As simple as it is to express, Jesus’ command to love one another as I have loved you is profound in its implications. Love is not an emotion. Love is something we choose. Love means willing the good of the other. The more pure our love, the more ardent and pure our desire for the other’s good will be. It is significant that Christ’s commandment is to love one another as I have loved you.
How does Christ love? He loves completely. He holds nothing back for our good, not even his own life. His love is self-less and self-giving. He loves even when love comes at a personal cost. He loves when when it causes him to suffer. If we are only willing to love others when it's convenient or when our love doesn’t cause us pain, then we are not loving the way that Jesus loves.
Christ loves us for who we are, not what we do...
Christ loves even his enemies...
Christ’s love is not limited...
To love like Christ is to love without judgment. It is not necessary for us to know the details of someone’s life in order to love them with Christian charity. It is enough for us to know that Christ loves them. You will never look into the eyes of a person that God does not love. Think about that the next time you meet someone new, or have problems relating to someone.
Love is the life of God. By loving us as he does, Jesus shows us the Father’s heart. And he asks us to love each other with the same heart. That may seem impossible by human standards. But by incorporating us mystically into his body through baptism, and nourishing us with his grace through the Eucharist, Christ enables us to love with this divine power. That’s a mystery so profound that the greatest theologians can ponder it for a lifetime. It’s a mystery the saints will be contemplating for eternity.
--Deacon Matthew Newsome
Image source: Henry Ossawa Tanner, Christ Washing the Feet of His Disciples, study, https://americanart.si.edu/artwork/study-christ-washing-feet-disciples-23693
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