This I command you: love one another

“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.” (JN 15: 15-17)

In this commandment we receive a summary of all the commandments: from Moses’ commandments to the Church’s commandments—love one another; the essence of the Good News. Our Lord gave us this commandment because we are His friends. We become His friends by listening to God’s word, by accepting the fact that He chose us, and by going out to “bear fruit that will remain.”

“I call you my friends, says the Lord, for I have made known to you all that the Father has told me.” (Gospel Acclamation)