I give
you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also
should love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have
love for one another.
Today’s words from Jesus are so freighted with intense
meaning that every single one of them is a milestone of meditation.
On one level, when Jesus says he gives "a new commandment,"
he is on par with Yahweh of the Old Testament. But instead of curbing transgressions with
"thou shalt nots," Jesus invites us to progression with a dynamic "thou
shalt."
Recently I was climbing on top of a
wardrobe to find something. (Oh, that this angel could fly!) I came upon a small
children’s book I had given my daughter long ago. The title is "Love You
Forever." It was a beautiful testimony about a glowing cycle of love
enveloping three generations of a family. Every night, a mother held her baby and sang:
I’ll love you forever. I’ll like you always.
As long as I’m living, My baby you’ll be.
These words and their living fulfillment became a lifetime mission
for the mother. This maternal embrace followed her son through all stages of his life
until he passed the lovely mantra on to his own son. The most touching part of the book
occurs when the son gently cradles his aging mother’s shrunken body in his arms and
sings the same song to her.
We can love in proportion to how we have been loved. "… as
I have loved you, you should also love one another." Christ calls each of us to
respond. Love divided becomes love multiplied.
Leo Buscaglia quotes an Italian mystic at the beginning of his book, Loving
Each Other: "We are, each of us, angels with only one wing. And we can only fly
embracing each other."
Jesus, help us to have the strength and courage to constantly
widen the circle of love that you started with your love for us.
