Fifth Sunday of Easter
The Church, from its inception, learned from the lips of the Divine Master to formulate the supplication contained in the Our Father: “Thy Kingdom come” (Mt 6:10). St. John, in the passage from the Book of Revelation that the Liturgy presents this Sunday, glimpses the fullness of this Kingdom when he declares that he saw “a new Heaven and a new earth […], a new Jerusalem, coming down out of Heaven” (Rv 21:1-2), where the presence of the Most High will be enjoyed uninterruptedly, for “God’s dwelling is with the human race. He will dwell with them” (Rv 21:3).
Throughout His public life, Our Lord announced the arrival of this Kingdom and confirmed His words with countless miracles. This Sunday’s Gospel shows us the care and affection that, after three years, Jesus had for His Apostles when, about to begin His Via Crucis, He showed them the means by which His Kingdom would be established on earth: “I give you a new commandment: love one another” (Jn 13:34a).
Although the Old Law already commanded love of neighbour, the novelty of this precept lies in the way it is practised. While Moses taught to love your neighbour “as yourself” (cf. Lev 19:18), in the new Law of love Jesus says: “As I have loved you” (Jn 13:34b). It is therefore a matter of loving your neighbour in the same way that God loves you!
St. Paul, in his First Letter to the Corinthians, describes Christian love very eloquently: it must be above all long-suffering, because it “bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things” (13:7). Our Lord gave us the greatest example of this in His Passion, when He gave Himself up for us on the Cross. This is why the Apostle to the Gentiles and St. Barnabas warn us in this Sunday’s first reading: “It is necessary for us to undergo many hardships to enter the Kingdom of God” (Acts 14:22b). These are the sufferings born as the fruit of true charity, thus imitating the love of Jesus Christ.
However, in order to fully possess this love of God within us, we need to take a radical attitude: self-emptying. The Gospel of the day offers us an important detail in this regard: “When Judas had left them, Jesus said, ‘Now is the Son of Man glorified’” (Jn 13:31).
Commenting on this phrase, St. Augustine says: “Judas went out and Jesus was glorified; the son of perdition went out and the Son of Man was glorified. […] When the unclean one had gone out, they all became pure and remained with their Purifier.”1 This “purification” that took place in the collective sphere of the Apostles must happen individually within each one of us. That is why the Bishop of Hippo urges: “If you are going to be filled with good, empty yourself of evil. Imagine that God wants to fill you with honey. If you are full of vinegar, where can you put the honey? You have to throw out the contents of the jar and clean it, even with great effort, scrubbing it, so that it can be used for another purpose.”2
Let us therefore endeavour to eliminate all selfishness, pride and roots of iniquity, so that we can live the precept of love to perfection, and thus the Lord can dwell among us. “God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him” (1 Jn 4:16). ◊
Notes
1 ST. AUGUSTINE. In Ioannis Evangelium. Tractatus LXIII, n.2.
2 ST. AUGUSTINE. In Epistolam Ioannis ad Parthos. Tractatus IV, n.6.
