A substantial love

Good morning, happy Thursday, and blessings.

Today's Gospel, John ‪13: 16-20‬, presents us with a radical message with the intention that we become radical disciples. The invitation is for us to serve one another, even our enemies, and so demonstrate that we follow Jesus. Is there something more radical than this?

Jesus loved his disciples by serving them. He washed their feet. Jesus had all authority – all things had been given to Him (vs.3). Jesus was the Messiah, sent from God and going back to God. Jesus had the place of honor and power, and yet he took the place of a servant and did the dirty work nobody else wanted to do.

You see, in Bible days, the streets were dusty, and people wore sandals without socks or stockings. As they traveled from one place to another, their feet got very dirty, so a host would often provide a servant to wash his guests’ feet after they arrived. If no servant was available, then the lowest ranked person did the job.

As we work our way through the Coronavirus situation, we have an opportunity to demonstrate Christ’s love to each other and to a world in desperate need of such love. But some people have taken advantage of the nonsense of social distancing, and I say nonsense, because distancing must be physical while maintaining the radical nature of social solidarity.

But what does that love look like? How do you love people in such a way that they don’t think you’re stupid? Well, re-read in your Bibles today’s gospel where Jesus washes the feet of his disciples and challenges us to do the same. We need to demonstrate His love with our actions.

As because there is an interrelationship between love and humility, we must strive hard to be humble like Jesus and honor others. How? Not believing ourselves better than them for our studies, for the things that we have or for the responsibilities or positions that have been given to us in the service in the church.

We also need to be hospitable. God commands us to be generous to our brothers and sisters (read 1 John 3:17). But we must do it for the right reason. We should also do everything we can to keep peace with our brothers and sisters even when it seems to us that we have been misunderstood or treated unfairly (read Romans 12:17, 18). If we offend someone, we should ask for forgiveness, but we must be honest. If someone offends us, even without realizing it, we must forgive them and try not to feed resentment, revenge, or hatred, which ultimately kills the presence of the Holy Spirit in us.

All this my brothers and sisters was the radical example that Jesus left us. And now he asks us to do it with others, with God, and ourselves. Are we ready to show with facts that we really love and that we are radical disciples?

Blessings

Fr. Luis+