In the Gospel passage that we just heard, Jesus and his disciples are at the Last Supper; they finished their meal, Jesus had already washed the disciples’ feet, and Judas just left to betray Jesus. And then Jesus says something rather curious. As soon as Judas left, Jesus says, “Now is the Son of Man glorified, and God is glorified in him.” Why would he say that at this particular time? Well, we already know the end of the story, that according to the Gospel of John, Jesus is glorified in his suffering, death, and resurrection from the dead. And it was Judas who kind of set things in motion, so to speak, and his action to betray Jesus led to the events that would see him put to death on a cross.
But then Jesus says something that makes it seem like he’s changing the subject. He tells his disciples, “I give you a new commandment: love one another.” This commandment is a new one, he tells them. But doesn’t it say in the Old Testament “you shall love your neighbor as yourself” (Lv 19:18)? Jesus even quotes this when the scribe asked him which of the commandments is the greatest. So what is it that makes what he is asking of them new?
I think that what makes this commandment new is the kind of love to which Jesus is calling them. You see, in our language we can use the word “love” to mean many different things. We speak of how we love playing cards or golf. We can say, “I really loved that movie!” and speak of how we love certain kinds of food. I love all of you as parishioners and friends. And I love my wife dearly. But I dare not love my wife like I love any of these other things, or love any of you like I love my wife.
This is what I think Jesus means when he says “I give you a new commandment.” He is calling his disciples to a specific kind of love, in the Greek, “Agape.” Agape is a sacrificial love, a love that is total, completely self-giving, and totally selfless. It’s the kind of love Jesus demonstrates in his passion and death. And he mentions this just a little later during the Last Supper when he says, “Greater love has no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends” (Jn 15:13). Father Tom spoke about this kind of love a couple weeks ago from the passage where Jesus asks Peter, “Simon, son of John, do you love me?”
Jesus summarized the entire essence of his teaching with this New Commandment: “As I have loved you, so you also should love one another.” He was commanding his disciples to love one another with his own heart—the heart of Christ. And he makes it clear that this is the kind of love that will attract others to the Gospel and to conversion. “This is how all will know that you are my disciples, if you have love (agape) for one another” (Jn 13:35).
This is the kind of love that Jesus is calling all of us to. The command to love as Christ loved implies that our attitudes and conduct must reflect that of Christ. Jesus Christ must become our guide for how we live and what we choose to do. This is something that I’ve spoken of before and we need to always keep it in mind. When we’re out in the world, can other people see how we live and act and know that we are Christian? And if so, do we present that in a joyful way that will bring others to conversion and say “I want what they’ve got!”?
When Jesus manifested his love for us by laying down his life, he taught us that true charity (agape) involves total self-giving for the good of all those we encounter, beginning with those that are closest to us, and then extending that to everyone else. It says in the Catechism of the Catholic Church: “All Christians in any state or walk of life (married, single, consecrated religious, ordained, young and old) are called to the fullness of Christian life and to the perfection of charity. All are called to holiness. ‘Be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect'” (CCC 2013, Mt 5:48).
The Catechism goes on to say: “The way of perfection passes by way of the Cross. There is no holiness without renunciation and spiritual battle. Spiritual progress entails the [self-discipline] and mortification that gradually lead to living in the peace and joy of the Beatitudes” (CCC 2015). This is precisely what we hear in the first reading today from the Acts of the Apostles. It says that Paul and Barnabas “strengthened the spirits of the disciples and exhorted them to persevere in the faith, saying, ‘It is necessary for us to undergo many hardships to enter the kingdom of God'” (Acts 14:22).
And Jesus himself alluded to this in the Gospel of Luke when he said: “If anyone wishes to come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me” (Lk 9:23).
In everyday life there is nothing that demonstrates this more than married life. Now I’m not suggesting that marriage leads to pain and suffering, but those who are married know that it involves self-sacrifice: first for your spouse and then for your children. And when this is done in a sacramental and loving (agape) way, then the suffering and trials we endure can be redeeming and we actually glorify God in a way that others can see. And sacramental marriage is the best image we have of the relationship that God desires to have with us. It’s why we believe and teach that the Church is the Bride of Christ.
And when suffering and trials do come our way (and they will come), then we need to embrace them, and unite them with the suffering of Christ through prayer and participation in the sacraments. Unfortunately, our society today wants to avoid pain and suffering at all costs, and ironically, this is done through the legal and deliberate killing of the innocent (abortion, euthanasia, assisted suicide). This can only lead to despair. But when we embrace the suffering we encounter and unite it with the suffering of Christ, then we can experience the hope that only God can give.
On her death bed when she was only twenty-four years old, Saint Thérèse of Lisieux, who suffered a slow and painful fight against tuberculosis, is reported to have said: “I have reached the point of not being able to suffer any more, because all suffering is sweet to me.” That’s the path to holiness and perfection: bearing suffering with love and willingly embracing it.
These readings today remind us of our ultimate destiny: to share in the glory of God in heaven with Christ and all the saints. Saint Peter speaks of this in his second letter when he says, “he has bestowed on us the great and very precious promises, so that through them you may come to share in the divine nature” (2 Peter 1:4). And if Jesus is glorified through his suffering and death on the cross, that ultimate outpouring of divine love, then we have the opportunity to share His glory when we give of ourselves with that same love that is possible with his divine gift of grace.