I think this Gospel reading this weekend could be repeated probably for a month without exhausting all the different parts that are there. It is a very intense section. But it does come down to one or two major points. Let’s begin.
“No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.” I remember my dad telling me the story about a state police officer who was talking to my dad as the fire was dying down. He said to my dad: “you firefighters are crazy, you run into a burning building while the rats are running out!”
This is how the firefighters respond to Jesus’ statement about laying down one’s life. They put their life on the line for complete strangers. It is more than a job. And I think it even goes beyond a vocation. I am not sure anyone can take on this kind of a job as a firefighter without having this kind of love that Jesus is talking about.
The command that Jesus gives us at the close of the gospel today does not seem to have as many examples in our modern culture as it should have. Our First Responders (police and …read more
Source:: Fr. Frank Jindra’s Homily Podcasts
