Something new
Who doesn’t get excited when they are given something new. A few weeks ago, my daughter bought me a new pair of running shoes. It now holds pride of place on my shoe rack and I wear them with great joy. In our readings this weekend, the word “new” appears six times – that surely must get you excited.
In our Gospel reading today, Jesus gives us a new commandment, “to love one another, …“ We often associate the word love with emotional attraction either to someone or something. While an emotional attraction is an important part of love, emotions come and go. In commanding us to love one another, Jesus added in a further requirement – “as I have loved you.” I suppose that is what makes this commandment, new but what does it mean to love as Jesus did. The answer is simple, Jesus’s love for us when all the way to the cross. Some would say, Jesus walked the talk because in his teachings he proclaimed that “Greater love than this no man has, that he lays down his life for his friends.” As we reflect on the Gospel in the week ahead, it may be worth asking ourselves, whether the love I show towards others is the love Jesus commanded of us or do we stop short of that and only have an affection for others.
I love the readings from the Acts of the Apostles during the Easter Octave as the boldness of the first disciplines, the faith they show and the love they had for each other. A phrase often attributed to these first Christians, was “See how they love one another”. It was this example that brought many to follow Jesus and his disciples. Sometimes we find ourselves in a situation where it is not easy to love. It is in those moments that we should turn to our Lord to find the strength to love as he did.
Am I excited by this new commandment as I am about my new running shoes? Yes, I am, because I know that the Lord will never ask me to do the impossible by myself because his love for me is unfailing.
Clint Ramoo – Finance Committee Chair
