In today’s gospel we hear Jesus prepare his disciples for his imminent departure to return to his Father. He does so by exhorting them to prove their love for him through their loyalty and obedience to his word. He says to them, "If anyone loves me, he will hold to my words, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our dwelling place with him always." If we only had these words from Jesus and nothing else, they would be enough to guide us through life and point us in the right direction of our living and life.

We are reminded in today’s gospel that, although it is easy to say that we love Jesus, it is far more difficult to love others for his sake. Such concern for others, however, is the essential proof of our genuine love of Jesus. To love Jesus ultimately means we need to commit our self to imitate his unconditional love of others, or even better perhaps, we need to allow his love to flow through us for the benefit of others.

The love that we are talking about is not an emotion, it is not a feeling – it is a verb – an action - a decision of our will. We hear it said that "there is no love in our marriage any more," "there is no love in our family…our office…our community." What is really being said is that there are no feelings of "love" for the simple reason that there is no love going on. There can be no love (i.e. feeling) without loving (i.e. doing). As Eliza Doolittle tells Professor Higgins in "My Fair Lady," "Don’t talk about love – show me!" That is the love Jesus is talking about. And anyone can begin the process; we don’t need to wait for someone else to begin.

For Jesus, love, by which he means loving, is achieved by "keeping his word." The "word" of Jesus must not be limited to what we were taught as "commandments" or "doctrines" or moral behavior, although, obviously, it includes these. The "word" of Jesus embraces everything we know about him through Sacred Scripture – his words, his actions, his relationships with people of all kinds, the guiding principles of his life, his values and attitudes.

Loving Jesus means keeping his word. It is not enough just to hear his word or think about his word or meditate on the word. It must be put into practice. It must influence our behavior. It is behavior that really shows whether a person loves Jesus or not. Discipleship is not about having the correct theory. Keeping Jesus’ word is the ultimate measure for having a relationship with Him and the Father. This was Jesus’ major theme throughout his earthly ministry.

Jesus told us that the entire Law and the prophets could be summed up in two commandments – To love God with our whole being, and to love our neighbor as ourselves. This was to be the life of a follower of Christ from then until the end of time.

What we are talking about is the love of relationship. God created us to be people of relationship. Scripture tells us that man was created in the image and likeness of God.

Our God is a God of relationship – God the Father, God the Son, in the love and unity of God the Holy Spirit. Three divine persons in one Godhead - the Holy Trinity.

Our relationship with God exists primarily because of His love. Our response, our spirituality, must be motivated by a sincere return of that love. Anything other than that makes the relationship unhealthy, just as it would in a human relationship. It is not about the reward of heaven, answering our prayers, granting us favors, solving our problems or creating miracles and cures. It is not what we receive from God, but the giving of ourselves freely and totally to God.

Being in love with God means that we will do all and anything that is necessary to make the relationship grow and flourish. Once we embrace a relationship with God, then there is no other choice than to live the Gospel completely. I accept doing this not only because it is what God desires, but because it is "right" to do so. All that Jesus taught and did serves a single purpose: namely, to put us in right relationship with God, others and ourselves.

St. Augustine says, "the Lord loves each of us as if there were only one of us to love." God’s love for each of us is as real and tangible as the love of a mother for her child and the love of a lover who gives all for his beloved. God made us for love – to know him personally and to grow in the knowledge of his great love for us.

St. Cyril of Alexandria said: "Let the wisdom of John teach us how we live in Christ and Christ lives in us.: The proof that we are living in him and he is living in us is that he has given us a share in his Spirit. Just as the trunk of the vine gives its own natural properties to each of its branches, so, by bestowing on them the Holy Spirit, the Word of God, the only-begotten Son of the Father, gives Christians a certain kinship with himself and with God the Father because they have been united to him by faith and determination to do his will in all things. He helps them to grow in love and reverence for God, and teaches them to discern right from wrong and to act with integrity."