Love one another, just as I have loved you

 Fifth Sunday of Easter, Year C - 15th May 2022

Gospel John 13: 31–5

When Judas had gone, Jesus said:

‘Now has the Son of Man been glorified, and in him God has been glorified.

If God has been glorified in him,

God will in turn glorify him in himself,

and will glorify him very soon.

‘My little children,

I shall not be with you much longer.

I give you a new commandment:

love one another;

just as I have loved you,

you also must love one another.

By this love you have for one another, everyone will know that you are my disciples.’

Gospel Reflection from St Beuno's Outreach

As I prepare to become still, I know that God is with me, gazing on me.

How am I, as I come to prayer today? I ask God to be the God of love and compassion to me and through me today.

I read these words from St John slowly, taking time to savour them.

Maybe it helps to place myself sitting with Jesus and his friends at supper, as he speaks these words. Perhaps I hear him talking to me, too, as one of his beloved ‘little children’. I sit quietly and listen.

Jesus calls his friends to love in a radical new way, with the same self-giving love that he himself has lived.

How do I feel to be entrusted with this? Inspired? ... challenged? ... privileged ... or ...?

How do I want to respond to Jesus?

Maybe I think of people whom I admire who seem able to radiate this radical love of Jesus. What does it mean to live my life so others can see me as a disciple of Jesus?

I share my deepest thoughts with the Lord as I would with a trusted friend, asking for whatever help or grace I need.

In time, I slowly end my prayer, perhaps with the words ‘Glory be to the Father ...’, as I ask the Lord to deepen his life within me.

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