Sixth Sunday in Easter B

The speaker shares the joy of Easter and the upcoming celebration of Pentecost. They encourage listeners to prepare for encountering Jesus through prayerful reflection on Scripture. The ancient practice of Lectio Divina is explained, which involves reading a passage, meditating on it, and allowing the Holy Spirit to speak through it. The Gospel passage from John is shared, emphasizing Jesus' commandment to love one another as He has loved us. The speaker emphasizes that following God's commandments is not about obedience, but about embracing His heart and living in communion with Him. They reflect on the intimate friendship they have with Jesus and encourage listeners to do the same. The passage is a reminder of the presence and love of Jesus as a true friend. The speaker encourages listeners to spend more time with the Gospel passage and to allow the word to grow within them throughout the week. The speaker concludes with well wishes and joy in sharing the Gospel. Greetings, friends. What a joy to share the Gospel. Christ is risen. Truly He is risen. Happy Easter, everybody. We draw very close now to the celebration of that most precious feast known as Pentecost. Our Gospel this sixth Sunday of Easter reflects this by its extreme depth of intimacy pouring out from our Lord toward us, His disciples. Let's prepare ourselves to encounter yet again and still Jesus, our dearest of friends, mediated to us through prayerful reflection on the Scriptures. We take a moment to intentionally yield our spirits to the Gospel by quieting our inner selves. If you will, take a deep breath slowly in and slowly out. Come, Lord Jesus. Allow your Holy Spirit to bring your word to life in me. May I hear your voice, Good Shepherd. The ancient prayer of Lectio Divina invites us, first of all, simply to read a passage from Scripture. In reading, we begin to become familiar with the word so as to open ourselves increasingly to what is carried on that word through the movement of the Holy Spirit. On this sixth Sunday of Easter, we read from St. John's Gospel, chapter 15, verses 9 through 17. 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 have loved 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. This Gospel is taken from the heart of what is known in John's account as the Last Supper discourse. These passages read as the final, most intimate, most urgent testament of Jesus, entrusted to His closest of followers. As He speaks, He stands on the edge of His final, definitive act as Messiah, the giving of His life on the cross. What dominates these words is Jesus' call to His disciples to keep His commandments and finally His commandment, singularly, of love as we have been loved by Him. Friends, it is so important to hear this word commandment correctly. A commandment is not simply a rule or a law to follow. It is not something imposed on us by God to reveal our obedience or, as the case may be, disobedience. Commandments in the Jewish Christian scriptures are the revelation of the heart of God. By embracing these commandments, we embrace the will of the Father for us and live in a communion of love with the Father. This makes sense of what Jesus is getting at when He says, You are my friends because I have told you everything I have heard from my Father. Jesus has revealed the heart of God to us. It is because we have received this intimate knowledge of the Father that we have access to and can keep the commandments. Pope Benedict XVI gives marvelous expression to this dynamic. In his encyclical Deus Caritas Est, he says this, Our ability to love as we are commanded here, quote, can only take place on the basis of an intimate encounter with God, an encounter which has become a communion of will. Then I learned to look on this other person, not simply with my eyes and my feelings, but from the perspective of Jesus Christ, close quotes. This finally expresses the essence of Jesus's promise at the end of this message. To know the heart of the Father is to desire all that He desires, which He brings about for us and in us when we turn to Him in prayer. God is love. God has chosen us. God's love makes our lives fruitful, full of purpose and meaning. We turn now again for a second time to read our gospel passage. Notice as we do what stands out for you. Be sensitive to a word or phrase or what moves your imagination. In that word that moves within you, Jesus is revealing himself present and alive. We read again John chapter 15, 9 through 17. 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 have loved 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. This brings us now to the second step of Lectio Divina, which is, after reading, meditation. In meditating, we pause before the Word, surrendering to the movement, yielding to the movement of the Spirit carried on that Word. Become curious now about what is touching you in this passage and give yourself over to it. What is speaking to you at this moment? I can't get away from it. My heart is always overwhelmed when I hear Jesus say to me through this scripture passage, I call you friend. Even more essential, this passage stirs up this reaction because it touches the reality of my experience of Jesus. At every stage of my life, sometimes very much conscious of it, other times, especially early in my life, not so conscious, but always, Jesus has walked with me in friendship. I have, as long as I can remember, been able to turn to him and find him very, very close by. I think this defines a friend in large measure. Friends are there, present in love, empathy, tenderness, truthfulness, faithfulness. You laugh with a friend, cry with a friend, do nothing at all but be with a friend. Sometimes they do things for us. Sometimes they allow us to do things for them. Mostly though, friendship is about sharing presence, being together, knowing the other is always there for you. This is so powerfully for me. Among other things, of course, who Jesus is to me. Jesus, oh my Jesus, allow me to say this now to you. You are my friend because I have revealed everything in my heart to you. Friends, stay with this gospel passage a bit longer, would you? Just be with Jesus, drawing on the word that speaks most to you. Before leaving prayer, be sure to intentionally place the word you have received deep in your spirit, where the Lord might bring it growth throughout this week ahead. And friends, it is a joy to share the gospel with you. Happy Easter.