends.

The way Jesus stretch out his arms on the cross expressed magnificently his love for us. He lay down his life for us. It is a love that is self-sacrificing, unconditional, and life-giving. The cross stands as a test of love, it is like fire purifying the gold and testing its quality. We have a lot of crosses to carry in order for us to be able to be self-sacrificing and self-giving in our love for one another. We will undergo a lot of purification and testing. One of the hardest tests is to be forgiving, compassionate and merciful, like Jesus, to those who make our life hard and difficult. Jesus is the revelation of this full reality of love as he carried our sin unto the cross so that by his wounds we will be healed (1Peter 2:24). In Jesus we have the face of what TRUE LOVE is.