READINGS:   Acts of the Apostles 14: 21-27   /   Psalm 145: 8-9. 10-11. 12-13   /   Revelation 21: 1-5

JOHN 13: 31-33. 34-35

HIS WORD… 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…

my words… Every corporate or business institution and/or organization has its TRADEMARK OF IDENTITY by using catching phrase or slogan or motto or tag line to project its identity and mission, and they even have their respective models for it. Hence, for Metrobank: “You’re in good hands…” BDO: “We find ways…” BPI: “Make the best happen…” Allied Bank: “Your bank… your ally…” Security Bank: “You deserve better…” Chinabank: “Your success is our business…” Jollibee: “LanghapSarap…” McDo: “Love ko to…” etc… And so also with Christianity: ”LOVE ONE ANOTHER” is our catch-phrase or tagline of our universal mission to love. And who is our perfect, ultimate, and eternal model? No other than our Lord Jesus Christ who said: “Love one another as I HAVE LOVED YOU.”

Brothers and Sisters, Jesus called it “a new commandment” (Jn 13:34). Why new? Because there was an older one that says: “You shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your soul, with all yourmind, and with all your strength; and You shall love your neighbor as yourself” (Mk 12:28-34). In the second command, one (a pilosopo) may tend to be conditional and philosophizing… “Why should I love my neighbor when in fact, I don’t love myself…” for the criterion of loving ones neighbor is oneself. So Jesus perfected the commandment by making it new: “Love one another as I HAVE LOVED YOU.” And Jesus now becomes the criterion of loving our neighbor, the model of perfect love, unconditional love, the ultimate love, the agape love… the CHRISTIAN LOVE.

Brothers and Sisters, business corporations and institutions and organizations have their logo or symbol to project their identity. Christianity has the sign and symbol or logo of the CROSS on which Jesus gave up His life to show to the whole world the perfect and greatest example of TRUE LOVE projecting on it the two greatest commandments of LOVE: of loving GOD (the vertical sign of the cross) and of loving our Neighbor (the horizontal sign of the cross). The CROSS as a symbol of LOVE is a reminder for all of us Christians that at our individual baptisms, we are marked forever by the victorious sign of the cross, the sign of Christian Love. Thus, it is our mission to love, to radiate the love that Jesus showed to us at the cross. Let us therefore be faithful to this mission so that Christianity will continue to be truly a religion of LOVE. And this love will surely bring us to the eternal life of heaven.

A HAPPY SUNDAY OF LOVE TO ALL… and I LOVE YOU ALL…

(By Fr. Julius C. Lupot)