Dear Friends

“If you love me you will keep my commandments,” says Jesus to us today in the gospel of John. We could say that is a very strong statement by Jesus. Does this mean that every time we sin we do not love Jesus? Yes. Although we love Jesus, every time we commit sin we love something or someone else more than Jesus. If we love Jesus more than anything else we will keep ourselves free from sin for Jesus. If we love Jesus we will strive to give ourselves totally to him. When we sin we are giving ourselves to something other than Jesus or to somebody other than Jesus. And when we love Jesus with all our heart, soul, mind and strength we will not want to put anything, no matter how small, before Jesus. Again the words of Jesus in our Gospel are, “If you love me you will keep my commandments.”

Sometimes we hear people make statements like, “Jesus understands that I am human. He will forgive me.” Jesus is forgiving, we do not doubt Jesus’ mercy. But if we love Jesus more than anything we will put Jesus before whatever it is that is tempting us and we will try to root that sin out of our lives completely. Loving Jesus therefore is not just something emotional; loving Jesus means changing our lives, reforming our lives, working on our personalities and characters, overcoming sinful habits, stretching ourselves to love as Jesus loved. Loving Jesus means thinking about ourselves and others, as Jesus thinks!