“When Judas had left them, Jesus said,
‘Now is the Son of Man glorified, and God is glorified in him.
If God is glorified in him,
God will also glorify him in himself,
and God will glorify him at once.
My children, I will be with you only a little while longer.
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.’” (John 13: 31-33a, 34-35)
At the time John’s gospel was written, there existed within human society a dualistic way of looking at life. This dualism shows up in John’s gospel more than the other synoptic gospels. From the opening lines of the Prologue throughout the entirety of John’s gospel, one is asked to ascertain whether one is to be either be a child of the light or a child of darkness. It is clear that only those who choose to follow Jesus become children of the light, while those who do not, dwell as progeny of darkness.
Dualism in the world of humanity has not changed greatly over the passing years. The duality or polarity of humanity continues to rear itself around us. There always seems to be an ultimatum of “either you are with us or against us!” This is played out in the polarization we find in politics, in business , and in religion, especially within the more fundamentalistic segments of world religions.
In hearing this gospel, one might consider the great commandment to “love one another as I have loved you” as part of a dualistic ultimatum on the part of Jesus. However, it is far from it. The dualism that is in the world is not derived from love, especially the love that Jesus commands. The love of which Jesus speaks is derived from the love that flows from God who created all of humanity. Jesus’ love is all inclusive of humanity. The dualism that is in our world is derived from the exclusivity of human hatred.
When we look at all the things that we “hate”, it is generally because someone or some organization or thing is in opposition to a personally held conviction that is exclusive to us. Don’t we just hate it when someone is in disagreement with one of our positions? This is especially true of those positions we might consider “sacred cows” (Mark Twain had a saying, “sacred cows” make the best hamburger.)
Hatred is something exclusively human. It wells up from within us. When our exclusive world view is threatened or denied by others, we draw lines in the sand, daring those who oppose us to step over them. Hate is all about us, not about those who are not in agreement with us. Whether that “hate” is mere aggravation on the mild side of the spectrum, or that spiral descent into dark rage on the extreme end of the spectrum, it is always about us and the exclusive world we have built around ourselves. It is from human created hatred that all the dualism and polarity of society is derived and in turn destroys relationships within the community.
The love about which Jesus speaks and commands his disciples to live is all about inclusivity. Jesus’ love extends beyond the love he has for his disciples. Jesus loves Judas, who at the very moment Jesus is speaking, is betraying Jesus to those who will eventually harm him and kill him. Jesus is loving those human beings who will torture him and execute him. Jesus does not love exclusively. Rather, Jesus loves inclusively.
In our society today, in which people find it far easier to reach for a revolver and shoot someone rather than engage in constructive, respectful debate and dialogue, the commandment to love one another as I have loved you, is more challenging to the disciple of Jesus than ever.
To love one another as Jesus commands us, is to live courageously one’s faith as a disciple of Jesus. To love as Jesus loved is to divest ourselves of all weapons of human construct in our arsenal, lethal or otherwise. It is not martial arts that disciples of Jesus must study. As our sensei, Jesus instructs us today as he did the disciples in this Last Supper discourse, to arm ourselves only with the all inclusive weapon of love.
As St. Paul writes in his first letter to the Corinthians, “If I speak in human and angelic tongues but do not have love, I am a resounding gong or a clashing cymbal. And if I have the gift of prophecy and comprehend all mysteries and all knowledge; if I have all faith so as to move mountains but do not have love, I am nothing. If I give away everything I own, and if I hand my body over so that I may boast but do not have love, I gain nothing. Love is patient, love is kind. It is not jealous, [love] is not pompous, it is not inflated, it is not rude, it does not seek its own interests, it is not quick-tempered, it does not brood over injury, it does not rejoice over wrongdoing but rejoices with the truth. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails. If there are prophecies, they will be brought to nothing; if tongues, they will cease; if knowledge, it will be brought to nothing. For we know partially and we prophesy partially, but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away. When I was a child, I used to talk as a child, think as a child, reason as a child; when I became a man, I put aside childish things. At present we see indistinctly, as in a mirror, but then face to face. At present I know partially; then I shall know fully, as I am fully known. So faith, hope, love remain, these three; but the greatest of these is love.” (1 Cor 13: 1-12)
Are we willing as disciples of Jesus to lay down our lives in love not only for our friends but our enemies as well, or, as St. Paul writes, are we merely only noisy gongs? The gospel challenges us to make a choice today. Will we love inclusively or hate exclusively? The choice is ours.
