In today's Gospel reading, Jesus says, "As the Father loves me, so I also love you. Remain in my love." Jesus speaks of a very special kind of love: an outreaching love which unconditionally seeks the other's wellbeing. This is the love which the Father extends to Jesus and it is the love that Jesus extends to us. We stay in that love by keeping Jesus' commandments, just as Jesus himself remains in his Father's love by keeping his Father's commandments. What are these commandments? "This is my commandment: love one another as I have loved you." Jesus says, "No one has greater love than this, to lay down one's life for one's friends." Who are his friends? All those who unconditionally love their brothers and sisters: "You are my friends, if you do what I command you," If we all kept Jesus'' commandment, our world would be transformed! We would become a world of people who spent their lives caring for each other.

This is the message that Matthias and his fellow Apostles inherited and which they passed on to us. It is for us to spread the same message and that is done most effectively not by words but by the witness of our lives.