“...love one another as I have loved you.”
Jesus tell us at the Last Supper (which is significant) to love one another as he has loved us. Let us look at how we have been loved by him….
He did not wait for us to deserve love before he loved
us. We may look around us anxiously trying to find someone worthy of our attention. We find hundreds of reasons for striking someone off the love-list and stop trying. We may only fall ‘in love’ a couple of times in a
lifetime, but there is enough love even in the human heart to be loving to everyone.- His love forgives faults and failings. Where the cracks appear, love is enough to fill them in or at least build bridges over them. A love that perseveres is the most healing thing in the world. We all need it, we can all give it.
- He put our well-being before his own, gladly. Being selfless out of duty is not love. Putting others first out of politeness is not what Jesus did. He genuinely cared more about helping us, than about his own safety. He said these words about love just after Judas had gone out to fetch the police. He knew what was going to happen, but he put his Father and our need ahead of what he wanted.
- He loved us for who we are, not for what we accomplished. We find that hard to take. We like to think we are lovable, impressive, special, at least to a few people. We hide our weaknesses and failings from them so as not to spoil the effect. We know God is not fooled by that, so we think he sees right through us. Actually he sees right into us, and loves us, not because we are wonderful, but because we are wonderfully made, capable of being loved by Him. When we look at him we see his Cross. But e wants us to see his love.
When we properly see how he has loved us and why, we will know how to look at each other, and do the same. “Love one another as I have loved you.”
This is a thought on the Gospel of the 5th Sunday of Easter, 2001
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Postal address: Ampleforth Abbey, York, YO62 4EN.
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