Dear Fathers, Friends in Christ,
Acts 1:15-17, 20-26
Psalm 113:1-2, 3-4, 5-6, 7-8
John 15:9-17
Jesus, in today's gospel, calls us His friends, because He has told us everything He has heard from His Father. As a result, those who are friends of Jesus have access to the secrets of the Father that others do not have.
If this were all that was involved in being Jesus' friend, one might think that to be a friend of Jesus was an easy and comfortable sort of experience, but, as Jesus also said, to be His friend means also keeping His commandments, and even more to be willing to lay down our lives for Him as He says:
No one has greater love than this, to lay down one's life for one's friends.
(John 15:13)
In the end then, being Jesus' friend is more than having our needs met, more than a deep sharing of one to another; it means giving our all to Him as He had given His all to us so that we could be His friends. Do you thus value what Jesus has shared with you about the Father to keep the commandments, and lay down your life for Him as Saints and Martyrs did ?
Father Ed Bakker
Anglican Catholic Church / Original Province
Mission of Saint Aidan of Lindisfarne
Bendigo
Australia
