504th Meditation
“As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you; abide in my love” (Jn 15:9).
The Lord Jesus shows us here the correct hierarchy of love. It comes from the Father and is offered to us in His Son: “God so loved the world that he gave his only Son” (Jn 3:16).
Our Savior wants to reveal this love to us and lead us into it. In this love is our true home, which we lost through the fall into sin, to the point that some people do not even know God. Certainly, our Father continues to love them, for He never ceases to love His creatures and to invite them to live as His children; but they themselves are not aware of this love, which is the reason for their existence.
With each word that Jesus addresses to us and with each of His works, He wants to show us His love and the love of our Father. If we understand this more deeply, we will come to know the Heart of our Savior even better, and we will know that Jesus has done everything to lead us back to our eternal fatherland, to our home. He Himself is the way there (Jn 14:6).
So Jesus invites us to remain in this love, to internalize it, to adore it, to do the works that come from it, to keep His commandments, to nourish it with His Word and the Sacraments.
Meanwhile, as long as we have not yet reached our eternal home and are forever steadfast in this love without ever wavering, we must cultivate day by day the love that Jesus reveals to us and remain in Him by the grace of God. Then we will grow in love and prepare for eternity every day.