I give you a new commandment, says the Lord: love one another as I have loved you.
This commandment is both a precious gift and a demanding challenge. How has Jesus loved us? He gave Himself up to death on the cross to save us from our sins and open the way to eternal life. He has loved us to the extreme in a complete, self-sacrificial love that know no limits.
Now Jesus tells us to do the same, to love one another like that. And He is not just asking us or giving us the option. This is a commandment. We are to obey.
Of course, we wonder, and rightly, how in our weakness and sinfulness we can ever love other as Jesus has loved us. It seems like an impossible task, but Jesus never orders us to do what is impossible.
St. Therese of Lisieux once asked Jesus to love her sisters in her, for only then would she be able to really love them as He loves her. Here is the key. We must ask Jesus to love others in and through us, and then unite ourselves to His love. We must allow His love to flow through us and embrace that love. We must pray to our Lord for this grace, the grace to fulfill His commandment and love with His own love.
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