Today’s short gospel marks the beginning of Jesus’ long farewell discourse given at the last supper. He tells his apostles, “I give you a new commandment: love one another. As I have loved you, so you also should love one another.”
Why does Jesus call it a new commandment? Is it not essentially the same as the “old” commandment written in Leviticus 19:18, which speaks of loving one’s neighbor as oneself? In substance, they are the same: love your neighbor. What is new is the standard of love. Jesus asks his disciples to love one another, not just as they love themselves, but as he loves them.
On that evening, Jesus demonstrates his love by kneeling in front of his disciples and washing their feet. The following day, he shows the extent of his love by giving up his life for them. The newness of Jesus’ commandment then is in its measure – his own love, which is without measure.
As disciples, we too are to love our neighbor, as Jesus loves us. Is that possible? We know that Jesus’ love is self-sacrificing, total and unconditional, while ours is full of ego and lacking of courage and generosity. Are we capable to love as Jesus loves? I believe so for it can’t be otherwise. God does not ask us to do something we cannot do. If Jesus commands us to love as he loves, he will also empower us to do so.
How does he empower us? We can love as Jesus loves because Jesus loved us first. We know from psychology that a person learns to love only when he is loved, for love is primarily a response. Thus, children who grow up deprived of love find it difficult to love and relate with others.
At the same time, God fills us with his own love. Paul puts it more graphically, “God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us.” (Rm 5:5) Thus, through the Spirit we are enabled to love as God loves, as Jesus loves us.
This morning, Pope Leo XIV, will preside over the Eucharistic Celebration to mark the beginning of his Petrine Ministry as Bishop of Rome. Our new Holy Father is definitely one of the greatest graces we have received in this Jubilee Year 2025. He began his message to the Church and to the world from the loggia of St. Peter’s Basilica with the greeting of the Risen Christ to the apostles, “Peace be with you.” This peace, he says, is “a peace that comes from God, the God who loves us all, unconditionally.”
In the course of his speech, he reiterates same message: “God loves us, God loves you all, and evil will not prevail! All of us are in God’s hands.”
Indeed, we are in good hands! What can be more reassuring?
Two days ago, I presided the Mass for the Confradia del Sto. Niño de Cebu gathered on the occasion of their International/National Convention. During the homily, I commented that the words of the Holy Father (All of us are in God’s hands) remind me of the icon of the Sto. Niño and an old Negro spiritual. “He’s got the whole world in his hands… He’s got you and me brother/sister in his hands.”
True, the hand of the Sto. Niño is little, but it holds the universe and each of us. Indeed, we’re in good hand. How reassuring!
I continued our reflection by asking why God decided to become a child, small and helpless. Then I shared Pope Benedict XIII’s beautiful insight. God made himself small so that we can hold him in our arms and love him. At the same time, he made himself small, so that he put himself in our hands in total surrender – for love is surrender.
That is how God loves us. He washes our feet, and he entrusts himself to us completely. (Just think how he offers himself in total surrender at Holy Communion!) All he asks is that we love one another as he loves us – by serving and trusting each other.