"LOVE AS I HAVE LOVED YOU" - THE CHRISTIAN'S UNIFORM
It strikes me that way into Eastertide, the gospel of this week, takes us back to Jesus speaking of his up-coming passion and death. It seems the liturgy wants us to ever keep in mind that there would have been no Easter glory without the agony of Good Friday. Jesus himself in the passage describes his passion and death as his glorification and unites the twin event with his new commandment of love. Why does he unite the two realities? This question sets me off on this reflection centered on the importance of practicing this new commandment which Christ gave as a distinguishing mark of re-born followers of his New Way. If practiced, the new commandment also engenders the new world spoken of in the second reading. It is the new law for new life, new people and new community brought about by Christ's paschal mystery. Jesus lived the paradox of God's Will turning a shameful death on the cross into a means of glorification and expression of love. His "obedience unto death...