Love and Friendship: 6th Sunday in Easter

Listen to the homily here.

Notes:

This is my favorite passage in the New Testament, and I loved learning about its structure 

·      My Masters Thesis was titled “Friendship in the Scripture”

·      More important than that, is the Scriptures itself

Only two individuals were given the title “friend” with God

·      Everyone else were called a servant: David, Isaiah, Jeremiah, kings

·      Abraham

·      Moses

Then there is a powerful passage in Sirach

·     Sirach 6:14-16: “A faithful friend is a sturdy shelter: he that has found one has found a treasure.  There is nothing so precious as a faithful friend, and no scales can measure his excellence.  A faithful friend is an elixir of life…”

Then, come to our reading today that I want to comment on 15:12-17

·     “This is my commandment: love one another as I love you.”

o   In the Gospels, Jesus was asked what the most important law (out of the 613 laws)

o   “You shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.  This is the greatest and the first commandment. The second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”

·     “No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.” 

o  And this is what Jesus Christ did for us—his 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.”

o   We have the map, the key, the knowledge—in the Bible!

·     “It was not you who chose me, but I who chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit that will remain…”

o  God seeks for us

o  Many people today are on a spiritual journey to try to find their life

o  It turns out, God is already looking for you

o   And, God chooses the 

·     “…so that whatever you ask the Father in my name he may give you.”

o   Pray

·     “This I command you: love one another.”

Finally

·     Friends are the best, both physically and spiritual relationships

·     And Jesus should be your best friend