Can you lay down your life? Reflection for Friday, May 23, 2025

The first reading and the gospel today reference the challenges of following Jesus. There is a significant issue of division in today’s first reading. In the gospel, it is as if Jesus is asking us, “Can you lay down your life?” Readings for Today.

Can you lay down your life?

There is really nothing like seeing the love of human beings for each other. The joy of parents welcoming a newborn. A husband and wife who have been married for decades. A holy person praying to God.

And if we have experienced such love, it is quite amazing. It is the type of love that draws us out of ourselves. It is the type of love where all of our attention is drawn to the good of the other. There really is nothing quite like it.

The Church uses such words of love to describe many things. Couples get married for the good of the spouses. The language when a priest is ordained is one of son and father with the bishop. We read in Sirach that a faithful friend is a sturdy shelter. Even God, in the Song of Songs, is described as a lover leaping mountains and bounding hills.

These readings from the gospel of John focus largely on the love of God. Indeed, the resurrection of Jesus focuses on the power of an eternal love. Because Jesus is raised from the dead, we too can live a new life. We, and indeed all of creation, is transformed into a new person, into a new heavens and a new earth.

But today we are challenged. We are challenged to consider the greatest love. The love that can compel another to lay down life. We see this most clearly, when we consider a martyr who gives their life for their faith and for God. In the abstract such a self-gift might seem impossible. But in relationship with Jesus, receiving grace is is more than possible since with God all things are possible.

In smaller ways we see the unbelievable self-gift. Consider the sacrifices parents make for their children. Often they do seem to lay down their life for their children. In their generous outpouring of love, parents provide for children an eternal gift. We can see the harm when children do not receive this powerful gift. But when they do, we see that they can become marvelous human beings.

We need to call to mind that the resurrection of Jesus changes everything. It propels us into a new relationship with Jesus. No longer those who follow Jesus because of his command, but rather a new relationship that shares the qualities of friendship.

And so our relationship with Jesus is all new. And Jesus takes the initiative in this relationship. He is the one who chooses us. We can love it because he first loved. When it comes to a relationship with Jesus, we do nothing on our own. It is always Jesus who takes the lead.

Now to be sure it might be the case that we do not always feel new. Life is hard. The world is a mess. We can have broken relationships, serious illnesses. We can be blindsided by losing a job, or the loss of a loved one.

But God constantly reminds us of a few things. First, we are called to be grateful. At the heart of our faith is the gift of Jesus in the Eucharist. When we can focus on gratitude, it is then we can see what we have. We can see the ways in which God has blessed us.

We hear that God says, “See, I am doing something new.” And indeed God is. He is doing something new. He is calling us to something wonderful, beyond anything we could imagine on our own. He is calling us to eternal life.

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