Word to the Wise
Friday, May 4, 2018 - 5th Week of Easter - Fri
[Acts 15:22-31 and John 15:12-17]"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." [John]
Today we resume our reflections on the Farewell Discourse at the Last Supper in the Gospel According to John. Because the feast of Sts. Philip and James occurred on the fifth Wednesday of Easter this year, the three verses just before today's segment slipped past us. They are important, so I'll quote them here: 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 you joy may be complete. When this segment is read together with today's segment, we get a better picture of what Jesus is offering us. It is nothing less than his complete friendship with his Father. The deepest example of this is that he lays down his life for us.
St. Thomas Aquinas tells us that the best analogy for understanding our relationship to God is friendship. I can say from my own experience that the love that is given to me by my friends is one of the greatest sustaining forces in my life. It is a sheer gift from God. Jesus speaks of "remaining" in him and we do this by loving one another. Friendship like this is more than casual acquaintance. It is a commitment to "be there" (as modern expression would say) for another. If we can bring our faith to bear on our friendship, we "bear fruit that will remain."
A recent survey by a major health-care company on "loneliness" indicated a high degree of this in American society. The highest degree was reported in the age group 18-22 - the college-aged men and women across our country. Other great studies show this to be a serious healthcare problem. The Lord has given us the capacity to love and somehow this just isn't making its way deeply enough. Perhaps today we might consider who our clos