Crucifixion
Josse Lieferinxe
1500-05
Oil on panel, 170 x 126 cm
Musée du Louvre, Paris
Posted on 05/22/2014 8:18:27 PM PDT by Salvation
St. John Baptist Rossi
Feast Day: May 23
Born: 1698 :: Died: 1763
John Baptist Rossi was born in a village near Genoa, Italy to Charles de Rossi and Frances Anfossi. He was one of four children and his family loved him. They were proud when a wealthy couple visiting their town offered to educate him. His parents knew the couple and trusted them.
John was happy to be able to go to their house in Genoa because he could attend school. He then met some Capuchin friars who became fond of him and helped him continue his education in Rome. He became a student for the priesthood at the Roman College run by Jesuit priests. He realized that studies were easy for him and took on more and more of a load.
John became very sick and had to stop his studies for a while. Sometime later he completed his preparation and became a priest. Even though his health was always poor, Father John did so much good for the people of Rome. He knew what it was like not to feel well, so Father Rossi took a special interest in sick people. He was a frequent visitor in Rome's hospitals.
He especially loved to spend time with the poor people at the Hospice of St. Galla. This was a shelter for the poor and homeless. But Father Rossi became aware of poor people who had no one to look after their spiritual needs.
He noticed those who brought cattle and sheep to sell in the Roman markets. What hard lives they had. They came in the morning with their herds. Father Rossi would walk among them and stop and talk with them. When possible, he would teach them about the faith and offer them the sacrament of Reconciliation. Father Rossi's priestly ministry made a big difference in their lives.
The priest also felt deep compassion for the homeless women and girls. They wandered through the streets day and night begging. This was dangerous and very sad. The pope gave Father Rossi money to open a shelter for homeless women.
It was right near the Hospice of St. Galla. Father Rossi placed the house under the protection of one of his favorite saints, Aloysius Gonzaga. Father Rossi became best known for his kindness and gentleness in confession. People formed lines near his confessional and waited patiently for their turn. He once said to a friend that the best way for a priest to reach heaven was to help people through the sacrament of Reconciliation.
Another favorite job he was given by Pope Benedict XIV was to teach Catechism to prison and government officials, including the public hangman. Father Rossi suffered a stroke in 1763 and did not get better again. He was able to celebrate Mass but he suffered greatly. This wonderful priest died at the age of sixty-six. It was May 23, 1764.
Reflection: How can we help our priests? May we may always pray for them and ask Jesus to console them.
| John | |||
| English: Douay-Rheims | Latin: Vulgata Clementina | Greek NT: Byzantine/Majority Text (2000) | |
| John 15 |
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| 12. | This is my commandment, that you love one another, as I have loved you. | Hoc est præceptum meum, ut diligatis invicem, sicut dilexi vos. | αυτη εστιν η εντολη η εμη ινα αγαπατε αλληλους καθως ηγαπησα υμας |
| 13. | Greater love than this no man hath, that a man lay down his life for his friends. | Majorem hac dilectionem nemo habet, ut animam suam ponat qui pro amicis suis. | μειζονα ταυτης αγαπην ουδεις εχει ινα τις την ψυχην αυτου θη υπερ των φιλων αυτου |
| 14. | You are my friends, if you do the things that I command you. | Vos amici mei estis, si feceritis quæ ego præcipio vobis. | υμεις φιλοι μου εστε εαν ποιητε οσα εγω εντελλομαι υμιν |
| 15. | I will not now call you servants: for the servant knoweth not what his lord doth. But I have called you friends: because all things whatsoever I have heard of my Father, I have made known to you. | Jam non dicam vos servos : quia servus nescit quid faciat dominus ejus. Vos autem dixi amicos : quia omnia quæcumque audivi a Patre meo, nota feci vobis. | ουκετι υμας λεγω δουλους οτι ο δουλος ουκ οιδεν τι ποιει αυτου ο κυριος υμας δε ειρηκα φιλους οτι παντα α ηκουσα παρα του πατρος μου εγνωρισα υμιν |
| 16. | You have not chosen me: but I have chosen you; and have appointed you, that you should go, and should bring forth fruit; and your fruit should remain: that whatsoever you shall ask of the Father in my name, he may give it you. | Non vos me elegistis, sed ego elegi vos, et posui vos ut eatis, et fructum afferatis, et fructus vester maneat : ut quodcumque petieritis Patrem in nomine meo, det vobis. | ουχ υμεις με εξελεξασθε αλλ εγω εξελεξαμην υμας και εθηκα υμας ινα υμεις υπαγητε και καρπον φερητε και ο καρπος υμων μενη ινα ο τι αν αιτησητε τον πατερα εν τω ονοματι μου δω υμιν |
| 17. | These things I command you, that you love one another. | Hæc mando vobis : ut diligatis invicem. | ταυτα εντελλομαι υμιν ινα αγαπατε αλληλους |
Friday, May 23
Liturgical Color: White
Today the Church honors St. Ivo of
Chartres. He was a counselor to King
Philip I of France whom he criticized for
divorcing and then remarrying. For this
he was imprisoned for several years.
Day 159 - What prepares a person for repentance? // What is penance?
What prepares a person for repentance?
The insight into one's personal guilt produces a longing to better oneself; this is called contrition. We arrive at contrition when we see the contradiction between God's love and our sin. Then we are full of sorrow for our sins; we resolve to change our life and place all our hope in God's help.
The reality of sin is often repressed. Some people even think that guilt feelings should be dealt with in a merely psychological way. But genuine guilt feelings are important. It is like driving an automobile: When the speedometer indicates that the speed limit has been exceeded, the speedometer is not responsible, but the driver is. The closer we come to God, who is all light, the clearer our dark sides come to light also. Yet God is not a light that burns but, rather, a light that heals. That is why repentance impels us to go into the Light in which we will be completely healed.
What is penance?
Penance is making restitution or satisfaction for a wrong that has been committed. Penance must not take place exclusively in my head; I must express it in acts of charity and in solidarity with others. One does penance also by praying, fasting, and supporting the poor spiritually and materially.
Penance is often misunderstood. It has nothing to do with low self-esteem or scrupulosity. Penance is not brooding over what a bad person I am. Penance frees and encourages us to make a new start. (YOUCAT questions 229-230)
Dig Deeper: CCC section (1430-1439) and other references here.
Part 2: The Celebration of the Christian Mystery (1066 - 1690)
Section 2: The Seven Sacraments of the Church (1210 - 1690)
Chapter 2: The Sacraments of Healing (1420 - 1532)
Article 4: The Sacrament of Penance and Reconciliation (1422 - 1498)
IV. INTERIOR PENANCE ⇡
Jesus' call to conversion and penance, like that of the prophets before him, does not aim first at outward works, "sackcloth and ashes," fasting and mortification, but at the conversion of the heart, interior conversion. Without this, such penances remain sterile and false; however, interior conversion urges expression in visible signs, gestures and works of penance.23
23.
Cf. Joel 2:12-13; Isa 1:16-17; Mt 6:1-6, 16-18.
Interior repentance is a radical reorientation of our whole life, a return, a conversion to God with all our heart, an end of sin, a turning away from evil, with repugnance toward the evil actions we have committed. At the same time it entails the desire and resolution to change one's life, with hope in God's mercy and trust in the help of his grace. This conversion of heart is accompanied by a salutary pain and sadness which the Fathers called animi cruciatus (affliction of spirit) and compunctio cordis (repentance of heart).24
24.
Cf. Council Of Trent (1551): DS 1676-1678; 1705; Cf. Roman Catechism, II,V,4.
The human heart is heavy and hardened. God must give man a new heart.25 Conversion is first of all a work of the grace of God who makes our hearts return to him: "Restore us to thyself, O LORD, that we may be restored!"26 God gives us the strength to begin anew. It is in discovering the greatness of God's love that our heart is shaken by the horror and weight of sin and begins to fear offending God by sin and being separated from him. The human heart is converted by looking upon him whom our sins have pierced:27 Let us fix our eyes on Christ's blood and understand how precious it is to his Father, for, poured out for our salvation it has brought to the whole world the grace of repentance.28
25.
Cf. Ezek 36:26-27.
26.
27.
Cf. Jn 19:37; Zech 12:10.
28.
St. Clement Of Rome, Ad Cor. 7,4:PG 1,224.
Since Easter, the Holy Spirit has proved "the world wrong about sin,"29 i.e., proved that the world has not believed in him whom the Father has sent. But this same Spirit who brings sin to light is also the Consoler who gives the human heart grace for repentance and conversion.30
29.
Cf. Jn 16:8-9.
30.
Cf. Jn 15:26; Acts 2:36-38; John Paul II, DeV 27-48.
V. THE MANY FORMS OF PENANCE IN CHRISTIAN LIFE ⇡
The interior penance of the Christian can be expressed in many and various ways. Scripture and the Fathers insist above all on three forms, fasting, prayer, and almsgiving,31 which express conversion in relation to oneself, to God, and to others. Alongside the radical purification brought about by Baptism or martyrdom they cite as means of obtaining forgiveness of sins: effort at reconciliation with one's neighbor, tears of repentance, concern for the salvation of one's neighbor, the intercession of the saints, and the practice of charity "which covers a multitude of sins."32
31.
32.
Conversion is accomplished in daily life by gestures of reconciliation, concern for the poor, the exercise and defense of justice and right,33 by the admission of faults to one's brethren, fraternal correction, revision of life, examination of conscience, spiritual direction, acceptance of suffering, endurance of persecution for the sake of righteousness. Taking up one's cross each day and following Jesus is the surest way of penance.34
33.
34.
Cf. Lk 9:23.
Eucharist and Penance. Daily conversion and penance find their source and nourishment in the Eucharist, for in it is made present the sacrifice of Christ which has reconciled us with God. Through the Eucharist those who live from the life of Christ are fed and strengthened. "It is a remedy to free us from our daily faults and to preserve us from mortal sins."35
35.
Council Of Trent (1551): DS 1638.
Reading Sacred Scripture, praying the Liturgy of the Hours and the Our Father — every sincere act of worship or devotion revives the spirit of conversion and repentance within us and contributes to the forgiveness of our sins.
The seasons and days of penance in the course of the liturgical year (Lent, and each Friday in memory of the death of the Lord) are intense moments of the Church's penitential practice.36 These times are particularly appropriate for spiritual exercises, penitential liturgies, pilgrimages as signs of penance, voluntary self-denial such as fasting and almsgiving, and fraternal sharing (charitable and missionary works).
36.
Cf. SC 109-110; CIC, cann. 1249-1253; CCEO, Cann. 880-883.
The process of conversion and repentance was described by Jesus in the parable of the prodigal son, the center of which is the merciful father:37 the fascination of illusory freedom, the abandonment of the father's house; the extreme misery in which the son finds himself after squandering his fortune; his deep humiliation at finding himself obliged to feed swine, and still worse, at wanting to feed on the husks the pigs ate; his reflection on all he has lost; his repentance and decision to declare himself guilty before his father; the journey back; the father's generous welcome; the father's joy — all these are characteristic of the process of conversion. The beautiful robe, the ring, and the festive banquet are symbols of that new life — pure worthy, and joyful — of anyone who returns to God and to the bosom of his family, which is the Church. Only the heart of Christ who knows the depths of his Father's love could reveal to us the abyss of his mercy in so simple and beautiful a way.
37.
Cf. Lk 15:11-24.
Daily Readings for:May 23, 2014
(Readings on USCCB website)
Collect: Grant us, Lord, we pray, that, being rightly conformed to the paschal mysteries, what we celebrate in joy may protect and save us with perpetual power. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.
RECIPES
o Veal Cutlets in Marsala Wine
ACTIVITIES
o Practical Suggestions for Christian Living (Confirmation)
PRAYERS
o May Devotion: Blessed Virgin Mary
o Litany of the Blessed Virgin Mary (Litany of Loretto)
· Easter: May 23rd
· Friday of the Fifth Week of Easter
Old Calendar: St. Julia of Corsica, virgin &martyr (Hist); St. John Baptist de Rossi, priest (Hist)
Historically today is the feast of St. Julia of Corsica, also known as Saint Julia of Carthage, and more rarely Saint Julia of Nonza, was a virgin martyr. The date of her death is most probably on or after AD 439. She, along with Saint Devota, are the patron saints of Corsica. Saint Julia was declared a patroness of Corsica by the Church on August 5, 1809; Saint Devota, on March 14, 1820. Both were martyred in pre-Christian Corsica under Roman rule.
It is also historically the feast of St. John Baptist de Rossi who was from Genoa, and studied and worked in Rome before becoming a priest there and a canon of Santa Maria in Cosmedin . He worked tirelessly for homeless women, the sick, prisoners and workers, and was a very popular confessor, being called a second Philip Neri.
St. Julia of Corsica
St. Julia was a noble virgin of Carthage, who, when the city was taken by Genseric in 489, was sold for a slave to a pagan merchant of Syria named Eusebius. Under the most mortifying employments of her station, by cheerfulness and patience she found a happiness and comfort which the world could not have afforded.
All the time she was not employed in her master's business was devoted to prayer and reading books of piety. Her master, who was charmed with her fidelity and other virtues, carried her with him on one of his voyages to Gaul. Having reached the northern part of Corsica, he cast anchor, and went on shore to join the pagans of the place in an idolatrous festival. Julia was left at some distance, because she would not be defiled by the superstitious ceremonies which she openly reviled.
Felix, the governor of the island, who was a bigoted pagan, asked who this woman was who dared to insult the gods. Eusebius informed him that she was a Christian, and that all his authority over her was too weak to prevail with her to renounce her religion, but that he found her so diligent and faithful he could not part with her. The governor offered him four of his best female slaves in exchange for her. But the merchant replied, "No; all you are worth will not purchase her; for I would freely lose the most valuable thing I have in the world rather than be deprived of her." However, the governor, while Eusebius was drunk and asleep, took upon him to compel her to sacrifice to his gods. He offered to procure her liberty if she would comply. The Saint made answer that she was as free as she desired to be as long as she was allowed to serve Jesus Christ. Felix, thinking himself derided by her undaunted and resolute air, in a transport of rage caused her to be struck on the face, and the hair of head to be torn off, and lastly, ordered her to be hanged on a cross till she expired. Certain monks of the isle of Gorgon carried off her body; but in 768 Desiderius, King Of Lombardy, removed her relics to Breseia, where her memory is celebrated with great devotion.
St. Julia, whether free or a slave, whether in prosperity or in adversity, was equally fervent and devout. She adored all the sweet designs of Providence; and far from complaining, she never ceased to praise and thank God under all his holy appointments, making them always the means of her virtue and sanctification. God, by an admirable chain of events, raised her by her fidelity to the honour of the saints, and to the dignity of a virgin and martyr.
Excerpted from Butler's Lives of the Saints
Things to Do:
St. John Baptist de Rossi
St. John was born at Voltaggio in the Diocese of Genoa on February 22, 1698 and died at Rome on May 23, 1764. His parents, Charles de Rossi and Frances Anfossi, were not rich in earthly goods, but had solid piety and the esteem of their fellow-citizens. Of their four children, John excelled in gentleness and piety. At the age of ten he was taken to Genoa by friends for his education. There he received news of the death of his father.
After three years he was called to Rome by a relative, Lorenzo de Rossi, who was canon at St. Mary in Cosmedin. He pursued his studies at the Collegium Romanum under the direction of the Jesuits, and soon became a model by his talents, application to study, and virtue. As a member of the Sodality of the Blessed Virgin and of the Ristretto of the Twelve Apostles established at the college, he led the members in the meetings and pious exercises, in visits to the sick in the hospitals and in other works of mercy, and merited even then the name of apostle.
At the age of sixteen he entered the clerical state. Owing to indiscreet practices of mortification he contracted spells of epilepsy, notwithstanding which he made his course of scholastic philosophy and theology, in the college of the Dominicans, and, with dispensation, was ordained priest on 8 March, 1721. Having reached the desired goal, he bound himself by vow to accept no ecclesiastical benefice unless commanded by obedience. He fulfilled the duties of the sacred ministry by devoting himself to the laborers, herds, and teamsters of the Campagna, preaching to them early in the morning, or late in the evening, at the old Forum Romanum (Campo Vaccino), and by visiting, instructing, and assisting the poor at the hospital of St. Galla. In 1731 he established near St. Galla another hospital as a home of refuge for the unfortunates who wander the city by night ("Rom. Brev.", tr. Bute, Summer, 573).
In 1735 he became titular canon at St. Mary in Cosmedin, and, on the death of Lorenzo two years later, obedience forced him to accept the canonry. The house belonging to it, however, he would not use, but employed the rent for good purposes.
For a number of years John was afraid, on account of his sickness, to enter the confessional, and it was his custom to send to other priests the sinners whom he had brought to repentance by his instructions and sermons. In 1738 a dangerous sickness befell him, and to regain his health he went to Cività Castellana, a day's journey from Rome. The bishop of the place induced him to hear confessions, and after reviewing his moral theology he received the unusual faculty of hearing confessions in any of the churches of Rome. He showed extraordinary zeal in the exercise of this privilege, and spent many hours every day in hearing the confessions of the illiterate and the poor whom he sought in the hospitals and in their homes. He preached to such five and six times a day in churches, chapels, convents, hospitals, barracks, and prison cells, so that he became the apostle of the abandoned, a second Philip Neri, a hunter of souls.
In 1763, worn out by such labors and continued ill-health, his strength began to ebb away, and after several attacks of paralysis he died at his quarters in Trinità de' Pellegrini. He was buried in that church under a marble slab at the altar of the Blessed Virgin. God honoured his servant by miracles, and only seventeen years after his death the process of beatification was begun, but the troubled state of Europe during the succeeding years prevented progress in the cause until it was resumed by Pius IX, who on 13 May, 1860, solemnly pronounced his beatification. As new signs still distinguished him, Leo XIII, on 8 December, 1881, enrolled him among the saints.
Excerpted from The Catholic Encyclopedia
Patron: of the abandoned
Things to Do:
5th Week of Easter
I have called you friends. (John 15:15)
Doesn’t that make your heart skip? Jesus has called you his friend. You aren’t a slave or a subject or a liability. You are a friend, sharing a mutual trust and affection with him. The Son of God has chosen you. He has set his heart on you so that you can bear fruit for his kingdom, fruit that will last.
Lasting fruit—this isn’t an impossible goal, because Jesus, your friend, has given you access to his Father and all the resources of heaven. As a friend, he freely shares his Father’s thoughts and plans with you. And this is precisely what can make you have a lasting effect on the world. Because Jesus has his Father’s permission to give us whatever we ask for in his name, we will always have whatever we need to bear fruit. This is a far cry from slaves fulfilling their master’s whims. It’s a loving collaboration!
The only condition Jesus makes is that we love one another by laying down our lives for each other, just as he did for us (John 15:13).
Now, few of us will end up physically dying for someone else, but that’s not really an obstacle. We all have opportunities to practice self-sacrificing love every day. We can “die” by not insisting on our own ideas in an argument. We can die by doing something as simple as agreeing to watch a television show someone else chooses or by giving up a little bit of our time to get to know a new neighbor. Kids can do it by giving up some computer time to run a load of laundry for tired parents. Maybe we can visit with someone who lives alone or cook a meal for a neighbor who is sick or has a newborn. There is no shortage of ways we can lay down our lives!
The best news is that God will give us whatever strength, kindness, self-control, or patience we need to fulfill this call. We’re friends of his Son, and he is a very generous God.
“Thank you, Jesus, for calling me your friend. Pour your grace into my heart so that it overflows to those around me today. I trust that you will give me all the resources I need to bear fruit that will last.”
Acts 15:22-31; Psalm 57:8-10, 12
Daily Marriage Tip for May 23, 2014:
“Marriage is a public good, not just a private relationship. We have a public stake in healthy marriages…. Our society suffers with the collapse of the relationship of the couple who brings a child into the world.” (Bill Doherty) Support others’ marriages too.
It is enough that you come to me
Friday, 23 May 2014 16:45
My Heart is open to your prayers.
My Heart is ready, at every moment, to receive you, to welcome you,
to keep you close to Me in an an exchange of love.
It is not difficult to hold conversation with Me.
It is enough that you come to Me
with a humble faith,
with an expectant faith,
adoring Me,
and trusting in My love for you.
Be here for me as I am here for you.
Let your presence
be your response to My presence.
This is so simple.
Souls who find prayer difficult,
who struggle to pray,
and go away discouraged,
have only to come to Me
and to remain still in My presence.
The Holy Spirit will cause the prayer that I desire to well up inside them.
They will begin to pray
in spite of all their resistances to My grace,
their struggles and their discouragement.
This prayer is easy for those who,
believing that I want to hold conversation with souls,
come to Me and simply begin to pray.
I ask not for words, nor thoughts,nor constructions of the human intelligence.
I ask only for the submission of the heart
and, then, for the surrender of the heart
to My own Heart’s burning love.
(From In Sinu Iesu, The Journal of a Priest)
And, then, there is silence
Friday, 23 May 2014 18:56
There are souls for whom
a little reading in My presence
is a good and profitable thing,
a way of entering into silent communion
with the thoughts of My Heart.
Such souls should read
until they begin to feel a movement of the heart towards Me.
Let them follow that movement
as far as it takes themand, then, let them return to reading
until, at length, I draw them out of themselves
into a loving union with Me
that is all silence and peace.
It is normal to want to make use of words
but, in the end, words will not be enough
and, then, there is silence,
the silence of union and of love.
(From In Sinu Iesu, The Journal of a Priest
| The Command to Love | ||
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John 15:12-17 Jesus said to his disciples: "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, bove one another." Introductory Prayer: I believe in you, O Lord, in your great love for me. You are my creator and redeemer. I trust in your friendship; I trust that you will share with me all the insights and desires to love as you have loved. I love you, Lord, for you have loved me first. I want to love you by helping to bring your love and life to others. Petition: With the love of your heart, inflame my heart! 1. A Commandment: “And can love be commanded?” Pope-Emeritus Benedict XVI poses this very objection in his encyclical, “Deus Caritas Est.”. Love is not merely a sentiment; it is an act of will. “God does not demand of us a feeling which we ourselves are incapable of producing” (n. 17). We cannot be ordered to “like” someone or to “fall in love”, but we can “choose to love” our enemies. More importantly, when we experience God’s love for us, the joy of being loved leads us to want to respond to that love. And God has loved us first: “It was not you who chose me….” We experience his love for us as an ongoing reality each time we receive the sacraments, but also each time we reflect on the fact that he is keeping us in existence. This personal experience enables us both to understand love and want to share it. 2. Friends: Like love, friendship is easily misrepresented in today’s world, for it is more than convenience, mutual tolerance or mutual utility. Friends not only share love, they share secrets and intimate knowledge. Love leads “to a community of will and thought” (idem). I want to know what my friend is thinking and desiring so that I can share in those thoughts and even satisfy those desires. “The love-story between God and man consists in the very fact that this communion of will increases in a communion of thought and sentiment, and thus our will and God´s will increasingly coincide: God´s will is no longer for me an alien will, something imposed on me from without by the commandments, but it is now my own will based on the realization that God is in fact more deeply present to me than I am to myself” (idem). 3. Chosen to Bear Fruit: Jesus’ commands are few, but they all have to do with love: “Do this in memory of me”; “Love one another”; “Love your enemies”; “Go and make disciples of all nations”, etc. The essential and urgent nature of this command of love is linked to the very mission of Christ. We are chosen and have been appointed to go and love others. If this love is authentic, grown from the vine of his love and great in sacrifice, it will bear fruit. The fruit which lasts, that for which he died, is an eternal life of friendship with God. What others most need from me then, is not material goods or consolation, or even my friendship, but an experience of God’s love for them, namely, knowledge of Christ. “Seeing with the eyes of Christ, I can give others much more than their outward necessities; I can give them the look of love which they crave” (ibid., n. 18). Conversation with Christ: Dear Lord Jesus, grant me a constant, growing desire to live your commandment of love. Awaken in me an awareness of your ever-present love in my life. Let this inspire me to love without measure, without distinction of persons, without fears of losing all that is less than love. Resolution: I will choose to serve someone today, not because I feel the desire to do so, but for love of Christ. |
May 23, 2014
There are four observations worth noting in this commandment of love: First, love we are told here, isn’t about feeling. Love entails a relationship which goes beyond the realm of feelings and emotions. Though emotions are involved, at its heart, love is a decision to seek the good of others. Loving as Jesus does means offering what is the most loving thing you can do for a particular person in a particular moment. A true lover gives the best he can offer and is willing to sacrifice everything he has for the beloved. Jesus gave his very life for us so that we have everlasting life with the Father. Sometimes, laying down our lives as Jesus does entails nothing more than to help someone who is handicapped, to take the time to visit the sick, or to offer comfort to someone who is in grief.
Second, Jesus is seeking intimate friendship with us, but He gives condition for his friendship. Friendship with Jesus is not a casual relationship. It demands “abiding,” being loyal and obedient. We just can’t love another without some surrender of our will.
Third, Jesus is accepting us as his friends, not as his slaves. A slave is expected to do what his master instructs him to do, whether or not he likes it, and whether or not he understands why he is commanded to do it. But as Jesus’ friends, we share a mutual trust and affection with him. As we become Jesus’ friends, he will disclose his plans and purposes to us. He will share his thinking, his goals, and his motivations for doing things. We will come to know his heart and mind. We will experience a greater degree of insight into the Scriptures. We will hear the voice of God more clearly. Our thoughts will become more like his thoughts. We will carry out his purposes on earth as they are in heaven.
Fourth, Jesus wants us to love one another just as he loves us, whole-heartedly and without reserve. His love fills our hearts and transforms our minds and frees us to give ourselves in loving service to others. If we open our hearts to his love and obey his command to love our neighbor, then we will bear much fruit in our lives, fruit that will last for eternity.
During this Easter season, let us develop our friendship with Jesus, from casual to intimate so that we may become like Jesus willing to be put out for others, desirous to bear fruit that is pleasing to our loving Father.
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