A Lectio Divina Approach to the Sunday Liturgy
BREAKING THE BREAD OF THE WORD (# 24)
Fifth Sunday in Easter, Year C – May 9, 2004
“Love One Another”
BIBLE READINGS
Acts 14:21-27 // Rev 21:1-5a // Jn 13:31-33a, 34-35
I. BIBLICO-LITURGICAL REFLECTIONS
There is something sacred in the final wish of a person who is about to die. When my father was sick and dying, he left an important testament to us, his children. With the noble dignity of a true patriarch, he uttered his twofold command: “Take care of your mother; love one another.” Whenever I hear the Gospel account of Mary at the foot of the cross, being entrusted by the dying Jesus to the care of his beloved disciple with the words, “This is your mother” (Jn 19:27), I feel a greater affinity to that saving event. Moreover, whenever I listen to Jesus’ farewell discourse, especially his ultimate command on fraternal love, my heart is touched to the core. Indeed, there is an ineffable quality and an irresistible force in a person’s final testament. If this was true for our beloved father, how much more so for Jesus, our Divine Master-Shepherd and Redeemer.
Today’s Gospel passage contains “a new commandment” given by Jesus on the eve of his Passover. He knew that the hour had come for him to pass from this world to the Father and he wanted to show his disciples how perfect his love was for them (cf. Jn 13:1). The perfection of his self-giving love, as a model for his disciples, is presented against the backdrop of Judas’ betrayal and the forthcoming prediction of Peter’s denial. The biblical scholar, Teresa Okure observes: “The new commandment to love as Jesus loves (vv. 31-35) is sandwiched between the predictions of Judas’ betrayal and of Peter’s denial (vv. 21-30, 36-38). This implies that the disciples are to follow Jesus the whole way, learn from him how to love intensely in the face of hatred, serve one another humbly, and cleanse one another from sin (washing the feet). As God’s disciple, Jesus himself does the same: he listens to the Father, learns and acts likewise.”
This Sunday’s Gospel reading begins with the departure of Judas to carry out his wicked plan. According to John’s account, “When Judas had left them, Jesus said: Now is the Son of Man glorified, and God is glorified in him. If God is glorified in him, God will also glorify him in himself, and God will glorify him at once” (Jn 13:31-33a). The departure of Judas is eventful in that it sets off the events of Christ’s saving passion and glorification. Moreover, the testament of love of the One who would be betrayed and abandoned is linked to his awesome statement on the mutual glorification of God and the Son. From the vantage point of the completed Easter event, we know that God has glorified his Son by his sacrificial death on the cross and by raising him to new life. Aelred Rosser reflects on this glorious mystery: “First, the Son of Man is glorified in his obedience to God – obedience unto death, death on a cross. And God is glorified in the fulfillment of the divine will. And then God glorifies the Son in the splendor of the resurrection, wherein death is overcome by life. God raised Jesus from the dead, thereby glorifying the Son. The Son’s victory over death – the guarantee of our redemption – gives glory to God the Father.”
In his farewell discourse, Jesus addressed his disciples with an endearing title, “my children”, which is also an expression of our dependence upon God. To his children-disciples, bound to him in a relationship of intimacy and service, Jesus spoke these remarkable words: “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” (Jn 13:34-35). According to the editors of the Jerusalem Bible: “Though enunciated in the Mosaic Law, this precept of love is new because Jesus sets the standard so high by telling his followers to love one another as he himself loved them, and because love is to be the distinguishing mark of the new era which the death of Jesus inaugurates and proclaims to the world.” Indeed, what makes the commandment “new” is the awesome standard of love proposed for the Christian disciples – the sacrificial love of the Lord Jesus that knows no bounds.
In order to glean the radical quality of Christ’s “new” command, we must be able to grasp the true depth of his love. The Church Father, St. Cyril of Alexandria, exhorts us: “Do you not see what is new in Christ’s love for us? The law commanded people to love their brothers and sisters as they love themselves, but our Lord Jesus Christ loved us more than himself … Christ commands us to love as he did, putting neither reputation, nor wealth, nor anything whatever before love of our brothers and sisters. If need be we must even be prepared to face death for our neighbor’s salvation as did our Savior’s blessed disciples and those who followed his footsteps … The Savior urged us to practice this love that transcends the law as the foundation of true devotion to God. He knew that only in this way could we become pleasing in God’s eyes, and that it was by seeking the beauty of the love implanted in us by himself that we should attain to the highest blessings.”
In accordance with the “new” testament of Jesus, as he was about to offer his life-giving sacrifice on the cross, Christians must live out the call to fraternal charity. Mutual love must be the true mark of discipleship. The authors of the Days of the Lord, vol. 3, assert: “This is the sign of the Christian in the world, the irrefutable, immediately verifiable, proof of Christian identity. For this love appears as a way of life, not only a series of actions, however admirable or even heroic it may be. To walk faithfully in this way is constantly to be a certain way, blossoming from day to day in the peace and joy that nothing can harm; it is to bear fruit for time and eternity. Happy the disciples of Christ whose charitable life, as Jesus’, gladdens the heart of God and humanity!”
II. POINTS FOR THE EXAMINATION OF THE HEART
A. Do we believe that through the passion, death and resurrection of Christ, the Father and the Son are glorified? In carrying out the divine saving plan, do we believe that we are partakers of this Easter glory?
B. What are the emotions evoked in us by Christ’s Farewell Discourse and his testament of love?
C. Do we fulfill in our daily lives Christ’s new command: “Love one another. As I have loved you, so you should love one another” (Jn 13:34)? Do we strive to attain mutual charity, the true mark of discipleship, in accordance with Christ’s words: “This is how all will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another” (Jn 13:35)? How?
III. PRAYING WITH THE WORD
Leader: Loving Father,
you glorified your Son Jesus,
who suffered and died for us on the cross,
by raising him to new life.
He loved us with a perfect love
that is beyond our human grasp and feeble understanding.
Fill us with the Holy Spirit,
the Easter gift of the Risen Lord,
that we may perceive the depths
of his sacrificial and renewing love.
Help us to keep in mind
Christ’s “new” and ultimate command
given to his disciples on the night of the Last Supper:
“Love one another.
As I have loved you, so you should love one another” (Jn 13:34).
Help us to really know, love and serve one another.
Let us be ready to reach out
with healing and helping hand
to those who are wounded, grieving and in dire need.
May the love of Christ be the mark
of our faith and discipleship.
May the world come to believe in your life-giving Son
and acknowledge that we truly love him
as our Divine Master,
in accordance with his words:
“This is how all will know that you are my disciples,
if you have love for one another” (Jn 13:35).
IV. INTERIORIZATION OF THE WORD
The following is the bread of the living Word that will nourish us throughout the week. Please memorize it.
“Love one another. As I have loved you, so you should love one another” (Jn 13:34).
V. TOWARDS LIFE TRANSFORMATION
A. ACTION PLAN: Thank the Lord for the people you love and those who love you. Ask the Lord for the grace to love those you do not love. Above all, pray that God may give you the grace to love as Jesus loves.
B. ACTION PLAN: Today, perform three good deeds within your family or community with the intention of carrying out Christ’s holy command of fraternal love.
Prepared by Sr. Mary Margaret Tapang PDDM
SISTER DISCIPLES OF THE DIVINE MASTER
60 Sunset Ave., Staten Island, New York 10314
Tel. (718) 494-8597 // (718) 761-2323
Website: WWW.PDDM.US