Remember last Sunday’s gospel – “I am the vine, you are the branches… remain in me…bear good fruit.” Today’s gospel is part of the same conversation Jesus was having with his apostles – and if it wasn’t clear last week, today’s readings leaves no doubt: it’s about learning to love as we have never loved before. It that way we will remain in Christ, who will remain in us, and we will bear the desired good fruit. Here is a sampling of verses from today’s readings.

• As the Father loves me, so I also love you. (John 15:9)
• Beloved, let us love one another (1 John 4:7)
• This is my commandment: love one another as I love you. (John 15:12)

Seems pretty clear and the natural order of things provides the classroom for learning about love: the Family. The lessons from each family are different, but in general, we kids watch parents and learn to love as they love each other. Hopefully, we imitate them in relationship to our siblings, friends and neighbors. And sometimes we learn to love more directly.

After Sunday Mass, my dad would ask us kids what we took away from the homily. I learned that you could never go wrong with saying the sermon was something about love.  In my case, I also learned that dad had something in mind – some observed misbehavior of mine from earlier in the week. The conversation ultimately led to the admonishment “imitate Jesus and show that you love your sisters.”  It joined the longer list of admonishments from childhood: “Share your toys.” “Say sorry.”  “Don’t hit.”  “Use kind words.”

Rightly admonished, for a while at least, my behavior gave evidence of my love for my siblings. Of course, I suspect some of those evidentiary actions were performed with false smiles and rolling eyes. Even so, one learns by doing. And as we mature, sharing, forgiving, being forgiven and using kind words hopefully become our first response and reaction. Slowly (hopefully) we become what we do. We become loving daughters and sons.

And there is the classroom of life. When I was in high school there was a classmate that I really liked. She was a cheerleader, valedictorian, and had a wry sense of humor. How would you describe my condition? Smitten, infatuated, enamored, or just another case of hopeful teenage love?  Of all the girls in my class, I had chosen her as the object of my affections. But alas, she reserved her affections for another.  And so another lesson in love.

We all have such stories about love from our childhood, our adult years, and the years in between. Hopefully we don’t take those stories for granted, but from time-to-time reflect upon them, and begin to come to a deeper understanding of love. My choice of love’s affection back in high school didn’t go as I’d hoped. She did not choose me. And isn’t that a key element of love. The mutual choosing of the other? To give oneself to another, holding back nothing of yourself for yourself, so that the other may have you completely and you are willing to receive them completely.

In life, we have moments where you wonder will anyone ever “choose” me. Maybe it is girlfriend/boyfriend stuff, maybe it’s a sports team, a job interview, inclusion in a social group – and the list is almost endless. We are people who want to belong, to be included, to be chosen, … to be loved. But there are times when we feel left out and overlooked.

And it is in these moments that I want us all to remember Jesus’ words: “It was not you who chose me, but I who chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit.” Christ has chosen us. Despite all of our sins, faults, and weaknesses, He loves us lavishly, like a host preparing a bountiful feast; like a farmer casting seed with abandon; like a fisherman forever casting his nets.

We can be completely clueless about this, but we are the chosen. Jesus comes to us as a servant washing dusty feet, like a healer touching withered limbs. We may take it all for granted. We may turn away from Jesus. We may fail in charity, faithfulness and trust. Yet, Christ continues to choose us.

He knocks upon locked doors; sweeps the floor for a lost coin;  gazes out over the distant road waiting for the prodigal us, patiently waiting for us to come home. Then he came to us holding back nothing of himself but gave us everything, even his very life.

And even when his earthly life was done, after he ascended into Heaven, he continued to choose us, invite us his beloved to the Table of the Eucharist to be nourished, and in the Sacrament of Reconciliation invite us to lay down the burdens of all that is not love.

Christ has chosen us. Have we chosen him? His offer of love is the greatest gift we will ever receive. It is a gift that demands a response. In the end, it is the only thing that can sustain us as we live out our mission to go and bear fruit.

Your life in family, your experiences in love, and belonging to the Church – all of this is a classroom to learn the many facets of love. To act in the world with a love poured into your life – whether we feel like it or not. To give ourselves completely to another and realize that in Christ there is a fountain fullness of love and grace ever pouring into us.

Why? Because we are the branches of the one true Vine. We are tapped into the fullness of divine love, the source and origin of the love we share in the world. It is abundant and inexhaustible love. Receive that love, give it away, because there is more where that came from.

All because we are the chosen. And when we choose God, His joy is in us and then, and only, then, our joy can be complete. Amen.

Image credit: Duccio di Buoninsegna – Appearance on the Mountain in Galilee | ca. 1310 | Museo dell’ Opera del Duomo, Siena | Public Domain