Jn 15:9-17
Friends: To be a disciple is to be a friend. To be a disciple is to follow and learn from a master. Where the master goes, there the disciple will go. What the master does, the disciple will do, too. If a disciple faithfully follows the master, he will do what the master has taught him, and he will be where the master is.
Jesus’ relationship with his disciples is a sharing of intimate union of life. He entrusts his love and his ministry to them as a sharing of his very self. He shows them that discipleship is basically friendship with him and with his Father. By calling them friends, Jesus the Master transforms them from mere disciples into those to whom he has revealed the Father’s love and all that he himself has learned from the Father. True, there is much that they are not yet able to grasp (Jn 16:12), yet the disciples will learn because of what Jesus has told them. They, in turn, must follow the ways of the Lord.