Fifth Sunday of Easter- C
The Gospel reading for the fifth Sunday of Easter is a short reading from St. John. It recalls the Last Supper just after Judas had left to betray Jesus. Jesus told his disciples that he would be with them only a little longer. The first meaning, in retrospect, is obvious: he will soon be crucified, and his dead body will be placed in the tomb. The second meaning refers to his Ascension into heaven after his resurrection.
Jesus’s following comment is a mandate to every disciple who wishes to follow him. He says, “I give you a new commandment: love one another. As I have loved you, so you also should love one another.” It would be easy to pass by the words and their implication at first blush because, as Christians, we have been taught from a young age that loving one another is mandatory in the faith. However, if we take a moment and reflect deeper with the help of St. Augustine, there is more than meets the eye.
When St. Augustine wrote his treatise on this Gospel passage, he began reflecting on the “new commandment Jesus gave his disciples.” How can loving one another be a new commandment, questions Augustine? The ancient law of God commanded that “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” He notes the difference is associated with Jesus, a condition that did not exist before.
The type of love Jesus exhibited in his life and death changed the paradigm of love itself. The old order of our humanity has been clothed with the new. The Lord distinguishes a particular love as the new way we must love one another. It is not from carnal affection between husband and wife, parents and children, or even blame-worthy love between illicit relationships. The love Jesus is talking about is the same love by which he loves us. He implies new relationships through him as the head of the Body of Christ, where the bridegroom (Jesus) and the bride (the Church) are wed.
From this perspective, the new commandment is based upon the spiritual relationship of the bridegroom and bride. Jesus loves his bride, the Church, by giving his life for them. The new people (Church) are married to Jesus and are made pure through Jesus. The members of the Church are renewed through him and have a mutual interest in each other. If one member suffers, all the members suffer with him. If one is honored, all members rejoice. No longer are we called to love humanly, but we love as gods. Quite a claim Augustine makes, for he sees the renewal of the human condition through Christ as manifesting itself in the transformation of mere human beings to be like him, divine.
We are called to love one another as those who belong to God. All of them are children of the Most High and, consequently, brethren of his only Son. They share the love with which he leads them to the end that will bring fulfillment and the true satisfaction of their real desires. For when God is all in all, there is no unfulfilled desire.
The love bestowed on us by him who said, “Just as I have loved you, you also must love one another.” He loved us so that we should love one another. By loving us, he bound us to one another in mutual love, and by this gentle bond united us into the body of which he is the most noble Head.