MARAYAG, NINA GRACE JOY C.

BSN 4, R.E 7
REFLECTION PAPER
TITLE: Love One Another as I Love You

Jesus said to his disciples: As the Father loves me, so I also love you. Remain in my love.
If you keep my commandments, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my
Fathers commandments and remain in his love. I have told you this so that my joy
might be in you and your joy might be complete. This is my commandment: love one
another as I love you. No one has greater love than this, to lay down ones life for ones
friends. You are my friends if you do what I command you. I no longer call you slaves,
because a slave does not know what his master is doing. I have called you friends,
because I have told you everything I have heard from my Father. It was not you who chose
me, but I who chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit that will remain, so that
whatever you ask the Father in my name he may give you. This I command you: love one
another.
John 15:9-17
To love God and to love your neighbor are connected and inseparable, these two
commandments are only one.
The thought of loving God is concretized when one loves his/ her neighbor. In fact,
if you want to find yourself, try to look for the others first and you will find God in them,
and eventually find yourself. When we love others, we find ourselves. We just dont
define love and make others believe. Love has to be felt and experienced by everyone
you may be the lover or the beloved. The relationship of the two is reciprocal and
enriched by love itself. Love is real and concrete, it is not absurd nor illusionary. Love is
forever, for the love of the Lord endures forever. So, forever is real, it is true. Those who
say otherwise are not really in love. When we decide to love, we must be willing to give
and receive, to share oneself for others. Love is not kept for oneself, it is always towards
others. The movement of giving and receiving is the dynamics of loveto love and
be loved.
The love of God is beyond compare. It is the greatest gift that we received and now
enjoy. The greatest love of all is not what the song says: learning to love yourself is the
greatest love of all.
That is not even a great thing to do. The greatest love is when one is willing to lay
down his/ her life for a friend or for someone, not necessarily a loved one. Like Jesus who
was willing to give his life for us, even if he did nothing wrong. This concrete expression
of the love of Jesus is indeed the greatest. Loving therefore is offering oneself for others.

As God has loved us, we are invited then and commanded to love in return so that we will
bear much fruit, charming fruits to be shared and celebrated.