Witness God's Love

A Reflection on the Gospel for May 9th, 2021:
Sixth Sunday of Easter

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John
15.9-17

Jesus said to his disciples: “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. This is my commandment, that you 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 do not call you servants any longer, because the servant does not know what the master is doing; but I have called you friends, because I have made known to you everything that I have heard from my Father.

“You did not choose me but I chose you. And I appointed you to go and bear fruit, fruit that will last, so that the Father will give you whatever you ask him in my name. I am giving you these commands so that you may love one another.”
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Pause. Pray.

And then read more...

There is a government advertisement on TV where the man shaves half of his beard, serves pasta with the sauce but with uncooked spaghetti, and wears his face mask below the nose. The message is, we should not do things halfway.

This commercial reminded me of the statement in the gospel reading for Sunday: “I have said these things to you so that my joy may be in you and your joy may be complete.” Unlike the half-done things in the advertisement, our God does a complete job for us. He loves us so much that He wants to give everything to us! 

He tells us to abide in His love, that is, to stay in His love and to be stable in His love. This however also means, to follow His commandments and live our lives according to these commandments. If we do this, we will bear fruit and His joy will be in us. 

We bear fruit when we are able to lead other people to love God as we do. When we are successful in encouraging others to enter into a relationship with Jesus, or when we invite people to attend Alpha or something similar, we are bearing fruit. We simply invite and God does the rest! Loving God in how we live our lives, and witnessing His love to others, can open people’s eyes to how good our God can be. This is one example of how we bear fruit.

Whatever else we do in life — our work, our vocation, raising and caring for our children and our pets — when our thoughts and actions are centered in Christ, we can lead other people to God by our example. 

I once had an experience of doing a project with a person who was so complicated and so negative that nothing seemed to be right for her. If I had my way, I would have had nothing to do with her. However, it was a team project and I had no choice. I did the next best thing: I prayed for her, and for me, since I had to work with her. In the course of my trying to find out how she thought things should be done, I learned that no one had listened to her ideas in the past. She did have good ideas, they were just delivered the wrong way. When we finished our project, her way, there was a transformation in her personality and a new openness to the ideas of others. With this newfound openness, I was able to invite her to attend Alpha where she learned about our loving God. She has since moved on to another workplace, but I am confident that she brings God with her wherever she is.

Loving one another is not too difficult if we think less of ourselves and more of the other. If we try to love a person who challenges us — no matter how difficult this may be for us — doing it with the love of God makes it possible because God is there by our side to help us.




​Liz Venezuela
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