No Longer Servants, But Friends
“For the Souls in Purgatory – Eternal rest grant unto them O Lord”
John 15:15–16
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.
Grace Prayed For
The grace to move from serving Jesus out of duty to loving Him as a friend, to receive His intimate confidence, and to overflow with joy as I share this friendship with everyone I encounter.
Reflection
There is a profound difference between serving someone out of obligation and serving them out of love. A slave obeys orders without understanding why. A friend acts from the heart because they’ve been invited into the confidence, the mission, the very life of the one they love.
Jesus doesn’t want slaves. He wants friends.
“I have called you friends, because I have told you everything I have heard from my Father.” Stop and let that sink in. The Son of God—the eternal Word through whom all things were made—chooses to share His heart with you. Not just commands. Not just requirements. Everything. His joys, His sorrows, His mission, His love for the Father, His burning desire for souls. He holds nothing back.
This is intimacy. This is what our parish is being called into during this season of transition. We cannot move from maintenance to mission by simply trying harder or doing more religious activities. We move from maintenance to mission when we allow Jesus to transform us from dutiful servants into intimate friends.
Servants perform tasks. Friends share life.
Servants follow rules. Friends follow a person they love.
Servants wonder what the master is doing. Friends know the master’s heart because he’s shared it with them.
Notice the progression in this passage: first intimacy, then mission. “I have called you friends” comes before “I chose you and appointed you to go.” Jesus doesn’t send us out as workers dispatched to complete a job. He sends us out as friends who can’t help but tell others about the One who has captured our hearts.
“It was not you who chose me, but I who chose you.” This is critical to understand. Your friendship with Jesus isn’t something you earned or achieved. You didn’t impress Him with your holiness or win His favor through your good works. He chose you. He initiated. He pursued. While you were still figuring out your life, still struggling with sin, still uncertain about faith, Jesus looked at you and said, “I want you as my friend.”
And He didn’t just choose you for intimacy. He chose you for mission: “I appointed you to go and bear fruit that will remain.” The fruit Jesus is talking about isn’t just personal virtue or spiritual growth—though it includes those things. The fruit is other people coming to know and love Jesus. The fruit is lives transformed. The fruit is the Kingdom of God advancing through your witness.
But here’s what changes everything: this mission flows from friendship. You’re not appointed to go out as a reluctant employee fulfilling job requirements. You’re appointed to go as a friend telling others about the Greatest Friend you’ve ever known. Mission becomes natural, joyful, even irresistible when it springs from intimate friendship with Jesus.
Think about it: when you discover an incredible restaurant, you tell your friends. When you find a book that changes your perspective, you recommend it. When you experience something beautiful, you want to share it. This is what Jesus is inviting us into—a friendship so real, so transformative, so life-giving that we naturally want others to experience it too.
This is how our parish transitions from maintenance to mission. Not by adding more programs. Not by guilt-tripping people into evangelization. But by cultivating deep, personal friendship with Jesus that overflows into every relationship, every conversation, every encounter.
You are chosen. You are appointed. You are His friend. And friends share what they treasure most.
When Time Allows Reflect on the Posts in Library and Musings
Sharing
Jesus last words on Earth were to his disciples, can be found in Matthew Chap 28 when Jesus told his disciples, “Then Jesus approached and said to them, “All power in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, until the end of the age.”
Jesus calls all of us to share in his redemptive mission here on Earth. I would ask you to share this Scripture reflection with your family, your friends and your acquaintances, and then share it with a couple of individuals that you may may not be comfortable sharing with, keeping in mind always the words of Jesus, And behold, I am with you always, until the end of the age
Author was assisted by AI in the drafting of this Post