“I give you a new commandment: love one another.”
The Gospel The Church places before us this Sunday of the presentation of a new commandment takes place at the Last Supper. Our Lord says: “I give you a new commandment: love one another.” And so a couple of questions necessarily arise: How is this commandment “new”? . . . and . . . Why present this “new” commandment so late in His public ministry, viz. at the Last Supper? Why not call His disciples to love one another immediately, from the beginning, when He calls them?
What’s New? The Old Testament called for love of one another, certainly there’s nothing new about that. We see this in Creation, that Adam has a love for Eve, whom he says is not like the animals, but "This one, at last, is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh” [Gen 2:23]. In the Old Law we hear again and again the love one must have for the alien, the orphan, and the widow. In fact, Our Lord had already said that the essence of The Law was ‘to love one another as you would have them love you’ [Mt 7:12]. So, what is so “new” when Our Lord says “I give you a new commandment: love one another.”
Whenever a new operational capacity is seen in a creature - as an effect - there must be a previous imparting of the power for this capacity - as a cause. So, you can’t see a new effect if there is no proportionate cause. For example, if Peter Parker is going to climb walls and sling webs, he must have this power given to him by something ‘powerful’ enough to impart this ability; otherwise he would not be Spiderman. Hence, the cause: the radioactive spider’s bite. Simply, if Our Lord is asking us to love in a new way, He will have to give us the power to do so!
Therefore, the love that Our Lord is asking of us is actually a new kind of love that He simultaneously imparts, transfers, if you will, to His disciples. Jesus makes it clear that this is a totally new kind of love (not merely greater in degree) when He says, “As I have loved you, so you also should love one another”, this is a qualitative statement. Our Lord is telling us not merely ‘that’ we should love, but further and more precisely, in ‘what’ the power of this love consists “As I have loved…”; that this new love must consist above all in the Love of (and for) God. It is a reciprocal love that God first loves us with which enables us, empowers us, to love one another with. Hence St. John the beloved says in his letter, “In this is love: not that we have loved God, but that He has Loved us . . . [I Jn 3:10]. That His Love started the real process of loving in the human person.
So this answers our first question of what’s new about this love. It is the Love of God, not of man. It is not a quantitatively greater degree of love; rather it is a qualitatively different kind of Love. Man’s love is interested, God’s Love disinterested; man’s love is conditional, God’s Love is unconditional; man’s love seeks the good, God’s Love creates the good; man’s love is selfish, God’s Love is self-less. The human person, due to our fall to original sin, simply does not have the power in himself to love his enemies, to love the unlovable. Man must receive the power to love from God WHO IS LOVE.
This also answers our second question of why present this “new” commandment so late in His public ministry, viz. at the Last Supper? Our Lord waits to the end of His public ministry to give this new commandment of love for the reason that the fruit of the Redemption – grace - was to be won for us directly thereafter upon the cross. For, THE GRACE OF CHRIST IS THE NEW POWER NECESSARY FOR US TO LOVE AS GOD LOVES. It is only through the Redemptive Fruit of the Grace of Christ that we can fulfill that great commandment to Love – supernaturally – to the point of emptying out our life for God and neighbor. Our Lord goes on to say that, it is by the power of the love which God enables us with that all shall know that we are His disciples. We know and experience God’s Love through Christ’s sacrificial death [I Jn 3:16]. Perhaps this is the reason why Jesus waited until Judas had left, because Judas was offered that same love of God but refused it. Judas failed to be Christ’s disciple, not merely because of a lack of faith, but above all for a lack of love (charity), he loved money [Jn 12:6].
To sum up then: mankind, because of the original sin of Adam and Eve, lost the ability to genuinely love (sacrifice) because they severed their relationship with the source of LOVE (God). Jesus Christ, The ‘Word made Flesh’ and ‘Splendor of The Father’, restored our union to that genuine Love of God, for He Himself is God (LOVE). This restoration of LOVE was brought about through the sacrifice of the cross. Thus, in order for us to have a genuine love, we must be united to Christ’s Grace through the cross (sacrifice). God certainly takes the initiative, but we must respond to God, Who is LOVE [I Jn 4:8]. How do we concretely respond to God? By remaining close to Him in the sacred humanity of Christ, that is, in the material things that Christ Himself has established for this very means of union with sanctifying grace: His Divine Revelation in both Sacred Scripture and Sacred Tradition; His Church, the Mystical Body of Christ; His Sacraments, especially Confession and Holy Eucharist. Or simply to follow God’s Will for us, His commandments.
As The Father Loves Me, so I also love you. Remain in My Love.
If you keep My commandments, you will remain in My Love . . . Jn 15:9.
The Gospel The Church places before us this Sunday of the presentation of a new commandment takes place at the Last Supper. Our Lord says: “I give you a new commandment: love one another.” And so a couple of questions necessarily arise: How is this commandment “new”? . . . and . . . Why present this “new” commandment so late in His public ministry, viz. at the Last Supper? Why not call His disciples to love one another immediately, from the beginning, when He calls them?
What’s New? The Old Testament called for love of one another, certainly there’s nothing new about that. We see this in Creation, that Adam has a love for Eve, whom he says is not like the animals, but "This one, at last, is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh” [Gen 2:23]. In the Old Law we hear again and again the love one must have for the alien, the orphan, and the widow. In fact, Our Lord had already said that the essence of The Law was ‘to love one another as you would have them love you’ [Mt 7:12]. So, what is so “new” when Our Lord says “I give you a new commandment: love one another.”
Whenever a new operational capacity is seen in a creature - as an effect - there must be a previous imparting of the power for this capacity - as a cause. So, you can’t see a new effect if there is no proportionate cause. For example, if Peter Parker is going to climb walls and sling webs, he must have this power given to him by something ‘powerful’ enough to impart this ability; otherwise he would not be Spiderman. Hence, the cause: the radioactive spider’s bite. Simply, if Our Lord is asking us to love in a new way, He will have to give us the power to do so!
Therefore, the love that Our Lord is asking of us is actually a new kind of love that He simultaneously imparts, transfers, if you will, to His disciples. Jesus makes it clear that this is a totally new kind of love (not merely greater in degree) when He says, “As I have loved you, so you also should love one another”, this is a qualitative statement. Our Lord is telling us not merely ‘that’ we should love, but further and more precisely, in ‘what’ the power of this love consists “As I have loved…”; that this new love must consist above all in the Love of (and for) God. It is a reciprocal love that God first loves us with which enables us, empowers us, to love one another with. Hence St. John the beloved says in his letter, “In this is love: not that we have loved God, but that He has Loved us . . . [I Jn 3:10]. That His Love started the real process of loving in the human person.
So this answers our first question of what’s new about this love. It is the Love of God, not of man. It is not a quantitatively greater degree of love; rather it is a qualitatively different kind of Love. Man’s love is interested, God’s Love disinterested; man’s love is conditional, God’s Love is unconditional; man’s love seeks the good, God’s Love creates the good; man’s love is selfish, God’s Love is self-less. The human person, due to our fall to original sin, simply does not have the power in himself to love his enemies, to love the unlovable. Man must receive the power to love from God WHO IS LOVE.
This also answers our second question of why present this “new” commandment so late in His public ministry, viz. at the Last Supper? Our Lord waits to the end of His public ministry to give this new commandment of love for the reason that the fruit of the Redemption – grace - was to be won for us directly thereafter upon the cross. For, THE GRACE OF CHRIST IS THE NEW POWER NECESSARY FOR US TO LOVE AS GOD LOVES. It is only through the Redemptive Fruit of the Grace of Christ that we can fulfill that great commandment to Love – supernaturally – to the point of emptying out our life for God and neighbor. Our Lord goes on to say that, it is by the power of the love which God enables us with that all shall know that we are His disciples. We know and experience God’s Love through Christ’s sacrificial death [I Jn 3:16]. Perhaps this is the reason why Jesus waited until Judas had left, because Judas was offered that same love of God but refused it. Judas failed to be Christ’s disciple, not merely because of a lack of faith, but above all for a lack of love (charity), he loved money [Jn 12:6].
To sum up then: mankind, because of the original sin of Adam and Eve, lost the ability to genuinely love (sacrifice) because they severed their relationship with the source of LOVE (God). Jesus Christ, The ‘Word made Flesh’ and ‘Splendor of The Father’, restored our union to that genuine Love of God, for He Himself is God (LOVE). This restoration of LOVE was brought about through the sacrifice of the cross. Thus, in order for us to have a genuine love, we must be united to Christ’s Grace through the cross (sacrifice). God certainly takes the initiative, but we must respond to God, Who is LOVE [I Jn 4:8]. How do we concretely respond to God? By remaining close to Him in the sacred humanity of Christ, that is, in the material things that Christ Himself has established for this very means of union with sanctifying grace: His Divine Revelation in both Sacred Scripture and Sacred Tradition; His Church, the Mystical Body of Christ; His Sacraments, especially Confession and Holy Eucharist. Or simply to follow God’s Will for us, His commandments.
As The Father Loves Me, so I also love you. Remain in My Love.
If you keep My commandments, you will remain in My Love . . . Jn 15:9.