The First and Second Reading give us a glimpse of the Church. The First shows us the Church in her early years, with St. Paul and Barnabas doing missionary work and exhorting the disciples: “It is necessary for us to undergo many hardships to enter the kingdom of God.” The Second Reading presents to us a Church triumphant in heaven, with her Lord and God making “all things new”.
In the Gospel today, Jesus exhorts his Apostles to love one another. This is His commandment for His Church. By this love, all will know Jesus’ disciples. Indeed, the first Christian communities attracted attention because they practiced Jesus’ commandment of love.
To love as Jesus loved is how we must love as Christians. Christian love is loving even if it means having to sacrifice and to endure hardships. Christian love seeks to serve others and not to be served. Christian love is loving even one’s enemies and persecutors. Jesus commands His disciples to love one another before He died. And on the cross, He showed them how to do it the Christian way. On the cross, as Jesus loved sinful mankind until death, the Church was born and redeemed.
God created humanity out of love. Jesus redeemed men out of love. With the grace of the Holy Spirit, Jesus exhorts His redeemed people, His Church, to be a community of love. We cannot be Christians who just individually believe and love God. We must be Christians who believe and love God even as we love one another. This Church, this community of believers united in love, is the Church whom the Apostles lovingly ministered to. She is the heavenly Jerusalem, the people for whom there will be no more death, mourning or pain. She is the Bride of Jesus, her Lord whose love she imitates.
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