[ Today's Readings ]
I give you a new commandment: love one another.
As I have loved you, so you also should love one another.
LORD, from the earliest times you tell us that what matters is to love you with all of our heart and to love our neighbor as ourselves. But you make this command to love new.
Beloved, I am writing you no new commandment, but an old commandment that you had from the beginning. The old commandment is the word that you have heard. At the same time, it is a new commandment that I am writing to you, which is true in him and in you, because the darkness is passing away and the true light is already shining (First John 1:7).
The darkness of former times prevents us from loving you the way we should. It prevents us from loving our neighbors as we know we should. We try. But it's hit or miss. Sometimes we do pretty well. Other times we fall flat on our faces in selfishness. But when you yourself are glorified by your death and resurrection you renew the whole world at that same moment.
The One who sat on the throne said,
“Behold, I make all things new.”
In Mel Gibson's "the Passion" these words are on your lips as you suffer and die for us. And this is right. It also makes sense for them to be on your lips as you rise for us. The very sand of the earth is new sand because the feet that touch it are your risen feet. In your passion all things are truly made new. Now the old commandment to love is made new by the grace you give us to carry it out. The oldness of the letter becomes the newness of Spirit.
For the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life (see Second Corinthians 3:6).
Now the Holy City, the New Jerusalem can begin to take root on earth even before the end times. In your Holy Church the Holy City becomes real and manifest on earth. All things begin to be renewed in your love. That is why the commandment is no longer simply to love, but to love in the same way that you have loved.
As I have loved you, so you also should love one another.
It is only in this way, united to your passion, that we can truly love at all. And it is so much more than we hope, ask, or imagine. It is your very presence among us.
He will dwell with them and they will be his people
and God himself will always be with them as their God.
He will wipe every tear from their eyes,
and there shall be no more death or mourning, wailing or pain,
for the old order has passed away.
This is the love you want us to reveal to the world. This is how you yourself love us. You make all things new in order to make this kind of love possible. Even if we must undergo many hardships to enter the kingdom of God it is clearly worth it. May the door to this faith be open to more and more people just as we read that it is to the Gentiles. The deepest longing of every human heart is the love with which you love us, LORD, the love we are now called to share.
The LORD is gracious and merciful,
slow to anger and of great kindness.
The LORD is good to all
and compassionate toward all his works.
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