The New Commandment
(see Jn 13:31-33a)
Dear Sisters
and Brothers in Christ,
When Christ
our Lord says, “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”, He teaches us the
following three important truths: one, we, as the people of the New Testament
are given the New Commandment; two, the New Commandment orders us to love one
another as our Lord has loved us; three, our true identity as Christians lies
in the faithful observance of the Lord’s New Commandment.
In the Old
Testament times, the Lord God gave the Ten Commandments to the people of
Israel. The Ten Commandments was the
roadmap for them to reach freedom from slavery and obtain salvation in the
Promised Land. Christians, the people of
the New Testament, have the New Commandment, given to them by Christ, Who is
the Way the Truth and the Life. The New
Testament completes the Old Testament as though the reality completed a
dream. In a like manner, the New
Commandment completes the Old Commandment by pointing out that the very
essential foundation, the heart, and the soul of the law is nothing other than
love. As a matter of fact, the first
three Commandments teach us how to express our love for God our Creator and
Father in heaven by dedicating ourselves to the service and worship of Him and
Him alone. The remaining seven
Commandments teach us how to show our true and sincere love to our neighbors by
committing ourselves to honoring parents, respecting their rights to life and
properties, not telling lies and not doing harm to their happy families. This is why Saint Paul says, “Love is the
fulfillment of the law.”[1]
Speaking of
love, people often follow the principle of “do
ut des”, Latin for “I give you in order that you give me back”. People trade interests even in the act of
loving. They look for what they can
benefit from the people whom they love.
I love you because you are beautiful, powerful and useful. People are
not the object, the aim but just the means of my love. Love itself is no longer the very noble act
of the human person created after the image of God Who is love. Besides, love in today’s society has been
reduced to the mere satisfaction of sexual desire. What does Christ want us to do when telling
us to love one another the way He has loved us?
He wants us to love people without expecting something in return. He wants us to love people just because they
are God’s lovely image no matter how good or bad, friend or foe they may
be. This is how Christ deals with us
sinners. He never allows us to sin. He tells us to fight with our blood against
the evil of sin but He so loved us that He laid down His own life on the cross
to free us from the hand of sin and death.
Christian love or charity is by no means a reaction based on human
emotion and profit-oriented selection but proves to be already an act of
profession of faith.
Easier said
than done. There are people who, as our
Lord once pointed out, worship God only with their lips.[2] God our loving and caring Father wants true
and authentic worshippers who serve Him in truth and the Holy Spirit.[3] Saint John also teaches, “If anyone says, ‘I
love God,’ but hates his brother, he is a liar; for whoever does not love a
brother whom he has seen cannot love God Whom has not seen.”[4]
The love of God gives a soul, a life to the love of man, and the love of man a
face, a body to the love of God.
Fr. Francis Nguyen, O.P.
