I GIVE YOU A NEW COMMANDMENT

V/​ I will turn to you O God, 

R/​ to God who gives joy to my youth

V/​ Give me the Wisdom that sits by your throne; 

R/ that I may be counted among your children

Lord, in your all-providential plan, you have led me to this moment to rediscover me in your Word and Wisdom. Aid me to make this time of meditation and prayer enriching, transforming, and liberating for my well-being and others. Amen!

I GIVE YOU A NEW COMMANDMENT

By Fr. Luke-Dominic Onwe

Fifth Sunday of Easter Year C

Act 14: 21-27; Psalm 145 (144): 8-13; Revelation: 21: 1-5; John 13: 31-35

18th May 2025

In our readings today, Jesus gives us a new commandment: “I give you a new commandment: love one another just as I have loved. You also must love one another. By this, everyone will know that you are my disciples.” Blessed John Soreth tells us that we must learn how to love from Love himself. Jesus has loved us and teaches us how to love as he loves.

What is fundamental to this commandment is that we must first know how God/Jesus loves us so as to love in the same way, with much more capacity and frequency. John also tells us: “for no greater love has a man than to lay his life for his friends.” So, Jesus has loved us sacrificially and unconditionally and has commanded us to love the same. That is the only way people will come to acknowledge that we are Christians. We must be ready to lay down our lives, to make sacrifices, to love even when it is painful and unfavourable, as the best way to imitate Christ. Teresa of Calcutta tells us “Love until it hurts” and unless it hurts it is not love. The test of true love is the willingness and ability to sacrifice for a loved one.

The psalm tells us that “the Lord is kind and full of compassion, slow to anger, abounding in love. Being kind, compassionate, tolerant of people’s faults, mistakes and offences, and accepting them are ways of expressing this love of God. However, it can come with a lot of suffering because we must be dead to our selfishness, to our ego, our greed, our jealousy. We must be dead to our impulses in order to truly respond to this commandment of God. These are some of those things that make us build walls around us instead of building bridges that will help us reach out to people. We are so afraid and insecure.

St. Paul tells us bluntly in the first reading that, “we all have to experience (to suffer) many hardships before we enter the kingdom of God.” We live in a society where everything promises to ease the pains of suffering and hardship; everyone wants a smooth sail. Worst still, many preachers talk so much about the gospel of glory, devoid of the cross. We feel and believe that the more we reject pain and suffering, the more advanced our society is. Our readings today challenge that opinion. They give us a different recipe: suffering, hardship are necessary for salvation. St. Paul also tells us that “we make up for what remains in the sufferings of Christ.” It is a privilege that leads to salvation to participate in the sufferings of Christ.

This is why St. John is privileged to be shown the new creation of God, the new heaven (in our 2nd reading). This new city is a place where God “will wipe away all tears from people’s eyes; there will be no more death, and no more mourning or sadness” because “God will dwell among his people.” This is not a physical city that is being described, but a state of being whence we love one another unconditionally and can live for the others as commanded by Jesus in the gospel. Such a city, such a church will be the physical and prophetic reality where the presence of God is uniquely and practically felt. Such a community does not fall from heaven. It is built by all of us, and to achieve this, we need God’s grace. And God gives his wisdom, grace, and spirit to build such a relationship where his presence is felt. We begin in our respective homes and families, since charity begins at home. And “by this people will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another as I have loved you.”