Gospel: John 15: 12-17
In every religion of antiquity the near universal image of a person's relationship with the divinity was expressed in the master-servant model. God is the master, we the slaves who serve God. In the various polytheistic religions this image was dominant as well, people pledging fealty and servitude to the divinity in order to receive protection and favors from the deity.
In today's reading Jesus does away with this image and replaces it with the image of friendship: no longer do I call you servants, but friends. In antiquity the servant could never fully or remotely share in the life of the master. They lived in separate quarters, ate in separate dining rooms, and the servant wore distinctive items showing they were servants and not citizens. While freedom could be purchased it was often rare. The friend and child, by contrast, share fully in the life of the master: they share the same table, sleep under the same roof, and no distinction of garb exists to separate them in the public eye.
This is now our life with God, a life of friendship where God fully shares the fullness of divine life with us. God invites us to his table and we reside within the house prepared for us. The life of freedom with God is not a rare gift given at random but it is now an assumed state given by God to all to share in this life fully. God invites us to create faith communities that reflect this new reality to model for the world what is the invisible reality of our relationship with God and one another.
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