A Friend in Jesus...Mass Reading for May 17, 2009

Remembering back in the days of my teen youth, after falling away from the Catholic Church, I attended a Non-Denom Bible Church where every Sunday they sang "Oh what a friend we have in Jesus" and I found it to be such empty popcorn. It had no context or reality for me as I didnt study scripture, I was there for the social crowd. How ironic that was. I never tied it together that there was a relational theology happening in front of me to provide an example.

This Sundays Mass Gospel reading, John Ch 15:9-17 quotes Jesus telling his disciples:

"...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."

Christ is saying that we are raised to his level enough to be beside Him, not under Him. In a Corporate analogy, He held no secrets where we were unfairly put at a disadvantage. Recalling the explicit detail in Luke where he gave examples of Commandment violations, the path of being "In Him" was made clear. Thats what a friend does, he keeps no secrets to his heart.