Daily Gospel Reflection
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May 14, 2022
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.”
At a recent Archdiocesan Synodal Discernment retreat near my hometown, a common theme emerged. Whatever recommendations we shared with the group needed to be grounded in and motivated from a place of love. This got me thinking, “What exactly is love?”
We know love when we see it in action—a mother’s love for her child, the spousal love of happily married couples, or even the love I see that our priest has for our parish.
Defining love with the right words, however, is not easy. St. Paul gives us perhaps the best known definition of love in chapter 13 of his first letter to the Corinthians. St. John Henry Newman once said, “Love is the gentle, tranquil, satisfied acquiescence and adherence of the soul in the contemplation of God.”
In today’s gospel, Jesus speaks to us of his new “commandment: love one another as I love you.” He also tells us to abide in his love as he abides in his Father’s love.
I’m not sure we will be able to fully conceive of the love the Father has for us until we are with him in heaven, where all that remains is that love. Of course, God’s love is always present, always forgiving, and all-encompassing, but our minds strain to comprehend the little part we see and feel here on Earth.
Jesus gives us an idea of both his and God’s love when he tells us, “Greater love has no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.” And Jesus laid down his life not just for his friends, but for all mankind.
All we need to do is look at the Cross. There is the truest definition of love in word and in deed.
Prayer
O God, you choose us this day to remain in your love as we encounter those we meet. Help us to grow in our ability to love others as fully as you have loved us in giving your life for us. Give us the patience and understanding we need to see the good in others, to see and love in them what you see and love in all of your children. We ask this through Christ our Lord. Amen.
Saint of the Day
St. Matthias was the man who was elected to replace Judas as the twelfth apostles after Jesus' Ascension.
Because Judas committed suicide, the Apostles found themselves lacking a twelfth member. The number twelve is important in the Hebrew and Christian Scriptures: Jesus had called Twelve Apostles because twelve was a Jewish number of wholeness, represented in the twelve tribes of Israel. It was important for the disciples to find someone to replace Judas.
They gathered after the ascension and had two candidates in mind—Joseph, also known as Barsabas, and Matthias. Both had come from the wider circle of 72 who had been following Jesus since his baptism by John. The disciples prayed, then cast lots; Matthias was chosen.
Soon after his election, Matthias received the Holy Spirit with the other disciples at Pentecost. He preached the good news of Jesus in Judea before going to other lands. Tradition tells of his travels among the Greeks, though the historical record is scant. It is said that he became a martyr for the faith when he was crucified by the people he was trying to convert there.
The relics of St. Matthias rest in the reliquary chapel in the Basilica, and his image is used here with permission from Catholic.org.
St. Matthias, you were elected to replace Judas as the twelfth apostle after Jesus rose—pray for us!
Image Credit: Our featured image of St. Matthias is in the public domain. Last accessed March 6, 2025 on Wikimedia Commons.
