John 15.9-17 – Saint Matthias, Apostle – Feast
Loving has joy as its symptom. This is the key to understanding the commandment that Jesus gives us in today’s Gospel: “This is my commandment: that you love one another as I have loved you”, and shortly after he adds: “so that my joy may be in you and your joy may be full”. Love, therefore, is not just a duty, but a source of joy. Jesus seems to tell us: if you truly love, as I have loved, you will discover that this fills your life.
This, however, does not mean that love is something easy or naive. Authentic love knows effort, it knows sacrifice, it also knows pain. Jesus demonstrates this in the most radical way, climbing the cross. Sometimes love is cross-shaped for many different reasons. Yet, even within this effort, there is something different: when you truly love, even sacrifice brings with it a profound joy. Not a superficial joy, but an inner peace, a fullness that arises precisely from the gift.
But all this is experienced by people who do not use love to fill their voids, but who they choose the same way as Christ: “Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.” Those who live like this discover that love does not impoverish, but enriches, but only because a love like this is not just our matter but is God himself at work in us. Whoever loves like this, loves from God and it is He who makes the difference.
Thursday 14 May 2026 – (St. Matthias, Apostle – Feast)
