5th Sunday of Easter (A New Commandment)
In the year 1530, when King Henry VIII of England was determined to marry Anne Bolyn, his only obstacle was that he was already married. He sought the help of a man whose integrity and intelligence he greatly admired, Thomas More. In addition to being admired by the king, Thomas was also the Lord High Chancellor of England, a lofty and authoritative position. When Thomas refused to consent to the king’s contrived cause for divorce, Henry had him imprisoned, in hopes that he would change his mind.
In the play that dramatizes these events, A Man for all Seasons, there’s a scene in which Thomas’ daughter, Margaret, visits her father in prison. Knowing that he would be executed unless he recants and acquiesces to the king’s wishes, she pleads: “You always taught me that only good men were worthy of positions of authority and leadership. But you are the most just, the kindest man in England. You deserve to be free and rewarded with authority, not here in prison.” Thomas, who deeply loved his daughter, responded to her plea: “Meg, what kind of world would this be if virtue were always rewarded, and vice were always punished? How many would try to appear virtuous just for the reward? We would be virtuous for all the wrong reasons and our virtue would be pharisaical. No, God wants us to be virtuous for love of him, and he is wise and not always rewarding virtue in this world.”[1]
Today’s Gospel, taking us back to the events of the Holy Thursday evening, gives us, as Christians, cause for considering what motivates us to live virtuously. That night, Jesus gave one last teaching to his disciples. He had washed their feet, including the feet of Judas. Then shortly after, when Jesus explained that one of them would betray him, Judas quickly departed to put his betrayal into effect.
There, with the remaining eleven, Jesus told them that he had a new commandment that they were to receive and to live by: “Love one another. As I have loved you, so you also should love one another”. He wanted them to regard him as the example that they were to follow. And as we know, this command would be soon demonstrated by Jesus’ accepting a cross, carrying it to Calvary and his crucifixion. It revealed that the love that he was calling them to—and calling us to—is sacrificial in nature: it involves a cross.
The cross and sacrifice get to the heart of what this love looks like. Think about it: in warfare, it's not so much the ones who come back who are memorialized, but instead those who gave their lives; in medicine, it's not the ones who have amassed great wealth, but instead those who sacrificed to find cures and to ease people's pain; in statesmanship, it's not the ones who merely make headlines or craft clever slogans, but instead those who have provided the best for their nation and the human race.[2]
Another thing about Jesus’ love—the love to which he calls us—is that it’s not warm and fuzzy; it comes with risks and a willingness to be vulnerable. Nor is it mere tolerance of anything and everything that sometimes gets equated with love. And for sure, the love to which Jesus calls us is not characterized by the stifling fear that so often has us frozen into place and rendered silent. As we see manifest in the life of St. Thomas More, Jesus’ love was courageous and honest. And as Thomas More’s life further reveals, while kindness is a virtue, it should not be placed above courageous and honest love.
But for sure, Jesus’ love was also transformative. This is perhaps due to what it is most importantly: that it was born out of his love for his Father. That’s where his love found its source, and that’s where our love should find its source. Why do we love others? Because we love the Father. And so, we ask ourselves: How is my love of the Father manifest in my living? In what ways do I desire and seek to understand how to love the Father or to love him more deeply? In what ways do I seek to allow that love to shape my day-to-day living? To the extent that we find answers to those good and basic questions, I believe Jesus would say that it’s within those answers, at work in our living, that “all will know that you are my disciples.”
[1] James W. Kinn, Teach, Delight, Persuade: Scriptural Homilies for Years A,B and C.
[2] Harold A. Buetow, Ode to Joy: Cycle C