In today's gospel Jesus teaches us the second greatest commandment - to love one another.
Holy Spirit, fill my heart and illuminate my mind. Help me to hear and understand God's message today. Help me to recognise when God is trying to speak to me in my daily life. Amen
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 will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and remain in his love.
“I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and your joy might be complete. 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 I command you: love one another.”
Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_56H0E9Dd-Q (Credit to Catholic Kids Media)
Say: In today’s Gospel, Jesus commands his disciples to love one another as he has loved them. I really believe that all of us want to love others as Jesus showed us to love. But sometimes we face obstacles in showing our love for others. What do you think? What obstacles do we sometimes face when we try to show our love for another person? (Accept all reasonable answers.)
Say: John’s Gospel tells us that Jesus spoke these words to his disciples during the Last Supper. Do you remember what Jesus did during the Last Supper to show his disciples how he wanted them to love one another? (He washed his disciples’ feet.) What do we know that Jesus will do soon after the Last Supper to show his love for his disciples? (He will die on the cross.) For Jesus, even death was not an obstacle in showing his love for his disciples, who were his friends.
Say: Jesus also calls us his friends, and he showed his great love for us in his sacrifice on the cross. God raised Jesus from the dead, and Jesus continues to help us show love to others. One way that he helps us is through the promise he made in today’s Gospel. Jesus said that God will give us whatever we ask for. One of the things we ask for from God is help overcoming the obstacles to loving other people.
Conclude in prayer by inviting the children to think again about one of the obstacles they face when they try to love others. Invite them to ask God to help them overcome this obstacle so that they can love others as Jesus taught.
Father in heaven, for the conversion of sinners, we give you today, all that we think and do and say, and we join it with all that was done by Jesus Christ, your Son. Amen
