John 15:12-17
12 This is my commandment: love one another as I love you.
13 No one has greater love than this, to lay down one's life for one's friends.
14 You are my friends if you do what I command you.
15 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.
16 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.
17 This I command you: love one another.
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What does it take to know Christ? There's a big difference between knowing OF Him, and KNOWING Him.
I can know of Christ by praying to Him, by reading Scripture, by reading the Catechism, by participating in mass. All of those things are good and necessary.
But ... how do I KNOW Christ? The people that know us best are our friends. How do we be Christ's friends? Verse 14:
14 You are my friends if you do what I command you.
Christ says this, Paul says this, Peter says this, John says this, the Church says this. The Psalms say this, Proverbs says this, Isaiah says this. The Saints say this.
It's all talk until the rubber meets the road. As Yoda says .... "Do, or not do. There is no try."
