This is my commandment: love one another, as I have loved you.

 

The accent of this text is found in love, but not in any form of love. The referential love is that of Christ, who loves each of his disciples as he is loved by the Father, who communicates the Spirit to him (cf. Jn 1:32-33), who, in turn, is communicated by the Son to the Church (cf. Jn 7:39). Historically, Jesus manifests what He is with the Father: a relationship of love: the Father, eternal Lover; the Son, eternal Beloved; and the Spirit, eternal Love. The Father, all for the Son, who is all turned to the Father. The Spirit is the One in whom the Father is all to the Son, and the Son all to the Father. In the same Spirit, Jesus loves His Church, giving himself totally for her. His whole life was a gift of himself from the Incarnation until he became the Eucharist. In everything he lived the will of the Father, taught everything that the Father wanted, in everything he was a renunciation of himself for the manifestation of the glory of God the Father in the sanctification of all the chosen ones.

2. "Abide in my love." Here there is a connection with the text of the true vine (cf. Jn 15:1-8). In both texts, there is a demand for “permanence”, but not any form of permanence, but insertion in Jesus (first text) and in love (second text). In fact, the “branch” will only produce fruit if it is attached to the tree, if it receives the sap, if it is inserted in the body. Such permanence and results will only be possible in love, and this as a gift of itself. There is no other more perfect manifestation of love. It is well known that there is no definition of love in any science, but when the disciple contemplates the life of the Word made flesh, he finds there not only an intellectual definition of love, but also, and in a more perfect way, love itself in history, love as an absolutely free person and, therefore, capable of being completely obedient to the same Love and to the human being, who needs to be loved and to discover love in the form of God in order to find its fulfillment in the same God. This love is oblativity, that is, surrender of oneself, with a view to the good of the other; it is to assume the pain, so that the other lives love; it is not fearing to decrease, so that the other can grow; it is to rejoice when the other reaches the top, his accomplishment. The disciple is invited to practice this love in the history of the Church in the world.

3. "If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love." Love is not to be lived in the universe of abstraction. It is not the notion of love that saves. It means nothing to have an understanding of love and not practice it. Jesus Christ was all obedience to the Father, he put first the Father's instruction, His Commandments. What He asks of His disciples is purely the living of the same Commandments. The important and new point here is the fact of putting these Commandments into practice starting from Jesus Christ. The interpretation of the Father's thought was given by the Son, who perfectly revealed the Father's will. Only by remaining in Christ is it possible to fully reach the Father's truth and the fullness of his love.

4. "I have told you this, that my joy may be in you and your joy may be full." Being all for the Father and all for the salvation of His chosen ones, Jesus manifests the joy of divine holiness and the victory of love. The disciple is invited to this same joy, so that all for God and all for the good of his fellow men, he can live the holiness of God in Christ, fight the good fight in love and make the pain of each day the springboard to eternity, where your joy will be full in the Trinitarian embrace.

5. "This is my commandment: love one another, as I have loved you." Today the notion of love is very trivialized. Many, even, understand everything for pleasure, affection, affection. It is true that all this can be found in those who truly love, but love is not that. Love is not a feeling, it is not the same thing as passion, it does not mean interest in the other person. This way of being creates serious dependencies, in addition to fostering illusions, fantasies, meaningless dreams. In this way of understanding love, there are many without horizon, without meaning. Loving like Jesus requires much more than that.

6. Being God, the Word became flesh. Incarnation is already a profound lesson in love, because it is about emptying oneself, to assume our limited condition, which is why imperfect. Certainly, minus sin, but in everything he became like us, 100% man. He came to meet us, to speak to us as an equal, as one of us, from within ourselves. He entered our history, to dialogue with us within ourselves, to teach us from our own language. Furthermore, he took upon our sins, our sufferings, our pains, he felt with us the pain of separation. He went further, out of love, he gave himself for all who wanted his destruction, for all who hurt him with our sins. While being betrayed by religious betrayal (Sanhedrin), betrayal in love (Judas Iscariot) and political betrayal (Pilate), Jesus gave himself exclusively for the salvation of all, loving them to the end. He forgave all and for all He gave His life. After he was resurrected, he became food for all who became his true disciples, his friends, servants for the salvation of the world.

7. Loving is not having passion, simply feeling something for someone or something. To love is to be able to make yourself a gift for the salvation of another, even if he is blatantly an enemy. He who loves like Jesus is nobody's enemy, he doesn't set himself against anyone, even if he has declared enemies, people who think only of themselves and "love" by instinct. He and she who really want to live as true disciples of Christ aim not to seek the love of the other for themselves, even if this is of immeasurable importance for their existence, but to be love for him, even if they have to go through pain. The disciple takes the pain, to offer only love. Thus, the disciple becomes a friend of Jesus. Also in this way he bears the fruits expected by the Lord. And yet, he will obtain whatever he asks the Father in the name of Jesus Christ.

8. "It was not you who chose me, but I who chose you and appointed you to go and that you should bear fruit and that your fruit should abide." The initiative of choice is divine. We are all called, but only those who have responded to God with full adherence are chosen. God wants us for Him and, because of Him, for the saving mission. The fruits come from the action of divine grace in the lives of those who have been called and chosen by the Lord himself. No one can attribute a divine mission to himself, as he indicates, at the very least, a forger, a deceiver, a false prophet. The call of God passes through the confirmation of His Church in history. The Church, on the rock, is the safe place to walk with firm steps towards God and in the fulfillment of his will, through the experience of love. Only by loving one another as Jesus loved us will we build a world where human beings can truly be the image and likeness of God, children of God and truly human. God bless you and keep you, grant you peace and show him his face.