Gospel Reflection on John 13:31-35

May 18, 2025

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.”

---

Happy Easter. This Sunday, we hear how after Judas leaves the table, Jesus begins to teach about a new kind of love, and he does it against the backdrop of glory. We tend to think of glory as a spectacle of a sporting or entertainment event, but the Hebrew word for glory refers to the weight of a thing. The glory of God is tied to His love. And it is at this very moment that Jesus gives us a new commandment to love as he has loved us.

In the Old Testament, we're asked to love our neighbor as ourselves. We were the measure of love. Now with Jesus, everything changes. His sacrificial love becomes the measure of our true love.

How are we to achieve this kind of love? With will power? With our own efforts and capacities? No. Many people still kind of believe that it's a matter of effort and application. But love that depends on our own capacities will never rise above mediocrity.

That's why this liturgy includes the mention of Judas. The Lord loves this man who will lead him to being massacred. Jesus continues to love the one who is about to sell him for money. It is in the light of utter kindness towards Judas, despite everything that Jesus speaks about love. It's only when we're invaded by this kind of love that Christ has for us that we become capable of loving in return.

When we are immersed in Christ, he begins to love in us. A valley echoes back a voice which comes from outside of itself. With Jesus's new instruction, everything changes. We're still asked to love one another, but not as we love ourselves. Now we are asked to love as Jesus loves us.

The criteria is found not in us, but in Him. After Jesus' Passover, the disciples will have time to look back and understand that each of them was loved by Jesus despite their defects. In fact, all of them failed, but all were loved. We must become like valleys that echo back this love of God. Like a valley, we do not produce the sound, but we do have the capacity to make it reverberate.

A Christian is not distinguished by his personal talent, by the fact that he echoes back a love, and by the fact that he echoes back a love that he's encountered in Christ. This is the glory of God. This is the weight of love, the glory of Easter, a passage from an existence based on myself to an existence based on the love that Christ has for me.