"This I command you, to love one another"

First Reading:Acts 1:15-17, 20-26
Gospel : John 15:9-17

We have entered the final week before the feast of Ascension of our Lord, which will be celebrated coming Sunday.

I do not know the reason, but the Gospel reading for today was same as yesterday (Sunday Mass). If anyone can enlighten me with the reason, I would be very grateful. The title of the post is the last verse of today's passage "This I command you, to love one another". It pretty much sums up 2nd of the two commandments which the Lord gave for us, the first being 'Love God with all your heart, mind and strength.'

Let’s start with the first reading from The Acts, though. The disciples are now 11 in number because Judas had committed suicide in self condemnation after betraying Jesus at the Garden of Gethsamane. They decide to take in one more member to bring the no. of disciples back to 12. And the criteria they set for themselves is very interesting and note worthy. The criterion for selection was that he must be a man who had been with Jesus right from the baptism of Jesus at the Jordan to the time He ascended from earth into heaven. In other words, the new 12th disciple should be someone,

-         Who knew Jesus in and out.

-         Knew and (beleived) the reason why Jesus came into this world.

-       Knew what the master went through (Baptism,Passion,Crucifixion,Death & Ressurrection) and experienced what the master went through, at least in some measure.

-         Who partook in the divine master’s very life. 

And I wondered If I were to apply these requirements to my life, ie, if I were to apply for the post of the 12^th disciple, how much of a chance do I have in getting the job. I think it will be what a corporate HR guy will call “a Fitment issue”. The 11 chose Mathias as the 12th disciple and today we also celebrate the feast of St.Mathias.

Coming to the Gospel, I found this faint, yet beautiful link to the 1^st reading. Verse # 15 (No longer do I call you servants………but friends for I have made known to you all that I have known from my father.) The Lord is forging a new kind of relationship with His disciples. No longer is it a slave-master relationship. Infact, it’s not even a God-believer relationship but God Himself now intends to take this relationship to a new level of intimacy. He boldly claims that His love for them (us) cannot be matched as he says in verse 13 “Greater love has no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.” And He urges us to love one another as He has loved us. Now that's a pretty challenging ask. A point worth deeply meditating upon.