John 15:9-17
Lead in: Legend has it that, as an old man, the apostle John’s message to people always ended with the same exhortation, “Love one another.” This theme is reflected in John 4:7-10 where “love” is mentioned nine times and in John 15:9-17 where it’s mentioned ten times. How fitting that is. The root command of all that Jesus taught could be summed up in those three words, “Love one another.” At the end of our lives, this is the only thing that will really matter. Was your heart with God and how much did you love?
Prompt: If your life were to be over today, is there anything you would have wished you’d done more of that you failed to do with the time you had here?
Lead in: In life, there are some people who are naturally easy to love.
Prompt: What is it that makes it easier to love some people and harder to love others?
Prompt: What needs to change in you for you to reach out to those who are harder to love?
Lead in: We’re told that we can’t earn God’s love and that God loves us no matter what. Yet do we really believe that?
Prompt: Can you think of a time when you failed miserably in being the person you wanted to be and, as a result, you found yourself questioning if God could still love you? What pulled you out of that negative way of thinking?
Lead in: In John 15 we hear, “There is no greater love than for one to lay down one’s life for one’s
friends.” There are many ways we can lay our lives down for one another, some big and some small.
Prompt: If you could lay your life down in a small way for someone with whom you live or work with, who would that be and what might that involve?
Lead in: In Acts 10, we hear the story of Peter and the Roman officer, Cornelius. As Peter shares the Good News of Jesus with Cornelius, he tells him that, “God shows no partiality” (Acts 10:26), meaning that God’s love is meant for all, Jews and Gentiles. We Catholics have the gift of the sacraments, but God’s grace is not limited to the sacraments. The Spirit is at work in all people of good will, including those who are seeking God beyond the bounds of the Christian faith or formal religion.
Prompt: If the Spirit blows where it wills and is at work wherever hearts are open to the divine, what evidence of that have you witnessed in your own life or heard others witness in their lives?
Prompt: What do you say in response to the person who has distanced themselves from the Church and no longer practices as a Catholic or no longer belongs to a formal religion?
