The central theme of the New Testament is the offer of God's infinite love for us and the invitation to requite his love with our whole being. In his First Letter, St. John the Evangelist states that God is love. As I have discussed in prior reflections, love, by its very nature, requires a love dynamic. In God, there is the Father, who is the One Who Loves. His love is received and reciprocated by the Son, who is the Beloved. The love that exists between the Father and the Son is the Holy Spirit. The Holy Trinity is an eternal exchange of infinite love, which is not bound by time, but takes place in the eternal timeless now of God’s infinite nature.
In the Gospel of John, Jesus states: "As the Father loves me, so I also love you. Remain in my love." (John 15:9) Jesus tells us that his love for us is the same eternal, infinite love that exists within the Holy Trinity. We receive his love by requiting his love with our whole lives. But, we might ask, what does it look like to love Jesus? In the Gospel passage for today, Jesus tells us: “If you love me, you will keep my commandments." (John14:15) In another passage in the Gospel of John, he also states: "I give you a new commandment: love one another. As I have loved you, so you also should love one another." (John 13:34) The answer then is that we love Jesus most fully when we love each other as he has loved us, becoming conduits of his love for all.
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Photo Credit: Detail of the Facade of St. Peter's Basilica in Rome by Zoltan Abraham (c) 2012.