Today's Gospel

The Great Human Mandate

Welcome back to Radical & Relevant, where each day we take a couple of minutes together to reflect on the gospel of the day. Remember, always looking for a word, a phrase, or an idea that the Holy Spirit uses to capture your imagination. Today's reading is from the Gospel of John, Chapter 15, verses 12-17. This is my commandment that you love one another as I have loved you. Greater love has no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends. You are my friends if you do what I command you. No longer do I call you servants, but the servant does not know what his master is doing, for I have called you friends. For all that I have heard from my father, I have made known to you. You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, He may give it to you. This, I command you to love one another.

So, this is the heart and soul of it, right? This is the great command to love. I talked about this in my book, Slowing Down the Speed of Joy. I was talking to a friend the other day, and he brought up the book and he's like, "I haven't had a chance to read it yet." It's like, "Okay, man, I know people are busy. I know you got a stack of books." But I think he felt bad. I said to him, "The section starts on page 37. Just read that section about the human mandate, the great human mandate." He called in the next day. He's like, "Oh, I'm hooked now." What is the great human mandate? This is the great human mandate to love, and this is where our identity as Christian comes from, by the way we love each other. And it's so easy to get caught up in other things. And I think about even what I've tried to commit my life to, but they're not going to know I'm Christian by the number of books I write. They're not going to know I'm Christian by how many bestsellers lists I make. They're not going to know I'm Christian by how many millions of people read the books. They're going to know I'm Christian or not by how I love people or not. And for me, it's that, but for you, it's something else.

But we all have things that we put in front of our Christianity. We all have things that we put ahead of God's command to love. And so today, let's identify those things because they change at different times in our lives. They're different things. Let's identify what are you putting in front of God's command to love at this time in your life, and how can you reorder your life to love, to love with staggering generosity. Have a great day. Remember, Be Bold, Be Catholic.