Love One Another ~ Reflection on the Fifth Sunday of Easter

Fifth Sunday of Easter

Acts 14:21-27

Ps 145:8-9, 10-11, 12-13

Rev 21:1-5a

Jn 13:31-33a, 34-35

Jesus speaks of a new commandment in John's Gospel this Sunday.  He tells us: "Love one another."

To love one another means that a community of like-minded people is created that places the needs of others as more important than their own individual need.

This community does not isolate itself but as its members grow in love, they reach out beyond themselves to embrace the world.

Jesus wished his disciples to love others as he loved them.  With a sacrificial love... a joyful love... a generous love... a healing love.

Jesus realized what this kind of love could do in the world he (and we, today) live in.  It could change lives.  It could also identify people as followers of Christ and Children of God.  Didn't Jesus say:  "This is how all will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another"?

This community would stand out among the world's peoples, and it would draw others to become a part of it.  People searching for what was absent in their lives.  People searching for meaning in the midst of war, hatred, sickness, violence, poverty, cruelty...  

But Jesus also knew that his disciples and future followers would be rejected by some...  They would suffer for that love they tried to share with others.  Those in power would be threatened by a love they did not understand, and they would try to destroy it...  But Love, which is God, will triumph...

Remember, written in the Book of Revelation, God says:  "Behold I make all things new."


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