Sixth Sunday of Easter B

Stay in my love (Jn 15: 9-17)
Let’s reconsider our position on Jesus’ command of love.

Let’s ask ourselves: Can we live without love? What does the child expect from his parents? We know that children are already susceptible and receptive to love. A nice word, a smile, a kiss, a hug, or a caress knows and can do more than any toy. Love cannot be bought.
Not only a child longs for love but also an older man on his deathbed. Love gives more taste to the sick than the medicine offered. A lover of loved ones can do more than he often imagines. Love will not be destroyed by death. Love is not limited by physical distance either. We give different adjectives to love, and we know that true love can be distinguished from false.

Not only did Jesus say to his apostles, “As the Father loves me, so I love you. Remain in my love! ”(Jn 15: 9)

God, who is love (cf. 1 Jn 4: 8), endows every person with the greatest power in the world, love. The power of God’s love is equal to nothing and no one. St. Paul ends the Hymn to love with the words: “And now faith, hope, love, remain these three; but the greatest of these is love. ”(1 Cor 13:13). Sunday’s message is that our salvation is universal and that the way to it is the love of God and neighbor. At the Last Supper, Jesus explains the essence of love when He declares. “This is my commandment, That ye love one another, as I have loved you. No one has more love than one who lays down his life for his friends. You are my friends if you do what I show you. I no longer call you servants because a servant 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. ”(Jn 15: 12-15)
In the Old Testament, man is understood as a servant of God, trembling before God’s majesty. Jesus radically changes his condition by saying, “You are my friends.” (Jn 15:14) God has such a big heart that even the smallest person can be his friend. Jesus makes it clear how he desires us to give him love again. It is not surprising that Jesus, before his death, asks man again to love not only his God but also his neighbor (cf. Jn 17: 21,22,23,26). Jesus thinks of his love for the Father and rightly asks his brothers and sisters to love one another: “It is not you who have chosen me, but I have chosen you and appointed you to love one another” (Jn 15: 16- 17) True love, which Jesus emphasizes, originates from the Father through the Son. God rightly demands love from a man. The commandments of God the Father and the words of Jesus Christ give them the strength to remain in love with them. Until the end of time, the Holy Spirit reminds man of the importance of friendship with God through love, which must not be blind. Life without the love that comes from the cross cannot be called friendship with God. Jesus died for us, chose us, and our Christianity is true when we reciprocate our love for God, but also our neighbors. True love loves even enemies.

Jesus speaks of love, which is more than the love of pure kinship, friendship, or gratitude. Jesus is concerned with love without peace and boundaries. A true Christian cannot say: I love you only then or only until then, or only those. True love is manifested in the Christian by all the demands of love. Yes, it isn’t easy to follow Christ in love. We can do this only after a long effort, prayer, and close connection with God. “Remain in my love!” (Jn 15: 9) To this mystery of the power of Christian love, John the Apostle repeats these words of Jesus eight times in Chapter 15.
Why does Jesus so earnestly ask us for love? Love must be worked on. Love is not enough with one word. And what do we see? Love is waning. How many people suffer from the absence of love! And we ask: why? And what can be done to make the world more love? Maybe you also have a personal experience that we have to start on our own. It is not easy. It is tough for many people to love. And Jesus reminds us to love ourselves as he loved us when he laid down his life for us. Let us often remember Jesus’ imperative: “Remain in my love” (Jn 15: 9). Christianity finds true joy in following its Master and Lord. He says, “I have given you an example, that you also should do as I have done to you!” (Jn 13:15)
Yes, love is a force that God has given to every person, regardless of skin, nationality, language, and he asks us to work on love, not neglect it, underestimate it, and destroy it. Let no one say that he cannot love because love is not reserved only for the elect. Love makes us equal before God. When God calls us friends, He hides nothing from us. After all, a friend is half a soul. We realize that as friends of God, we must do what Jesus – the Friend asks of us. We believed that Jesus was true. He revealed to us the power of love. If we have neglected the commandment of love today, let us take a new approach to the words of Jesus.

Karol Menninger ordered an experiment at his clinic. He assumed that the patient needed more love. From the doctors to the concierge, everyone at the clinic was to take care of the patients with love. And the result of the experiment? Not only did the atmosphere in the clinic become unrecognizable, but the patients’ stay was halved. So people were coming home twice as fast as they normally would. Love can work wonders. Not only does it help heal faster, it gives the desire to live, the hope of hardship, the power to forgive and forget, but it also spreads Christ’s teachings among superficial Christians or unbelievers. When we live to love, as Jesus teaches, we have no reproach: “If you Christians loved God and your neighbors, as the gospel shows, the whole world would be converted to God.”

The example of an Irish monk confirms this. The following words are engraved on his monument: “The Lord loved Comgall very much, and Comgoll returned His love to Him.” We know nothing more about the monk. He left no work or memory behind, but his life was a masterpiece that man can do when he loves God.

After all, what will help a person a billion, glory, power, popularity when he has not fulfilled Jesus’ words: “Remain in my love” (Jn 15: 9).
It would be right if it were written on each of our graves: “The Lord loved X.Y. and X.Y. he returned His love to Him. ” That means we are Jesus’ best friends. Today it is not only God’s desire for us but also our desire to renew our love for God. We don’t want to leave who called us friends. We identify with St. Vincent de Paul, who said, “I love God in the sweat of my forehead and the effort of my hands.” This is because we have known and understood the love that God loves us.

When asked Can we live without love? We realize that it is not enough to call the human call to love because apparently, Jesus’ death would be useless. That is why let our love for ourselves and our neighbors rest on our love for God. Nothing and no one can replace the love of God. Even today, God touches our hearts, feelings, feathers, hands, breasts with His love because He loves us, He has not stopped loving, and He will not stop loving. God’s love cannot be represented; it is irreplaceable.