by Fr. Tommy Lane
As we listen in on the conversation during the Last Supper in today’s Gospel (John 13:31-35), it is a poignant moment. Judas has just left, and Jesus says he will be with them only a little while longer. Judas had already arranged with the Jewish leaders before Passover to betray Jesus to them and received thirty pieces of silver. John tells us Jesus used to meet the apostles in Gethsemane often (18:2) and Judas is now on his way back to the Jewish leaders to bring them to arrest Jesus in Gethsemane.
As soon as Judas has gone, Jesus exclaimed, “Now is the Son of Man glorified.” (John 13:31) What could Jesus mean? Each Gospel gives us a slightly different portrait of Jesus so with four Gospels instead of one we have a fuller picture of Jesus. In John’s Gospel, Jesus’ passion and death are presented as his glorification and giving glory to the Father; Jesus’ self-sacrifice on the cross to redeem us from our sins reveals the depth of his love for us and the fullness of Father’s love for us—it is a moment of glory. Judas has just gone out, Jesus’ passion is about to begin, so Jesus says, “Now is the Son of Man glorified and God is glorified in him.” (John 13:31)
Then Jesus gave his “new commandment” to love one another as he had loved them. They probably thought they understood what Jesus meant but during the Last Supper they still had no idea how great was the love of Jesus because the moment of his glorification on the cross, revealing the depth of his love to redeem us, had not still arrived. Afterwards, when they would reflect and look back, they would realize what Jesus meant when he said to love one another as he had loved them. Love includes the cross. It is by remaining faithful with our crosses that we show our love.
Even during the Last Supper, Jesus was showing the depth of his love but again, it is only when looking back afterwards and reflecting, that the apostles would understand. Jesus knew Judas was betraying him, but he still celebrated the Last Supper with him. Just after today’s Gospel excerpt, during the Last Supper, Peter said to Jesus that he would lay down his life for him (John 13:37) but Jesus knew that later that evening Peter would deny him three times before the cock crows (John 13:38). So, in the background during the Last Supper, even before seeing the depth of Jesus’ love on the cross, there were moments revealing Jesus’ love despite the weakness and infidelity of the apostles.
This is why Jesus says he is giving a “new commandment” to love as he has loved us. The Old Testament asked people to love their neighbor as themselves but only in Jesus does God become flesh and take suffering and death on himself for us. This is the new love. This is the new covenant. We receive this love of Jesus on the cross for us in a special way in each Eucharist: “Take and eat, this is my body given up for you.” In the Eucharist, we are united with Jesus in an intimate way. We see this in Jesus’ words elsewhere in John’s Gospel: “unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you do not have life within you” (John 6:53) and “Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me and I in him.” (John 6:56)
Jesus said we are to love as he has loved. He is the model. When it is challenging to be kind to someone, we can find our motivation to be kind in Jesus’ words: to love as Jesus loved us. During those times when it is challenging to be kind to someone, remembering Jesus’ words from elsewhere also helps, “Whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.” (Matt 25:40) When you love with the love of Jesus, people notice. Some years ago, when I was talking to Catholic school teachers in Birmingham, UK, one of them shared that he did not grow up Catholic but was employed in a Catholic school and was so impressed by the way the teachers lived their Catholic faith that he decided to become a Catholic. A priest I know in the US who was not an overly committed Catholic when he was a college student, joined a group of very committed Catholics when they volunteered their time during one college break to help poor people in Central America. While with them on the service trip, he could see that those committed Catholics had something, and after he returned to the US he began going to daily Mass and two years after completing college he entered seminary and is now a priest. When you love with the new commandment of Jesus, people notice, and the world is changed.
When Judas went out, the moment of Jesus’ glorification showing the depth of his love in his passion and death had arrived. For Jesus as for us, love includes the cross but when we love with Jesus’ new commandment, with Jesus’ love, the world is changed.
© Fr. Tommy Lane 2022
This homily was delivered in a parish in Ireland.
More Homilies for the Fifth Sunday of Easter Year C
Love one another just as I have loved you 2013
Related Homilies: Love of God for us 2009
Loving God with all our hearts and our neighbor as ourselves
Loving God and Neighbor—filled with God’s Light and Miracles Follow 2018
on loving others Seeing Jesus in others
Bear with one another charitably, love your children