In the book “Praying our Goodbyes,” the author, Sr. Joyce Rupp, reminds us that life is short, life is swift and everything changes. Hence, if we look at life, it is a cycle of helloes and goodbyes. Humanly speaking, it is so hard to say goodbye because it is so hard to deal with loss. Further, the deeper the love, the more difficult the goodbye. 

When Jesus was saying goodbye to his disciples, what does he tell them? “Keep My Commandments”. Three reasons why we should keep his commandments:

1. JESUS’ LOVE FOR THE FATHER. The Words of Christ are the Words of the Father. Because Jesus loves the Father, He obeyed His Words. Further, since knew that His disciples loved him, they too should obey his words of Jesus.
2. A GUIDE IN THIS LIFE. God is the author of life and hence, God’s Words are instructions for life. How many times has it happened to us that when we go to Mass and suddenly an inspiration comes to mind based on the Word of God? 
3. ETERNAL LIFE. We are only passing by in this life and what is most essential is eternal life. Let us hear the voice of the shepherd which guides us to eternal life. 

When we were all growing up there were times that the words of our parents were painful, so hard to digest and some even rebelled against them. Eventually, we realized that dad was right after all and mom was right after all. So it is the same as the Word of God. It can be difficult, it is counter-cultural and yes, we can be persecuted, but there is one fact we have to always realize, that the Word of God is always right.