In his commentary on the gospel passage of this Sunday (Jn 13: 31-33a,34-35), Fr. Hans Urs von Balthasar writes: “His rule is utterly short and unambiguous: ‘Love one another as I have loved you’…He calls this a ‘new commandment’ because Jesus had not established the model for love of neighbor. Now one need only look at him to know and carry out the single, all-sufficient commandment he gives. Of course, it makes an all-encompassing demand on us: since Jesus gives his life for us, his friends, we must place our entire lives at the service of our neighbor, who ought to be our friend. Yet, as the epitome of Christianity, this new and all-sufficient commandment is precisely what assures Christianity’s continued existence: ‘By this all will know that you are my disciples.’ By this and only by this” (Light of the Word, p.301-302). Does more need to be said? This new commandment to love one another: no discrimination about WHO my neighbor is…every human person deserves to be loved. However, the key is to love one another as we are loved. The interior movement is to receive the Divine love and then we are given the grace to love the other, loving with the love of God, whoever the ‘other’ is.
To make this more concrete: if we look at Jesus how does he love? We surely see it in his forgiveness, no matter the sin, no matter those who will even put him to death, he still loves, he still forgives. His love, which is incarnating God’s love, is unconditional. ‘What assures Christianity’s continued existence’, to repeat von Balthasar’s words, is the commandment to love one another as we are loved. This is radical…This means each of our lives is essential. We are to continue to incarnate this love that Jesus loves us with. We are to bring it to whomever we meet, whomever we encounter, in community, in family and beyond. God’s incarnation in Jesus is to continue with us. We are the vessels of the on-going incarnate Love of God.
The monastic Rule of St. Benedict is a way of living the gospel and we find this commandment to love mirrored in the Prologue. Fr. Christian, the Superior of the Atlas community in Algeria, in a chapter talk given weeks before he was kidnapped and killed, comments on the last verses of the Prologue (45-50): “From the Prologue, as we know, the Rule explains the project it is pursuing: ‘We want to found a SCHOOL, where we serve the Lord.’ This is the only use of the word ‘SCHOOL.’ Shortly after, the word CARITAS is added…,which seems to mark the culmination of the Prologue and therefore the ultimate goal of the entire Rule and the Benedictine school that it defines: CHARITY, DILECTION, DILATION of the heart…all in the PATIENCE of stability and perseverance, our way of ‘participating in the sufferings of Christ,’ our ‘MARTYRDOM,’ which must therefore be a martyrdom of love, and just as much a martyrdom of HOPE since everything in this passage is in motion, walking, running toward the Kingdom of which the community is the image, though not yet the full reality” (Christian de Chergé, Spiritual Writings, p.39-40). Therefore, dear sisters, I repeat von Balthasar: “Jesus’ rule is utterly shorth and unambiguous: ‘Love one another as I have loved you.’ These words of Jesus are mirrored in the Prologue to the Rule: “Truly as we advance in this way of life and faith, our hearts open wide, and we run with unspeakable sweetness of love, on the path of God’s commandments” (RB:49). The love that Jesus loves us with is unconditional, meaning it is agape love the deepest and highest form of love, selfless, unrequited. This is our rule, loving in the manner of Christ, growing in self-knowledge which opens the heart to selfless love, following the model of love that Jesus bestows on us…continuing to incarnate his love here and now. Finally, what an image of community: ‘a school of love’, a school where we are always on this pilgrimage of learning and growing into this love of God…and learning through the opening and gradual expansion of the heart, to love with the Divine love.
sr Kathy DeVico, Abbess
Chapter Talk – Fifth Sunday of Easter – May 18, 2025, cycle-C
