Fifth Tuesday of Easter

Your friends make known, O Lord, the glorious splendor of your kingdom. Let all your works give you thanks, O LORD, and let your faithful ones bless you. Let them discourse of the glory of your kingdom and speak of your might.

God asks all of us to be His friends. Think about that for a moment. Our Creator, our Redeemer, our Advocate wants to be our friend. He wants to know, love, and serve us as friends do. He wants us to be with Him as much as He is with us. He constantly builds our relationship up through grace and compassion. He does small and great things for us and our good just as a good friend would. It is only right and good that we respond in kind to Him and do what He calls us to do... to love Him and all His children as He loves us.

Are we living up to our calling to be friends of our Lord? How do we make God known to others? What can we do to become better prophets of the Word?

O Lord, make us into good and faithful friends to you and all your children.

Amen.

Memorial of Saint Elizabeth of Hungary, Religious

Beloved, you are faithful in all you do for the brothers and sisters, especially for strangers; they have testified to your love before the Church. Please help them in a way worthy of God to continue their journey. For they have set out for the sake of the Name and are accepting nothing from the pagans. Therefore, we ought to support such persons, so that we may be co-workers in the truth.

Hospitality and friendliness toward strangers are virtues we all should strive for in our lives. Jesus was kind and welcoming to all who came to him, even those whom others saw as unclean, evil, or beneath their notice. Jesus did not care who a person was, he only saw the image of God within others and sought to renew and magnify that image in each person by showing them love and compassion. He supported all who came to him to the best of his abilities. He cured the sick, the lame, the possessed. He forgave sins. He poured out his graces and powers to bring as many as he could to the Way, the Truth, and the Life. If we want to be true imitators of Jesus, then we must do the same for all whom we meet in this life. Willing to help the needy, comfort the sick and sorrowing, protect the weak, and be faithful witnesses to all who come to us for aid.

Are we hospitable and friendly even to those whom we do not know or like? How can transform our own hearts into the welcoming heart of Jesus? What can we do to magnify the Lord in ourselves and others?

O Lord, make us faithful in all we do for your brothers and sisters.

Amen.

Seventh Friday of Ordinary Time

A faithful friend is a sturdy shelter; he who finds one finds a treasure. A faithful friend is beyond price, no sum can balance his worth. A faithful friend is a life-saving remedy, such as he who fears God finds; for he who fears God behaves accordingly, and his friend will be like himself.

There are many types of false friends. There are friends who only stay with us as long as we fit into their plans or further their goals. There are friends who become our enemies for selfish reasons. There are fair-weather friends who flee at the first sign of trouble. These are not the types of friends we want in our lives. They pressure us to do things we should not do. They betray us. They abandon us in our times of need. It is only the faithful friend who will support, forgive, and shelter us no matter what comes our way. They give us the greatest treasure there is... their love. And in return, we should be their faithful friend, their shelter in the storms of life, and their life-saving remedy. True friendships are forever. They will last, like God’s Love lasts, because they emulate the love God the Father has for His Son... the love that is alive in the Holy Spirit, who is alive in us.

How can we get rid of the false friends in our lives? What can we do to discern good from bad friends? How can we become faithful friends to others?

O Lord, make us and our friends faithful to each other.

Amen.

Feast of Saint Matthias, Apostle

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.

Jesus laid down his life for us, not just as our Savior, but also as our truest friend. It is hard to imagine God being our friend and yet Jesus sacrificed himself for us and is always with us in good times and bad. He loves us with everything he is and his greatest commandment asks us to love God and others with all that we are. Even more astounding is the fact that he chose us to be his friends, disciples, and beloved ones. All he asks in return is that we share his infinite love with those around us and bear abundant fruit that will remain always. We should be honored, humbled, and grateful for this joyous truth: Jesus is our friend, our beginning and our end.

Do we act like Jesus is our friend? Do we treat his teachings as coming from someone who truly loves us? What can we do to imitate his love?

O Lord, you chose us to be your friends, give us the graces we need to bear much fruit.

Amen.

The Fifth Friday of Easter

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.

Being friends and followers of Christ can be challenging, especially when Jesus asks us to love one another as he loves us. He knows, loves, and serves us perfectly. That is a tall and impossible task for us. However, he does not expect us to be perfect. That is why he gave us the Holy Spirit to inspire and guide us. He gave us the Church and its sacraments to sustain and nurture us. We all will fall and fail from time to time, but part of being friends with Christ is knowing that he will always be there to pick us off the ground, dust us off, and never abandon us when we need him. By choosing to love God and others to the best of our abilities, we free ourselves from our selfish inclinations and are better able to overcome our temptations and avoid sins. Of course, loving God requires more than just lip service. It also requires us to risk ourselves, to go out into the vineyard of souls, and help with the harvest. We are asked to bear fruit that will remain and we do this best when we love our families, friends, neighbors, and even enemies. This fruit can be big or small. It matters not to God. The only thing He sees is the love behind our thoughts, words, and works.

Have we been following Jesus’ commandment to love one another as he loves us? Are we willing to lay down our lives for our friends? Do we ground our every decision in love so that no matter how great or small our actions might be, they are filled with love?

O Lord, grant us the grace to love one another as you love us.

Amen.

Fifth Friday of Easter

“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.”

We are not slaves, but friends of Christ. What a wonderful thing it is to be friends with the Lord of All Good and no longer slaves to sin! Jesus words in the gospels are a constant reminder to us that he came to free and love us with his whole body, heart, soul, and divinity. He didn’t have to do this, he could have given us a thousand commandments, but instead he gives us just the one to love one another as he loves us. What a wondrous and boundless love it is! We can only hope to love a fraction as well as Jesus did in his life, but with God’s help we can move mountains with our faith and withstand trials and tribulations with our hope. And with love, all things are possible.

What sins are we enslaved to? How can we allow God to free us from them? How often do we thank Jesus for being a friend who is always with us?

O Lord, you have freed us from sin and raised us up as your friends.

Amen.

Fifth Thursday of Easter

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.

Love one another as I love you. What a commandment we have been given by Christ! Jesus loves us with his whole body, blood, soul, and divinity. He loves us perfectly with total desire for us, friendship towards us, and self-gift for us. The mere thought of trying to match his true love with our human and imperfect love is a challenge beyond our own abilities. However, God gives us the graces we need to love others with a pure desire, to befriend them, and to become living sacrifices of love for others. We have only to let go and let God love through us, imperfect though we made be. If we do that, then we can love perfectly by allowing God’s love to flow through us without alteration or resistance. When we do this, then we truly lay down our lives for our friends.

How do we live out this commandment to love one another as Jesus loves us? What things do we do to prepare our hearts, souls, minds, and bodies to love as they ought to love? What truly loving sacrifices do we make for others?

O Lord, show us how to love more perfectly.

Amen.