6^th SUNDAY OF EASTER-B

I Reading: Acts 10:25-26: Peter visits the house of a Roman, Cornelius, and learns that God does not have favourites.

II Reading: 1John 4:7-10: It is through the experience of love that we can come to know God.

Gospel: John 15:9-11: Remain in my love, and let your joy be complete.

 

Jesus said to his disciples to remain in his love, to keep His Commandments, to experience his joy and the divine call, to bear fruits for God's glory, to ask the Father in his name and to love one another (John 15:9-17).

The Father loved His Son Jesus, Jesus loved his Father and the believers, therefore the believers supposed to love their neighbours; and the neighbours or believers or followers of Jesus Christ are loved by God the heavenly Father.

Hence, God is love and creation is God's love.

The reading follows on from where the Gospel ended last week. In it was revealed how the disciples are united to Christ as the branch to stem; today we see how the disciples are united in love in Christ to one another.

Today’s gospel presents the gift of Jesus’ love. The message contains that you may doubt about everything in the world; but there is one thing of which you can be absolutely certain: that God loves you!

i. A love which the Jews could not understand.

ii. God loves people individually, one by one. God loved the world so much, God is love, Jesus loved his disciples.

iii. A lesson on love given by Jesus himself. “As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you…love one another as I have loved you” (Jn 15:9-12).

iv. God loves not only people but whatever he created. “God saw that it was good”. In other words, God was delighted with whatever he created; He loved it. God loves the sun, the moon, the stars, ocean, grass, flowers, trees..

Jesus also loves in the same way and finally shows his sacrificial love on the cross and in the Eucharist by giving his body and blood for our spiritual nourishment and eternal life.

So let us love God and love our neighbours as ourselves according to the new commandments of Jesus.  Unless we love God, we cannot love people. Love is the source of all genuine joys in life, it will be the same in heaven.

The Relationship of Jesus to Believers, Jn 15:9-11

Jesus has a very special relationship with the believer, a relationship that delivers them from an existence that is barren, empty, lonely, unmeaningful and sad.

1. He has loved believers (v.9)

2. He has one great charge for believers: Continue-abide in His love (v.9-10)

a. Abiding is conditional

b. Abiding has standard-the obedience of Jesus

3. He has one great purpose for believers: The completion of their joy (v.11)

Thought: Jesus Christ loves us because we are God’s children, brothers and sisters, the household and family of God. He also loves us because we believe in God, we earnestly seek God, we obey his commands and we deny ourselves, take up our cross and die daily in order to follow Jesus (Lk 9:23).

Do we experience the love of Jesus in loving God, our neighbours, all living beings and nature of the creation?

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