In today’s Gospel, Jesus commands us to love one another because God has loved us through Jesus. Jesus is the incarnation of God’s love for humanity, and all those who follow the way of Jesus have to become the reflections of that love in today’s world. It means that the Christian love has the face of Jesus. The Gospel writers tell us the story of many people who met Jesus in his earthly ministry. After their encounter with the Lord, their lives have completely changed. This is what Christian love does; whenever someone meets a person with this special love, they are transformed.
By his incarnation, Jesus has become our friend in the most complete way imaginable. It is by giving his life on the cross for us, he expressed his love for us. His life with the Heavenly Father was so intimate, and he shared with us something precious. He wants to draw us into that relationship so that we can have a share in this special love. This is a gift he will never take back, no matter what happens in our life. Just as a parent loves each child differently but equally, Jesus loves each one of us differently but equally. His friendship with us is by our own unique identity.
We follow Christ – which means that we have personally met him in our life. As his friends, we all have a chance to experience his love in various ways. God’s love has made us into a new creation. Now we do what Jesus did: love one another as he has loved us. It is through love, Jesus accomplished his mission entrusted by his Father. He loved us radically and unconditionally and set the world and our hearts with the flame of God’s love. As the Disciples of Christ, we also are the missionaries and messengers of Christian love. Today, we must live the Christian life, realizing how much God loves us and how much we need to love God and our neighbor.
Christ calls us to love one another because only lives motivated by love have meaning. Christian love has the power to transform bad into good, evil into virtue, and darkness into light. But this love has to be extravagant and unconditional. We see a glimpse of this kind of love in the famous fairy tale story of Beauty and the Beast. When Bella sees that the Beast is grieving and is at the point of death because of his love for her, she comes back to him. Bella’s sudden expression of her unconditional love for the Beast transforms the Beast into a beautiful prince. We may meet many people who represent the Beast daily. Each day, God gives us opportunities to turn many Beasts into beautiful Princes. We may also allow Jesus’ love to transform if any Beast is hiding inside us. Love has that power, and we should not hesitate to use it for creating God’s Kingdom on earth.
When we begin to love Jesus, then we begin to love the things and people he loves. The world we live in seems to be filled with hatred than love because of war, terrorism, and many other problems created by human beings. The only answer to solving these problems is to implement the commandment of Jesus. He says: “If you love me, you will keep my commandments”. Let us try to follow Jesus through loving God and our fellow human beings. Jesus is the face of God’s love, and we need to have the face of Jesus to show the world how much God loves everyone.
Rev. Dr. Mathew Charthakuzhiyil