5th Week in Easter Time, Friday – 7th May 2021 — Gospel: Jn 15,12-17
Greater Love Becomes Gift
Our humanity comes into fullest bloom in giving. We become beautiful people when we give whatever we can give. Jesus says, greater love consists in giving yourself, your very life as a gift for someone you love. Life is precious, and giving your life for another is equally very precious. The greatest example of human self-sacrifice was for a man to die for his friends. Jesus gave his life for us in the ultimate act of self-giving love. He not only died for His friends, but for His enemies as well, who when they were saved, they became His friends. The disciples of Christ are called to imitate this type of giving; a gift of salvific love. Some lay down their lives in a literal sense; others spend their whole lives in untiring service for the people of God. In fact, God created our hearts to be oriented to loving in this way, for we are most fulfilled when we lovingly give ourselves to others. If we live to give, God will see to it that we receive, but if we live only to get, God will see to it that we loose. In this sense, when we give ourselves for the sake of others, our life becomes a paradox: i.e., to find life, one must give it up as a sacrifice. This is grammar of greater love. We find the true meaning and joy in our lives precisely to the degree that we give our lives away to God and others.
