A reading from the Holy Gospel according to John (15:9-17)
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 might be in you and your joy might be complete.
This is my commandment: love one another as I love 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.”
(The Gospel of the Lord. Praise to you Lord Jesus Christ!)
Reflection: Love one another as God loves us.
Today, we celebrate the optional memorial for St. Pope Damasus 1. Pope Damasus was born in the year 305 CE and lived until the year 384 CE. He was elected Pope in the year 366, and defended the Holy Trinity and the truths of our faith against Arianism. Pope Damasus was the first leader of the church to declare the Bishop of Rome as Apostolic See, the spiritual and the administrative center of the Holy Catholic Church.
He was instrumental in encouraging St. Jerome to compile and translate the 73 books of the old and new testaments from the Greek and Hebrew translations of Holy Scripture, into the standard Latin translation of the Holy Bible, which was used by Christians for more than 1200 year, and became the reliable source of later holy scripture for the English and others language translations of the Holy Bible used today.
The Holy Scriptures are where we learn more about how much God loves us through His son Christ Jesus. In the beginning, God created us in His image and said that it is “very good”, and He gave us the gift of free will. However, our great, great, great, great, great grand parents, Adam and Eve while in the eternity of Paradise, chose the path that led to sin, and death came into the world, and now we grow old, become ill and die, which is not the plan of God.
So, our Lord Jesus came to be among us 100% God and 100% man to be our model of holiness, kindness, compassion and truth. He first shared of Himself through his body and blood in the breaking of the bread at the last supper, then He was willing to suffer and die on the cross, and Jesus gave his life to save us. Jesus was risen on the third day to be the first to be born from the dead, the first to have a body that will never die.
Then Jesus appeared to more than 500 disciples before ascending to Heaven. As Jesus is 100% God and 100% man, God’s plan is for us to be reunited once again with all the faithful in the eternity of Heaven, with all our loved ones, with a new body that will never die. And now Jesus lives at our side, by presence of His Holy Spirit which we received since our baptism, to enlighten, strengthen and free us, prompting us towards lives of holiness, until the day that He calls us to the eternity with all the faithful in Heaven.
All Jesus asks of us is to love one another as He has loved us. Share the the good news of our salvation and allow Jesus to guide us on how to love one another as God loves us all.
Action for the Day:
In prayer, thank God for all the blessings that we have received. Then ask God to increase our faith, and guide us on how best share the good news of His love for us, of the salvation that awaits us, and how to love our neighbor as Jesus loves us.
DEACON5 website link: https://deacon5.com/
Click link below to listen to this reflection.
I prefer when the reflection is from the Gospel of the day, not from whatever saints day it is. Dec 11 had a gospel that really could be more explained. I was looking forward to a deacons thoughts since I read the daily readings from the Bishops web site of the Bible. Did you not understand the reading either?