Message of Abbot Paul - Friday 12th May 2023
Abbot Paul • May 12, 2023
Yesterday, I had the joy of visiting my mother together with Toby, my canine companion in the monastic life. The weather was touch and go, as it invariably is in the U.K., but God was good to us and we had a glorious window of opportunity that enabled us to spend a couple of hours on the beach, better than an antihistamine for my hay fever and a chance for Toby to have some serious exercise, especially as the tide was out and we had the vast expanse of sand to ourselves. I’ll attach a few photographs. The return journey, swift and traffic-free, from Pontrilas onwards was accompanied by the most gloriously rich rainbow I have ever seen, which had several reflections in the clouds.
Our Gospel passage today follows on from yesterday’s, (Jn 15: 12-17), in which Jesus gives his disciples his own personal commandment, which sums up the ten that his Father gave to Moses for the people of Israel on Mount Sinai.
“This is my commandment:
love one another,
as I have loved you.
A man can have no greater love
than to lay down his life for his friends.
You are my friends,
if you do what I command you.
I shall not call you servants any more,
because a servant does not know
his master’s business;
I call you friends,
because I have made known to you
everything I have learnt from my Father.
You did not choose me:
no, I chose you;
and I commissioned you
to go out and to bear fruit,
fruit that will last;
and then the Father will give you
anything you ask him in my name.
What I command you is to love one another.”
We are to love one another as Christ has loved us and that is by laying down our lives for one another. True friendship that lies at the heart of all relationships, including marriage or monastic life, is sacrificial, a total self-giving and self-emptying, for this is what Jesus did for us when he died on the Cross. Jesus calls us his friends, for he has shared everything with us, even his body and blood and the fulness of his Holy Spirit. He has given us, according to his Father’s will, his own self and in doing so has reconciled us with the Father and with one other. In Christ, the Father has given all he has to give to his beloved children, and we have been chosen to go out and bear fruit, fruit that will last for all eternity. Jesus reiterates, “What I command you is to love one another.”
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