“This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. You are my friends if you do what I command you. I do not call you servants any longer, because the servant does not know what the master is doing; but I have called you friends, because I have made known to you everything that I have heard from my Father.
You did not choose me but I chose you. And I appointed you to go and bear fruit, fruit that will last, so that the Father will give you whatever you ask him in my name. I am giving you these commands so that you may love one another.
New Revised Standard Version, copyright 1989, by the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved. USCCB approved.
In the Gospel today, Jesus’ command seems simultaneously simple and complicated. Three words: “love one another.” Three simple words which appear in direct contrast to most of the news of recent months, and even the tone of our national conversation. Yet, if we are truly to be Christ’s disciples following him with our whole hearts, his command remains simple: Love one another.
And that sounds lovely; but we often complicate that command. Sure, we love others…but do we love those with whom we disagree? Sure we love others… but do we love those who offend us or hurt us? Sure we love others… but we complicate the command as a way to avoid the hard work of laying down our very life and preferences for another.
Still, Jesus remains calling us as friends to walk with him in his simple mission of love: [Go] Love one another.
—Colten Biro, S.J. is a Jesuit scholastic of the Jesuits USA Central and Southern Province; he is currently studying philosophy at St. Louis University.
Love is shown more in deeds than in words.
—St. Ignatius Loyola
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Ignatian spirituality reminds us that God pursues us in the routines of our home and work life, and in the hopes and fears of life's challenges. The founder of the Jesuits, Saint Ignatius of Loyola, created the Spiritual Exercises to deepen our relationship with Christ and to move our contemplation into service. May this prayer site anchor your day and strengthen your resolve to remember what truly matters.
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