John 13:31-35

Love is a word that we always hear. Every time we hear the word love our eyes light up and somehow our heart beats just a little bit faster. However, the word love is one of the most misunderstood and one of the most abused words, in my opinion.

In the gospel for today, Jesus is not only asking us to love one another but is actually commanding us to love one another. Isn’t it strange? Many of us think that love is this wonderful feeling towards another human being. Love is this inexplicable emotion that makes us feel light and happy. Love is a feeling that makes our eyes twinkle a little bit brighter and make us do things that we would rather not do in ordinary circumstance. So what is this “commandment” that Jesus is giving us.

Jesus is asking us to love, not just as a matter of feeling or infatuation but love in its purest form, and that is as a decision. It is a love that would make you wake up early in the morning to prepare lunches for your husband and children. It is a love that would make you work overtime so that you send some money to your family overseas. It is a love that would make you go out of your way to help an ailing relative and attend to his or her needs. This is the love that Jesus is talking about.

And there’s more. He is asking us to love one another even if that “another” is a person that we haven’t talked to for a long time because of a misunderstanding years ago. He is asking us to love one another even if that “another” has stolen money from us when he was experiencing tough times. He is asking us to love one another even if that “another” is somebody that we have never met before. This is the love that Jesus is telling us to do. He is actually commanding us so that everyone will know that we are his disciples.

The secret of the early Church in converting so many pagans to Christianity is love. Love that respects one another. Love that treats each other equally. Love that goes to the needy even if you don’t know their names. As Tertullian, an historian has observed of the early Church, “the Romans would exclaim, ‘see how they love one another”. This is how Jesus would want us to be known.

With this we are asked by Jesus, is our love only limited to those that we love or love us? Is our love only limited to a feeling? We love because we feel like loving? Or is our love extended to everybody, whether we know them or not, whether they love us or not, whether they are our enemy or not. Are we loving like what Jesus has commanded us?