“Love one another as I have loved you.” In these words, Jesus summarizes his whole message. Love was the reason why God send his only begotten Son to come among us and to die for us. Love was the reason why Jesus was prepared to be humiliated, be stripped naked and to be nailed on the cross. Love was the cause of the resurrection because there is nothing stronger than love, not even death could hold love back. And finally, it is through love that we would be recognized as disciples of Christ.
“Love one another as I have loved you.” This is the new commandment which Jesus gives to us. What is so new about this commandment? It is new because we no longer need to measure love based on how much we are capable of loving. Rather, we measure love based on how much we are loved by Jesus himself. We love inadequately. We love imperfectly. Only Jesus loved us totally as the Father had loved him and as he had loved the Father.
In today’s liturgy, we are reminded of this commandment. Jesus gives us the mass. At every mass, the priest repeats the words of Jesus: “Do this in memory of me.” “Do this in memory of me” does not only mean that we repeat the gestures of Jesus at our mass. “Do this in memory of me” means that we are to imitate the entire life of Jesus. We must love as he loved. We must forgive as he forgave. We must show compassion as he showed compassion. We must serve one another as he served his brothers and sisters. We must give up our lives as he did on the cross. “Do this in memory of me” becomes the expression of the new commandment “Love one another as I have loved you.”
Jesus will show us the extent of his love for us through his actions. We will soon witness how Jesus washes the feet of his disciples as the priest reenacts the scene of the Last Supper. Jesus would humble himself to take on the role of a slave to serve others. Every time when we celebrate the mass, we too are challenged to serve as he did. We too must put aside our pride and humble ourselves before others. We must not look for honour. We must not look for power. We must not seek to be great. We must not demand to be served by others. Instead, we are called to be a servant of one another.
Tomorrow Jesus will show a greater sign of his love. He will be nailed to the cross and die for us sinners. Every time when we celebrate the mass, we too are reminded of the sacrifice of the cross. We are challenged to put aside our selfishness and centredness. We are challenged to put aside all our masks, the masks that we wear in our homes, our schools, our offices and in church. We are challenged to die for one another – to give up our lives for love.
This is the standard of love which Jesus presents to us: “Love one another as I have loved you.” “Serve one another as I have served you.” “Die for one another as I have died for you.” If we come to understand and appreciate the true meaning of this commandment, then we will understand our mass better. The mass is not a set of empty rituals. The mass reenacts the sacrifice of Christ. The mass makes real the commandment of love. The mass challenges us to live out that same sacrifice and commandment to love one another as Jesus loves us.
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