Let us love one another

We are not called to like everyone; we are called to love them, to will their effective good.

WORD OF FAITH: A breakdown of each week's upcoming Sunday readings to better understand the Word of God at Mass.

“Before long, the world will not see me anymore, but you will see me. Because I live, you also will live.” — John 14:19

St. John the Evangelist is a fascinating character. John was the “Beloved Disciple,” so close to the Lord that he rests his head on the bosom of the Lord Jesus at the Last Supper. John is not only blessed to be part of the Apostolic Band but is part of the “inner circle.”

John was the only one of the Apostles who did not suffer martyrdom, as did the other 11. That was not for lack of trying on the part of his enemies. In the year 97 A.D., it is said that this Beloved Disciple was exiled to the island of Patmos. And even that did not stop him. The Christian community moved there to be with the apostle and to learn from his wisdom, the wisdom born from basking in the presence of the Eternal Word, Our Lord Jesus Christ.

It is on the isle of Patmos that John composed his apocalypse, his Book of Revelation. Toward the end of his life, it is said that at every celebration of the Eucharist, this last of the Apostles would deliver the same homily again and again. They say that this wizened man would stand up and look at his congregation and simply say: “My dear little children, let us love one another.”

Why would he do that? Why would John again and again reiterate this rather simple statement? I believe it is for one reason and one reason only — it’s easy to say and hard to do.

How many times do we encounter people who claim to be “people persons”? It’s easy to love “people” as a generic concept, right? But it is downright hard to love individual people, those who annoy us, those who have hurt us, those who have ideas and opinions radically different than us. And yet, it is what we are called to do.

What does it mean to love another person? According to St. Thomas Aquinas, the Doctor Communis, it means to have the constant, effective desire to do good to another. The goal of a true Christian friendship is, ultimately, to make God become the object of one’s friendship, what we call the virtue of charity.

Our Lord Jesus says these words in the Gospel we proclaim Sunday from the 10th Chapter of the Evangelist John: “I give you a new commandment: love one another. As I have loved you, so you also should love one another. This is how all will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”

Recall the context in which the Lord says these powerful words — during the Last Supper. At the moment before his Passion, Death and Resurrection, at the instant that he gives his True Body and Blood to us as a perpetual memorial in the Eucharist, it is then that he doesn’t just simply urge his Apostles, but indeed commands them to love one another.

When we receive Holy Communion, we receive God’s love. At Mass, we are being reminded again and again exactly what it is that John the Evangelist said on that island of Patmos — “My dear little children, let us love one another.”

There is a reason why the Church, in her wisdom, has placed the sign of peace at Mass before the reception of Holy Communion. We are not called to like everyone; we are called to love them, to will their effective good. At the Eucharist, we must put aside our differences and live in the sacrament of charity. “My dear little children, let us love one another.”

Father Cush is a professor of dogmatic theology and director of seminarian admissions at Saint Joseph’s Seminary in Dunwoodie, N.Y.