Memorial of St. Athanasius, Bishop and Doctor of the Church

Today's Mass Readings

In today’s gospel, when Jesus tells us “if you keep my commandments, you will remain in my love,” it may at first seem to us that he is saying that his love is conditional, that it depends on our obedience. But he immediately follows this up by saying “just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and remain in his love.” He is saying that we should be like him. He is always obedient to the Father’s will. In John 6:38 Jesus tell us: “I came not to do my own will, but the will of the one who sent me.” And in John 4:34 he says, “my food is to do the will of the one who sent me.” Obedience to the Father is the heart of who Jesus is, and he wants us to be like him, so that the joy that he has in doing the will of God may be our joy also. So here Jesus is calling us to behave as the children of God, in imitation of the Son of God. God’s will is always for our good, and so when we obey God, in imitation of Jesus, we are also acting in accord with our own good.

We should also understand from this that God’s love is truly unconditional, and remains constant. However, when we sin through disobedience, we are acting against our own good, and God who loves us cannot go along with that. It seems to us that we put ourselves outside of God’s love. But God’s love remains constant and is always calling us back to our own good.

Reflection by Fr. Aquinas Keusenkothen, OSB