The Gospel for The feast of St Matthias Apostle is taken from John 15, 9th through the 17th verse. Jesus said to his disciples, as the Father loves me, so I also love you. Remain in my love. If you keep my commandments, you remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and remain in his love. I’ve told you this so that my joy might be in you and your joy might be complete. This is my 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 chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit that will remain so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he will give you this I command you.

Love one another. When Jesus tells his disciples that he loves them, he used as an example he says, my love for you is the same love that God has for me. And what I want you to understand is that unless we believe that we are loved unconditionally, not based on any anything that we say or do, if we think anything we can do diminishes the love that God has for us, we’ve missed the mystery and the power of this teaching. You can’t love if you’re not loved. And you can’t feel love if it’s based on performance. So the challenge is to let go of our ego and our personality and surrender to simply a God who is nothing but love.

Closing prayer Father, open our minds, and most especially our hearts to the fullness of what it means that you are so deeply in love with us, just as we are. Not because we’ve improved, not because we’re doing better, simply because of who we are. And we ask this in Jesus name, Amen.