It is impossible to fulfill Jesus commandment of love without the Holy Eucharist

Homily for John 13: 31, 35 Fifth Sunday of Easter

Today we continue with the theme of the Gospels of the past few weeks- that is love; and particularly agape love. Two weeks ago, we read the account of Jesus meeting the apostles on the shore of the Sea of Galilee. That account points out two types of love; first a normal human love called philia (philiadephia, the city of brotherly love); and secondly a much higher human love that is infused, elevated with supernatural love; this love is called Agape.

There next to a fire Jesus asks Peter twice if Peter agape loved him; that is did Peter love Jesus with a supernatural love; after Peter responded to the same question twice with a very reserved, yes Jesus I love you with a philia love, that is a normal human brotherly love, Jesus asked Peter the last time, Peter do you really even philia love me? Peter was cut to the quick.

In this dialogue with Jesus, Peter discovered that he needed grace to be able to love Jesus even with a fully human love. But even more so how much did Peter then need grace to love Jesus with an agape love, a sacrificial love in which Peter would lay down his life for the sake of his flock in imitation of Jesus the Good shepherd.
It was only when Peter learned this lesson that Jesus, the Good Shepherd, made Peter, as we heard last week, made Peter the chief Shepherd of the flock of Christ on earth; and as consequence gave the charge to Peter to feed the sheep and tend the lambs, so they too could love with a agape, supernatural love.

And so today, we hear Jesus giving the new commandment of Love, not just to Peter, but to each one of us. Jesus tells us to love one another as He has loved us. And how has he loved us? He has loved us with an agape love, a self-sacrificing love, a fully human love and at the same time a fully divine love.

What a commandment!!! We are not only invited to agape love, to love with our human love elevated to a divine love, but we are actually commanded to do so. Since Jesus first loved us and showed us the way of agape love, and since he now provides us with the means to love in this way through the grace and the power of the sacraments, we really have no excuse to fail in living this commandment of love.
And so Jesus doesn’t just command us his followers to do good and to avoid evil, Authentic Christianity is not just about being good; that's boring; even the pagans can do that. No authentic Christianity is about love, crazy out of this world love.

Jesus has the audacity to command us with a divine imperative, to love with his own heart, with his own love, and to love not only our friends in this way, but dare I say even our enemies as well. This is the distinguishing mark of the true Disciples of Christ, a love that goes beyond the philia love of the non-believers, a love that reflects the very heart of God. This is the love for which we have been made.
This is agape love better known as charity, is a love which surpasses the love of the pagans.

Yes, pagans can "be good" sometimes even more so than believers, but they cannot in any way, love with the love of Jesus alive in them, only believers can do this. Yes, pagans may feed and clothe the poor, care for the sick and even give their lives for someone, but they can't do it Jesus alive in their souls; they can't do these things, through Jesus, with Jesus and in Jesus for Love of Jesus.

In the movie “A.D.” which is a movie about the Acts of the Apostles, there is poignant scene which shows the disciples recognizing Jesus in the breaking of the bread. Once they recognize him in the Holy Eucharist, Jesus visible presence disappears. Then the disciples with their hearts still on fire, because Jesus is still physically with them in the Holy Eucharist, turn to each other and say, “Soon it will be night and we will be questioned about our love.”

The point is of course, soon, very very soon, much sooner than we image… you and I will stand literally stand before Jesus, love Himself, and He will question us about our love…in other words, did we follow His great commandment of love, assisted by His love which comes to us through the sacraments of the Church and through intimate prayer with Him.

The Master Jesus’ commandment is clear. He has given us an example of how we are to love by his own life and death and through the power of His resurrection provided us with the power to do so. This commandment is still a new commandment, because very few people have taken the trouble to practice it. The others, the majority of men, both in the past and still today, have chosen to ignore it. Their selfishness has led them to the conclusion: “Why should I complicate my life? I have more than enough to do just looking after myself. “Such an attitude, as one saint said, is not good enough for us Christians. This saint went on to say, “If we profess faith and are eager to follow in the clear footprints left by Christ when He visibly walked on this earth, then we cannot be content with merely doing good to others and avoiding doing evil to them. That is a lot, yes, but it is still very little when we consider that our love is to be measured in terms of Jesus’ own conduct and love... Some people say that it is impossible for us to live and to love like this, but the lives of countless saints from St. Peter to Mother Theresa of Calcutta has proved it is possible, but only with the grace of Jesus Christ given to us in the Sacraments of the Church especially that Most Blessed of all Sacraments, the Holy Eucharist which is Jesus Himself; the God who is love.

Jesus said this type of love is the very sign of Christian living, “by this love shall all men know that you are my disciples.” The early pagan world was converted by the fact that the early Christians lived this Commandment of Christ; the pagans would say about the Christians, “See how they love one another. Our once Christian, but now pagan country can be reconverted in the same way. But only if they can say about us the same as the said about the early Christians....see how they love...
As we go about in our day, we have the opportunity to receive love from Jesus, who always loves us with agape love. He is always willing to give us His love, so that we can love others, whether it is our family or a difficult co-worker. Each week we come to Mass to receive Jesus in the Holy Eucharist, to be filled with His love so that we can live out this commandment to love one another thus sharing Christ's own love with the world.

It must be said, that it is impossible to fulfill Jesus commandment of love without the Holy Eucharist, which is why we are commanded to come to Mass every single week at least and to adore Him during times of adoration whenever we can. By his death and resurrection He has provided us with the means to love with his own love, to love with his own heart. This means is of course the Holy Eucharist which is literally the Heart of Jesus and so the very Love of God; it has the power to transform us and our love into something new, something fully human and the same time something fully divine.