Daily Scripture lesson

John 15: 12-16

This is my commandment: love one another as I love you. No one has greater love than this, to lay down one's life for one's friends.

You are my friends if you do what I command you. I no longer call you slaves, because a slave does not know what his master is doing. I have called you friends,because I have told you everything I have heard from my Father.

It was not you who chose me, but I who chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit that will remain, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name he may give you.

This was the Catholic gospel lesson this past Sunday. Our parish priest, Fr. Henry Roodbeen, preached an effective sermon on what "love of neighbor" - a hard concept to pin down - means in our daily living. Fr. Henry elucidated three points:

1) Love of neighbor comes from intimately shared experience. Love founders when the lover cannot feel empathy for the beloved. This does not mean that we must do the exact same deeds as our neighbors, and vice versa, for love to flourish; instead, we need to share whatever we do fully and truthfully for love to flourish.

2) Love of neighbor is local. There is no intimacy in spiritual distance. Nor can we love our neighbors in a detached, Stoic manner. Love flows from human interaction - a one-on-one encounter, a small group with members aflame in the Spirit, and a phone call or letter from a far-away friend.

Being kind to our most beloved - our family and dear friends - and to the people we meet in our daily living is more important than loving the whole world with shallow roots.

3) Love of neighbor brings joy to both the lover and the beloved. Love does not tear down; it builds up. It does not want; it contains everything it needs. First Corinthians 13 suffices on this point.

I pray this lesson brings strength and inspiration to its readers.