Word to the Wise
Sunday, May 6, 2007 - Fifth Sunday in Easter
[Acts 14:21-27; Revelation 21:1-5A; John 13:31-33A, 34-35]I give you a new commandment: love one another. As I have loved you, so you also should love one another. This is how all will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.
The gospel scripture for this Sunday continues the series from the Gospel of John and is taken from the Last Supper Discourse - a long and intricate as well as repetitive reflection. Yet, the particular passage quoted from today's gospel scripture gets at the core of the whole discourse. Jesus gives his disciples a NEW commandment. In this, he replaces the covenant/commandment from Sinai with himself. It is the love that he shows for the disciples that must be continued in their love for one another. Raymond Brown, S.S., the great American Johannine scripture scholar points out in his commentary that Jesus' love is both AFFECTIVE and EFFECTIVE. It is affective in the sense that he genuinely feels that love for his disciples. It is effective in that his love is what saves them. Perhaps we have experienced this affective/effective impact in the love of a close friend or spouse. Not only is the love felt, but it enables one to grow or heal from some trauma. I could name a number of my friends who have done this for me in a very particular way. This kind of love is what Jesus wishes the disciples to have for one another and that through it, Jesus' own love is manifested in the world. At this point, many will sigh and say that this is too much to expect. At best they can "get along" with others and not expect anything other than civility or courtesy. If we reach that point, we have given up on Jesus and on Christianity. Indeed we will give up on ordinary friendship! Jesus' own words are that people will know we are his disciples by our love for one another, not by our courtesy or cordiality (nice as those are!). Jesus' love is more than being nice. Elsewhere in the Gospel of John he says, "Greater love than this no one has than that he lay down his life for a friend. You are my friends if you do what I command you." The "new commandment" remains at the heart of Christianity. It has to be at our heart too. AMEN
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