Today, on the fifth Sunday of Easter, we read a passage from John 13. Jesus had washed his disciples’ feet and told them that was what they were supposed to do for one another, and he shared the dipping dish with Judas and predicted that he was going to be betrayed. Today the first thing we read is “When Judas had left them, Jesus said…” (v. 31) Then Jesus talks about him being glorified and God being glorified in him, and he gives his disciples the new commandment to love one another as he had loved them. I had read this passage hundreds of times but this time the fact that Jesus said all these things after Judas had left struck me. I got me thinking: how many times “have I left” and missed out on God’s self-revelation to me? I would like to invite us today to sit in prayer with this question.

The other thing that struck me was Jesus’ last words in this passage:

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." (vv.34, 35)

We are living in a historical time where we tend to only want to love those who look, think, talk, and act like us. Is this what Jesus meant when he said, “As I have loved you, so you also should love one another”? What does it mean today, for us, to love one another like Jesus loved us?

Let us ponder these questions in our prayer today and ask God for the grace of openness to love in justice and reconciliation in our own lives, in our communities and in our world.