You Are My Friends

 

How beautiful is it to know that we are all connected to each other through the love of God. As Jesus prepares to leave his earthly realm, he speaks of our being connected with him and each other through his telling of the story of the vine. His juxtaposing himself with us and with the father creates an image of a vine that, by nature, becomes intertwined into itself as it goes on and on. If properly nurtured and cared for, tender growth becomes hardened branches and produces fruit. Throughout this chapter (John 15:9-17) Jesus wants us to know that God is not at the periphery of our being, but at the center of our lives. We are ONE with God and Jesus as he asks us to abide in him, remain with him, and be at home with him.

Jesus reinforces this connectedness by removing any sense of status or hierarchy between himself and his followers: “You are my friends…I know 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. As friends we are equal to each other and have a solemn obligation to love…look out for and care for each other.”
Jesus implores us to look out for each other's good, even to the point of giving our life. The desire is that our friendship bears fruit, a fruit that is permanent and sustainable.

We relive the experience of the vine and our connectedness in the celebration of the Eucharist with the solemn words at the end of the consecration: Through him, with him, and in him in the unity of the Holy Spirit, all honor and glory is yours, Almighty Father, for ever and ever. 

Through him, because only through Christ does humanity have access to the Father;

With him, because prayer is in union with Christ and and by honoring the Son we honor the Father and Son;

In him, because in praying with the Mystical Body,  the Father is in the Son and the Son is the reflection of the Father, who makes his majesty visible in all things. The dual meanings of through, with, and in clearly express the God and man’s interconnectedness.

The following "linked" prayer is the prayer to Christ by St Teresa Benedicta of the Cross (1891-1942): Prayer Before the Face of God