REMAIN IN MY LOVE

At 10,25-26.34-35.44-48; Ps 97; 1Jn 4,7-10; Jn 15,9-17
6 MAY  – VI EASTER SUNDAY – B
God and Commandments are one. One does not love God if he does not love his Commandments, which are his heart. Christ Jesus and the Gospel are one. One does not love Christ Jesus if he does not love his Gospel, which is his very life. We love the Commandments, we love God. We love the Gospel and we love Christ Jesus. This bond must always remain indissoluble. The measure of our love for the Father is given by our love for Christ Jesus, who is his heart and his life. We love Christ, we love our father. One does not love Christ, he does not love the Father. Christ and the Father are one. Making two separable realities of Christ and of the Father, one is neither with the love of Christ and nor of the Father, because the love of the Father is Christ and the love of Christ is the Father.

One remains in the love of Christ if he remains in Christ. One remains in Christ if he remains in his Word, however not the one understood by us, but the one perennially illuminated according to fullness of truth by the Holy Spirit. As Jesus the Lord was in the Holy Spirit and for him he was always in the Word or will of the Father, so if the disciple will be in the Holy Spirit, he will always be in the Father’s will. Father, Christ Jesus, Holy Spirit and Word are eternally an indivisible and inseparable one. Those who are separated from the Father are separated from Christ, the Holy Spirit, the Word. Whoever separates himself from the Son, separates himself from the Father, the Holy Spirit and the Word. Whoever separates himself from the Holy Spirit, is separated from the Father, the Son and the Word. Whoever is separated from the Word is separated from the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. He is no longer a live branch of the true vine.

Jesus also reveals to us the modality of the love of his disciple. It must be a love in all similar to his. The commandment of Jesus must be observed, just as He observed the commandments of his Father. We know how Jesus observed the commandments of the Father: by delivering to them soul, spirit, body, desires, wills, aspirations, time and eternity. Nothing in Jesus is from his heart. Instead everything is from the heart of the Father. Nothing in the disciple must be from his heart, but everything from the heart of Christ. Just as the Son loved the Father by becoming obedient to death on the cross, so too must the disciple become obedient till death on the cross. One body, one love, one only way of loving, one obedience and one cross. Jesus made of his life a gift to the Father. The disciple makes of his life a gift to Christ. When a gift is given, what is given is no longer from our will, but from the will of the one to whom the gift has been offered. Jesus gives himself to the Father. The disciple gives himself to the Son. The Father gives the Son for the salvation of the world. The Son gives the Father the disciple who has given himself to him, so that he may make of him a gift of salvation.

As the Father loves me, so I also love you. Remain in my love. 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. “I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and your joy may be complete. 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.

What is the sign that we love Christ Jesus? Love for every one of his disciples. Love for his body. Who does not love the body of Christ, does not love Christ. Love for the body of Christ is the unequivocal sign that we love Jesus. Why must the body of Christ be loved? Because it is the only instrument of salvation in the hands of the Father and it is our love that makes it perfect in the gift. How is the body love? First of all, keeping it in the highest holiness. Then helping every other to grow in holiness. From the sanctity of the body is the sanctity of the world. This truth must never be forgotten.

Virgin Mary, Mother of the Redemption, Angels and Saints make us true love in Christ.