"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 even death on a cross" led to his exaltation by God (Phil 2:8-9). His "dying to destroy our death" was not because we deserved it, but out of love and mercy. "For God showed his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us" (Rom 5:8). The Cross is therefore at once the highest moment of Christ's glory and the moment when he manifested his greatest love. 

This wondrous mystery of sacrificial love that brings glory is what created the new commandment to love as Jesus loves. The latter becomes, as it were, an extension of his person, an observance meant for his disciples to ever keep as a memorial of his self-giving love. This seems to be implied by St John's gospel not having an account of the institution of the Eucharist, the memorial par excellence of Christ's sacrificial self-giving love. Where the other gospels place the account, St John instead recounts Christ's washing of his disciples' feet, an action that symbolizes his love and service which his disciples are called upon to imitate. His words to them: "do to one another as I have done to you" (In 13: 14-15) surely means: "love one another as I have loved you". It would seem therefore that St John, the only evangelist that reports the new commandment of love, places it on a parallel with the Eucharist as also a memorial of Christ's self-giving love. In short, St John is telling us that to love one another as Jesus loves is the profound meaning of the Eucharist.

The importance of the commandment stands out still more by Jesus giving it on the eve of his "departure". It becomes therefore part of his last will and testament, his parting gift to his disciples. His calling them "little children", as in the text, reinforces the idea. We know how important a father's dying will and admonition are to his beloved children whom he is leaving behind. No wonder then that Jesus makes this commandment the uniform, the identity card, as it were, by which his followers are to be known: "By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another". Applied to ourselves, one can say that no other practices in-Christian life, however noble, identify us as Christians more than Christ-like love. This commandment therefore challenges us to love the way Jesus loves, without counting the cost and without discrimination; to forgive as he does and instructs ("not seven times but seventy times seven"- Mt 18:22); to show mercy as he does; to treat the poor and weak as he does even when one is more powerful and rich. The operative phrase is "as he does". This is what makes the commandment new.

There is already the commandment to "love your neighbor as yourself' in both the Old and New Testaments. (Lev 19: 18; Mt 22:37-39). But the new commandment goes beyond taking "yourself' as the measure. Why? It is partly because "yourself', that is you and me, tend to love those who deserve it, those who are pleasant, lovable, well-behaved and friendly or who repay our love. But the love that Jesus is teaching and is commanding us to practice takes himself as the measure - "as I have loved you". It is love given not because it is deserved, but because it brings happiness, escape from misery or sin to the beneficiary. That is why Jesus enjoins us: "But I say to you, love your enemies, and pray for those who persecute you" (Mt 5:44). This kind of love is so contrary to our natural inclination that it is only energized by the grace of the Holy Spirit who pours divine love into our hearts (cfRom 5 :5). There is no better time we are challenged to practice this new commandment than in this Jubilee Year of Mercy. Pope Francis has emphasized practice of the Spiritual and Corporal Works of Mercy in this Year. Christ's new commandment is the spirit behind these Works of Mercy. Let us therefore do the Works as concrete ways by which to observe the new commandment which identifies us as followers of Jesus, the visible face of God's Mercy and Love. It is very relevant to note here that in September, Mother Teresa, an expert in Christ-like love, will be officially proclaimed a saint by Pope Francis in Rome. Her life teaches us that by emptying out the self in love for the other, we become filled to the brim with the divine life.

The new commandment is new in another sense. It is the basis of a new society, "the new heaven and the new earth" proclaimed in the second reading from the Book of Revelation. Imagine what our society can be today if people lived by this new commandment of love "as I have loved you". By practising it, we Christians and Christian communities can serve as leaven to penetrate our wider society and move it towards becoming an entirely new world. To that end, in the first reading, we see Paul and Barnabas traversing territories and founding new Christian communities to radiate the light of the new commandment of love in new lands. 

STAY BLESSED