Love One Another

In this Sunday’s Gospel, Jesus, addressing us as His little children, gives us this powerful commandment: “Love one another, as I have loved you.” However, this is a difficult teaching; in fact, it is impossible. Why? Because you and I, we are not God, and so we cannot love the way God loves. Yet, if we want to perfect our friendship with God, we must observe this impossible commandment. How? This is only possible by the gift of God’s grace. It is by His grace that, in our prayers and meditation, He himself teaches us how to love. And it is by His grace that we are able to imitate His love in loving one another.

Let us look at three ways Jesus loves us, and how we can imitate Him.

First, Jesus loves us gratuitously—without any benefit to Himself. He loved us first before we loved Him, and He loved us into existence. We too, can imitate Christ’s love by loving one another gratuitously without any concern for thanks nor waiting to be loved by others.

Secondly, Jesus loved us by giving himself up on the Cross for our sins. And we can imitate this love by making an offering of ourselves for one another.

And finally, Jesus—by drawing us into Himself—loves us by sharing with us the ultimate good, that is, the fullness of life in the blessed Trinity—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. By the grace of God, we can love one another by sharing the joy of the Gospel in order to bring Christ to souls, and to draw souls to deeper union with God.

And so, my friends, while we continue to journey here on this earth, striving to perfect our friendship with God, let us ask the Lord, in prayer, for the grace to observe this impossible commandment.

Image: Crucifixion, Fra Angelico, 1440.