Homily
for Thursday
5th Week
of Easter
May 7,
2026
John 15:
9-11
Christian
Brothers, St. Joseph Residence, N.R.
The Holy Trinity (Hans Baldung)
“As the Father loves me, so I
also love you” (John 15: 9).
Who can comprehend how much the
Father loves the Son? Who, then, can
comprehend how much the Son loves us?
Jesus tells us that no one has
greater love than to lay down his life for the ones he loves (15:13). That’s a starting point for our understanding
of the immeasurable extent of his love.
Jesus wants us to remain in his
love (15:10). He’s not going to
stop loving us. So remaining with him,
staying in love with him, is our response, if we’ll accept his love and
choose to be his.
Our response to his love, as
between any lovers, is to please him. He
tells us that involves his commandments (15:10). There’s always a kind of reaction to rules—kids
pushing their parents’ buttons, students testing a teacher’s limits. Even Jesus sets aside some of the rules and
customs accepted as norms by the Jewish leaders.
But Jesus’ “rules” are how we
express our love for him. We know his
basic commandment is to love God above everyone and everything else (Matt 22:37-38),
and then that we should love one another (John 15:17).
If we didn’t love God and God’s
Son, we wouldn’t be trying to please them.
In the council of Jerusalem (Acts 15:1-29), the apostles and elders
determined that such love required them to avoid idolatry, which seems obvious;
to respect God’s power over life and death—they put it as avoiding blood—and to
respect marriage (15:20). Those are
concrete expressions of love.
We can be sure, as well, that
our love for one another demands truthfulness and respect for persons and their
property—keeping the rest of the 10 commandments.
The outcome of God’s love
accepted and lived out is joy. Jesus
desires that our joy be complete (John 15:11).
If we remain in him, love him and love all who belong to him, our joy
surely will be complete—eternally.
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