Gospel: May 2, 2024
(Thursday)
5th Week of Easter
Psalter: Week 1 / (White)
St. Athanasius, bishop & doctor
Responsorial Psalm: Ps 96: 1-2a, 2b-3, 10
1st Reading: Act 15: 7-21
Gospel: John 15: 9-11
As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you. Remain in my love! You will remain in my love if you keep my commandments, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and remain in his love.
I have told you all this, that my own joy may be in you, and your joy may be complete.
Reflection: “Remain in His love.”
Many times, we tend to confuse true joy with fleeting enjoyment. On the one hand, true joy is felt from within when we know that we have given ourselves to others in the name of love, which is one of the truest realities in life. On the other hand, momentary enjoyment is external, fleeting and incomplete, and which on the contrary, can blur our perception of our true selves. We aspire to attain the true joy, the complete joy, the joy that Jesus offers us in the name of pure love. In today’s Gospel, Jesus invited his disciples to remain in his love. Jesus first let them experience his love all throughout the time that they were together. Now then, in today’s Gospel passage, Jesus called them to remain in the love they experienced with him. Jesus shared with them his love. If they would remain in Jesus’ love, Jesus would also share with them his joy—the joy that would complete the joy of his disciples. The only way to experience complete joy is to abide by the love with which Jesus has loved us.
