Acts 15:22-31
Psalm 57:8-9, 10 and 12
Jn 15: 12-17 Full Readings
You are My Friends
Brethren, the words of Jesus in form of a commandment to his Apostles also speak to us today deep within our hearts: "I have called you friends, because I have told you everything I have heard from my Father." We are Jesus' friends and indeed his beloved brethren because he has loved us first, the love beyond and he also invites us to love one another as he have loved and that if we keep his commandments, we will remain in his love and remain his friends forever. Todays gospel presents three aspects upon which Jesus love which resulted into his friendship with us is modeled and which we as Christians take as our guide in our friendship with God and with one another. Let us see each of them.
Firstly, It is a love of friendship not of subservience. Jesus' love and friendship though he is the master, is not of a master slave relationship, where things are forced on the slave. Rather his friendship is that of love in freedom, that of a loving warmth felt by both sides and where we are free to either respond or neglect his call for his friendship. Even throughout the Bible we have seen an astounding warmth and even humour of friendship in the Jewish tradition of love of God. Abraham was known as ‘the friend of God’ who could enter into a dialogue with him without any fear but with a freedom to express himself; we can all recall how he bargained with God concerning Sodom and Gomorrah. We see also David’s unself-conscious joy as he dances before the Lord even naked (2 Samuel 6); what about Jeremiah’s frank complaints to God about the treatment he has to endure for insisting on his message of doom. Again in the warm relationship to God of the charismatic Galilean rabbis of the time of Jesus: Abba Honi actually threatens God that the people will stop calling God ‘Abba’ if he does not send rain. When God teases him by sending a few drops of rain, Honi again complains, to be rewarded with a torrential deluge. Honi counters with a further complaint and is at last rewarded with a steady rain. Jesus was a perfect example of God's friendship as he was a friend to all even sinners. All these shows that God's friendship a loving and a warm relationship enjoyed by both.
In our friendships too as Christians, we should emulate such type kind of friendship, a friendship that is driven by love in freedom. Sincerely speaking, no one can force the other to become his or her friend, friendship is a free response of a person to the love that has been shown to him or her; one should be free to choose whether to be your friend or not. If God cannot force us to become his friends, we too should never force anyone to become our friend. Consequently, forced friendships cannot last longer, one person will have to continue to be hurt in such relationship and it is a friendship of time wastage. In an article I wrote in the outreach magazine of the Mill Hill Missionaries, Jinja Uganda, in 2018 entitled, To Love and to be Loved, I strongly emphasized that for love and friendship to be genuine one must two parties must be autonomous and free, and both see the relationship as a precious gift not as an obligation or a demand. This is what we call love in freedom and God wants us to emulate this.
The second aspect of Christ’s love expressed in this passage is that he lays down his life for his friends. Christ’s death was not only the expression of loving obedience to his Father but also the extreme expression of his literally boundless love for his friends whom God reconciled by that shedding of blood. Christ says that there is no greater love than this. Love and friendship is not just a bed of roses, not just enjoying the warmth of the other, but it is wishing the other well always which calls even for sacrifices and strong commitments for the sake of the other. True friendship based on Jesus' model is where the focus is on the other not on any personal gains nor reciprocity where one loves the other expecting something in return. Can you sacrifice for your friend even if it is going extra mile than the usual one?
A third aspect is the openness of this friendship. One of the principal aspects of true friendship is openness, the trust which permits friends to have no secrets from one another. Most broken relationships and families are as a result of un openness perhaps because of lack of lack of trust which slowly fades the fades the first love away. When two parties in a relationship are closed and are not open to each, the relationship too is closed. We as Christians can save our friendship with God and the other by developing trust and thus feel free to express and open up ourselves freely to the one we love and to Christ our Lord. We can have no secrets from Christ, and he on the other hand reveals to us all we can understand about the deity, with a fearless intimacy and frankness in prayer which equal and exceed that of any human friendship.
Reflect today on your quality of friendship you have with the Trinity and with your people. Is it that based on love and trust or subservience, is it the one of making sacrifices because of the other or it is that of feeling warmth of the other or taking advantage, or is it the based on openness. Pray that always Jesu will strengthen us in our relationship so that our friendship will be modelled on his.
Let us Pray
Lord, I want to know you as a true friend. I want to share the ins and outs of my life, my joys, and my sorrow. I want to live my day with you by my side, sharing with you whatever it is that I am doing. Give me the confidence that everything that matters to me matters to you, and form my heart so that everything that matters to you matters to me. Amen
Be blessed
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