I have called you friends

Today’s Gospel puts together things that we usually keep separate: love and commandment, submission and friendship. “You are my friends if you do what I command you. I do not call you servants any longer, because the servant does not know what the master is doing; but I have called you friends, because I have made known to you everything that I have heard from my Father.” (John 15:15)

The Lord asks us to be humble, because humility is the secret of greatness. The Lord asks us for submission, because submission is the secret of freedom. The Lord does not want to humiliate us, but to dignify us: and this is the reason He asks us to be humble. The Lord does not want us to be slaves, but free: and this is the reason He asks us to do what He says. It may sound contradictory at first, but it is not. There is no true human dignity without humility, there is no true freedom without obedience. And, because God loves us and wants the best for us, He asks us for humility and obedience.

God wants us to be great and to know that we are great. He wants us to be truly rich and enjoy our possessions. But true greatness and wealth are a gift from Him. Many people have gifts and talents, but they do not experience their talents as gifts given to them. They do not realize that what they possess comes from God. They have something, but not a “gift” (that is, they do not realize it is a gift). We could even say that they possess the gift, but they do not receive the love, because they focus on the gift and forget the Giver. They cannot be happy: because what makes us happy is not to have something, but to have someone; what makes us happy is not to have, but to be loved; what makes us happy is not what is limited, but what is unlimited. True fortune is to be loved and made great by God. And, because to be loved is always a gift, the only way to be truly happy is to recognize that all we are and all we want [to be] depends on the love of God, on His decision, not on us. True greatness is recognizing that we are truly great because He loves us, because He has freely chosen us. And that is why our Lady said:

“My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my savior, for he has looked with favour on the lowliness of his servant.” (Luke 1:46-48) I cannot be happier than this because I am loved by God Himself! He bestowed His gaze on me! “From this day all generations will call me blessed, for the Almighty has done great things for me, and holy is his name.” (Luke 1:48-49) I am blessed, and all generations will call me so; I am truly great, because God the Almighty has done great things for me. My greatness is the greatness of the Lord, because God has given me His love. I possess the heart of God, He is in love with me, He wants to be mine, and therefore I am great. It is not that He loves me because I am great, but rather, I am great because He loves me. I was a lowly handmaid, but because He looked on my humility and loved me, all generations will call me blessed, fortunate and great. Holy is His name, not mine! He is great, not I… but He is mine.

You see my point? The greatness of Mary goes together with her humility, because the gift which makes her great does not come from herself but from the mercy of God. Still, her happiness cannot be greater, because what she receives is not some wee thing given by the Giver, but His love. In other words, sometimes it is humbling to receive a gift because you need to acknowledge that you are dependent on someone’s mercy to have a certain thing, and this may make you feel bad about yourself. But when the gift you receive is the love of a person, you know that that person is yours, and this makes you—in a sense—equal to that person. Mary is in ecstasy because she realizes that God freely chose her. God didn’t need to choose her, because of her lowliness; but He did choose her, and that makes her great, and “equal” (in a sense!) to God: God is her friend and her spouse. “I do not call you servants any longer, but I call you friends, because I have made known to you everything I have heard from my Father.”

First we need to be servants, that is, we need to recognize that, without Him, we cannot be happy, that He is the only one who can satisfy our desire for happiness. But if we do, if we recognize that He is our treasure and we open our hearts to Him, we become His friends, because He gives us everything that is His, and gives Himself to us. Jesus has power, authority and majesty: He is truly “the boss”. But He wants to use His power to make us happy: every command of Jesus is directed towards preparing our hearts to receive His love. He says “No” to certain things because we cannot serve both God and Mammon. We sometimes get stuck in the gift and forget the Giver. The commandments help us to always put God first. That’s all He wants: that we remove from our hearts those things which prevent Him from making us happy.

Submission to God is the way to freedom, because we can be free to love Him only if we first get rid of sin, which is slavery to things. Freedom is not the ability to choose among many things, when none of those things can make you happy. Freedom is the ability to choose that single thing which alone can make you happy. Submission to God is what opens for us the possibility of choosing that one thing, that one person who alone can make us happy. Humility is the way to greatness, because only when we acknowledge both our thirst and the infinite fountain of Goodness can we open our mouths to drink from that fountain the water of everlasting life. May we humbly receive the gift of God’s love, may we become His friends, and may He lead us to the infinite happiness which is He Himself.