John 15,12-17 – Friday of the V Week of Easter
Jesus delivers a single legacy to his disciples, and today’s Gospel clearly reminds us of this: “This is my commandment: that you love one another as I have loved you”. It is not simply the invitation to mutual love. It’s something more demanding: a love that resembles his. And what is the measure of Christ’s love? Jesus himself says it: “Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.”
Christian love has this characteristic: it is a love that knows how to give itselfwho does not hold back, who reaches the point of giving himself. It is not a vague feeling, but a concrete choice. But there is an even more surprising passage: “I no longer call you servants… but I have called you friends.” Jesus does not simply view us as followers, devotees, or admirers. He calls us friends. And friendship changes everything. A friend is someone you talk to openly, someone in front of whom you don’t play a role. It is a direct, personal relationship, without masks. It’s nice to think that Jesus addresses us like thisface to face. And then a question arises: are we capable of standing before Him in the same way? Do we know how to talk to him as friends?
This form of dialogue is called prayer. Not a formal repetition of words, but a meeting. Talking and listening in a face-to-face relationship between friends who love each other and for whom they would give their lives. Today’s Gospel invites us precisely to do this: to move from a faith lived as a duty and form to a faith lived as friendship. Because it is only within this friendship that love becomes possible, concrete, true. When I was little they taught me a song that I laughed at many times when I grew up because it seemed too banal to me. But as I grew up I realized that it was a song that had taught me to say the only thing that matters: “I have a friend who loves me…his name is Jesus”. The catechist who taught it to us is now in heaven, and I am sure she is smiling knowing about this public confession of mine.
Friday 8 May 2026 – (Friday of the V Week of Easter)
