Thursday 5th Week of Easter A 2026

Gospel

John 15:9-11

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.”

 

 

“As the Father loves me, so I love you.”

 

We should not pass by this statement of Jesus for it presents something enormous, awesome, revealing, and glorious.

Jesus who is one with the Father and the Holy Spirit, one God, a God who is love itself.

A love you and I don’t comprehend right now.

We have nothing even in the same paradigm.

God’s love is beyond our ability to see or feel. We catch only glimpses at times which can themselves be overwhelming to us. 

For his love is like a light so bright all is physically and spiritually illuminated….it engulfs dimensions of time and space and even the very cells of our body are illuminated by its brightness.

Gods love is so all encompassing we who our sinners stand naked in our sin and mortal natures with limited senses and limited hearts.

 

And so, it is this infinite love this unfathomable love that is The Father and Son snd Holy Spirit….THAT is the love he loves us with.

 

Next, he advises and urges and counsels them to stay in this love by keeping the Father’s commandments.

 

The commandments are like a checklist that we can always refer to that helps us keep to his way and in his love. We do the will of Jesus just as Jesus does the will of the Father.

 

It is the faithful Christian who keeps his eye on the love of Jesus, and his actions and hearts aligned with his commandments … that is who remains in his love. And the joy of Jesus Christ will be a constant in our life.

 

His joy brings peace in suffering and hope every day of our life. We trust in Jesus Christ more than we fear all other things of this world.

 

And that is how we are called to live as his followers. Followers of a God who is love and who loves us more than we can understand until we face him at the end of our life. And it is that love that will affirm who we are and whose we are… that intense love that will illuminate all hearts at that moment of facing God

It will rejoice with us as always being one with that love or will convict us of our sins.

The love of God shining upon us will reveal who we are and the truth of our relationship with Jesus Christ.

 

We must follow his commandments and always seek to do the will of Jesus as he does the will of the Father.