Monday, April 24: “How to Abide”
1 John 3: 24: “The one who keeps His commandments abides in Him, and He in him. We know by this that He abides in us, by the Spirit Whom He has given us.”
What commandments (plural) are we talking about here? In the previous verse St. John mentions the commandments to believe and to love. No argument there. However, there is another commandment we hear at every Mass: Jesus’ commandment to “Do this for the remembrance of me.” This meshes nicely with John 6: 56, “If you eat My flesh and drink My blood, I will abide with you, and you with Me”, which is His “Do this.” And indeed this abiding is assured by the Holy Spirit, Whose work in the Eucharist, as well as within us, is sanctification (Romans 15: 16).
