I GIVE YOU A NEW COMMANDMENT: LOVE ONE ANOTHER(Acts 14:21-27/Psalm 145:8-13/Revelation 21:1-5/John 13:31-33,34-35)

I GIVE YOU A NEW COMMANDMENT: LOVE ONE ANOTHER(Acts 14:21-27/Psalm 145:8-13/Revelation 21:1-5/John 13:31-33,34-35)


I GIVE YOU A NEW COMMANDMENT: LOVE ONE ANOTHER

(Fifth Sunday of Easter, May 19, 2019)

The liturgical placement of gospel of today is somehow strange considering the time we are—the Eastertide. This gospel fits the time of the Passion of Our Lord because judging from the setting of the gospel, Jesus uttered the words of this gospel during the Last Supper when Judas left to complete the plan he started with the Jewish authorities of betraying Him. Then, why the gospel today? Are we in the Passion of Christ or is it a mistake from those who arranged the liturgical circle and the readings?

The answer is no! In fact, there’s one thing in common between the time Jesus addressed these words to his disciples and our stage in this Easter period: it’s time for departure. In the Gospel, Jesus is saying goodbye to his disciples before going to his passion, death, resurrection and eventually his return to the Father. In our case, we draw close to Ascension, which is a departure too. In either case, the message of His departure is just in order.

The short sequence that makes up the Gospel for today (John 13:31-35) follows immediately on Jesus’ prediction at the Last Supper that Judas will betray him. It may seem surprising that Jesus responds to Judas’ departure to a cry of His exaltation: ‘Now the Son of Man has been glorified, and God has been glorified in him’. Looking at the gospel, we can see the two things involved: Judas’ act of betrayal will trigger the sequence of events that will culminate in Jesus’ public execution upon a cross. In the perspective of St. John’s Gospel, however, the statement of Jesus represents His ‘glorification’ – and the glorification of the Father whose will lies behind everything that happens to Him. As the drama of the gospel proceeds, it becomes clear that the high point of this revelation of divine glory in the human flesh of Jesus will come about as He is ‘lifted up’ and dies upon the cross.

The Death of Christ represents at a deeper level the free outpouring of divine love for the human race. In His death, Jesus ‘glorifies God and through this reveals the very being of God to be love (1 John 4:7, 16). This is what divine love of God stands for (John 3:16). The whole action of Christ: His life, Passion, Death and Resurrection indeed revealed the extent of God’s love for Humanity. No wonder then, in the concluding part of this gospel, Jesus left strong parting words to His disciples as loving one another. He said “My little children, I shall not be with you much longer. I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another” Jesus could have as well left them with parting word of faith or hope which is important in our Christian lives but He deemed it fit to give them the parting word that builds on love because it is this love that binds the Trinitarian family of Father, Son and the Holy Spirit together”

They exist in love, live in love and work together in love. That is why Jesus wants this love that binds them together to be part and parcel of our Christian lives. The vocation of love ought to be the vocation of all Christians and we cannot claim to have understood Christ ministry on earth if we fail to live in love and love one another because as Christ said in the gospel of today, it is by this that people will begin to associate us as His disciples, not even by our faith. However, the ‘new commandment’ given to the disciples – that they are to love one another, ‘just as Jesus has loved them’ – flows essentially from this. It is ‘new’ in the sense that it is called for by the new set of circumstances that is fast approaching. After Jesus’ death and return to the Father, the community of the disciples will no longer have the physical presence of Jesus to make the divine love to be felt in their midst. Rather, love for one another must instead take on this role. If this high requirement is fulfilled, if they do indeed love one another after the pattern Jesus has set, then this will signal to outsiders that they are truly His disciples.

The Second reading, from the Apocalypse, 21:1-5, depicts the sense of divine presence in the community in a very different but complementary way. God’s work of redemption, something which continues until the final triumph of the Lamb, represents a ‘new creation’: new heaven, new earth and new city of Jerusalem (the community) in which God will be ‘at home’ with God’s people. What is presented is a glimpse of a future reality. But the depiction of it as ‘descending’ from heaven communicates the sense that its realization is already underway here and now: the life of the present toiling, suffering and struggling community is indeed the ‘new creation’.

On a more historical level, the first reading, describes a further stage of the expansion of the community as Paul and Barnabas consolidate the mission to the Gentiles and bring back a report on this to their base church at Antioch. St. Paul made it clear in this reading because of their own experience that “we all have to experience many hardships before we enter the kingdom of heaven”

This hardship can come in different forms but we are therefore encouraged by St. Paul also that we should never relent but rather we should persevere in our faith.

Let Us Pray: Lord Jesus, give me the grace to love others as you have loved me and may my work for you be done always in love. Amen.