Remain In My Love

a bright white sun in a blue sky over puffy clouds — image via Pixabay

A reading from the Holy Gospel according to John:

Jesus said to his disciples:
“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 might 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.”

Jesus said to His disciples: “As the Father loves me, so I also love you. Remain in my love.”

How does the Father love the Son?

The Father loves the Son unreservedly, unabashedly, unconditionally, eternally, without beginning, without end, without hesitation, without regret. The Father loves the Son perfectly. And so also the Son loves us.

“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.” And what is the commandment? There is only one: “Love one another as I love you.” So we must love one another as the Father loves the Son, if we are to remain in His love. He tells us this so that His joy may be in us, and our joy may be complete.

Every other teaching flows from this. Everything else we are told, is told to us in order that we may fulfill the one commandment: Love one another, as Christ loves us, as the Father loves Christ.

The Father, Who is perfect Justice and cannot do wrong, loves Christ so much, He sent Christ into the world to make His dwelling among us. That’s how wonderful we are.

The Father, who can neither deceive nor be deceived, loves Christ so much, He permitted Christ to lay down His life for us, so that our living and dying could be brought up into the Life of the Holy Trinity and we might become what He is. That’s how important we are. That is the best gift the Father could think of, to give His beloved Son.

The Father loves Christ so much that He made us to be the bride of Christ, and He loves us so much that He sent Christ to become one with us. To love one another as Christ loved us, we should dwell together, work together, share each other’s crosses, and delight in one another as the Father delights in Christ, and as Christ delights in us.

“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.” And what He has heard from the Father is love.

If anyone calls you a slave, that one is not from God. If they tell you that God only wants you for a slave, they are not from God. If they treat you like a slave and not a sister or a brother, let that one be anathema, because you are not a slave but a friend.

If anyone gives you another commandment, something that draws you away from love into anything that isn’t love, even if it be an angel from Heaven, let that one be anathema, because the commandment is “love one another.”

“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.”

He chose you because you are worthy. He loves you because you are lovable. He trusts you because He loves you. The fruit that you bear will remain. What you ask the Father in the Father’s name will be given: maybe not in the way you expect, but it will be given.

Now, love one another.

It isn’t more complicated than that.