My dear people of God.
I give you a new commandment “Love one another”.
Like the lawyer in Luke’s Gospel (chapter 10), we want to ask who our neighbor is. Whom must we love?
Jesus knows how we think and tells us the story of the Good Samaritan, teaching us to be good neighbors to all. He calls this commandment to love “new” because He means for us to love all people without distinction. “As I have loved you, so you also should love one another”.
How are we to love? Jesus modeled His kind of love when He washed the disciples’ feet. Not only did He wash the feet of John or Peter. He even washed the feet of Judas, His betrayer.
Christ paid a great price to love us. It meant crucifixion and death on the Cross at Calvary. If we are to live by this new commandment we must undergo many trials, for this love makes as many demands upon us as it did upon Christ. We need to learn how to go about loving others for the sake of God because, in the evening of life, we will be judged on how well we have loved.
How do other people know that we are followers of Jesus?
It is easy to love those who are kind and loving towards us but Christian love calls us to do more than this.
Lord Jesus, you showed us how we should love and care for one another, may our love be a sign to bring others to know and love you, too.
