May 23, 2019

Jn 15: 9-11

As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you; abide in my love. If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in his love. I have said these things to you so that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be complete.

New Revised Standard Version, copyright 1989, by the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved. USCCB approved.

Remain in My Love

Think of a time, or a place, in which you longed to remain – when you wanted to freeze time so you could stay in that place or savor that moment, just a little bit longer. Take a minute, to sit with that feeling. Now, bring that feeling with you as you move yourself into today’s Gospel.  Jesus invites us to abide, or remain, in his love, and he is very deliberate in helping us understand the “how” and the “why” of remaining in his love. While the words how and why can be used to ask the same question, the answers you’ll get will be very different. For example: “How do you make a cake?” versus “Why did you make a cake?” How asks, “by what means?” And why asks, “for what reason?” When we understand both how and why, we are more likely to “do” – to demonstrate our understanding in concrete and actionable ways.

So, how are we to remain in God’s love? By keeping God’s commandments. Why? So that our “joy may be complete.” Remember that the foundation of this joy is God’s unconditional, eternal, enduring, abiding love for you. Take time today to remain in it.

—Jackie Schulte is the Dean of Faculty Formation and a history teacher at Creighton Preparatory School in Omaha, NE.

Prayer

O holy Heart of Jesus, dwell hidden in my heart, so that I may live only in you and only for you, so that, in the end, I may live with you eternally in heaven.

—St. Claude La Colombière, SJ