Thursday in the Fifth Week of Easter, May 22, 2025

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.”

“Remain in my love.”  The Greek verb here means “remain” in the sense of “to abide” and “to dwell”.  The Lord Jesus loves us as fully as the Father loves him and as he loves the Father.  He calls us to stop loving the things of this world so that we might begin to love him fully, as he loves us.  Then he calls us to dwell in his love, to make our home in it as though it were a structure: psalm 23, 6: I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever.  His love is like a house in four ways: it is a shelter against the storms of this world .  Psalm 45, 1: “God is our refuge and our strength.”; It is a place of rest.  Psalm 126, 2: “He shall give sleep to his beloved.” Psalm 131, 2: “As a child has rest in its mother’s arms, even so my soul.”; It is where we live in harmony with others. Psalm 133, 1: How good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity.; It is a place of nourishment. 11, 5: He gives food to those who fear him”.

“If you keep my commandments, you will remain in my love.”  Jesus summons us to “remain” in the house of his love.  We do this through our persevering faith, through our good works, through obedience to his commandments, and through our continual worship of him.  The Lord Jesus says, “Whoever commits sin is the slave of sin.  Now the slave abides not in the house for ever: but the son abides for ever.”  Through Baptism and with these actions we conform ourselves to the Son and become his brothers and sisters.  Matthew 12, 50: “Whoever shall do the will of my Father, that is in heaven, he is my brother, and sister.”

“That my joy might be in you and your joy might be complete.”  The one who loves greatly desires to give joy to the one he loves.  The joy of Jesus Christ is the divine joy which he has with the Father and Holy Spirit in heaven.  It is unending bliss and ecstasy in the cascade of God’s light and love.  The greatest human joy only hints at what is to come.  1 Corinthians 2, 9: “Eye has not seen, nor ear heard: neither has it entered into the heart of man, what things God has prepared for them that love him.”

Forsaking all that distracts us from him rather than leads us to him — shaking the world’s dust off our feet — we make our home in his love.