Well,
Hello my friend.
This is Mark Gladman,
Also known as Brother Frederick James,
Your friendly neighborhood monk-in-docs,
Welcoming you once again to another edition of the Sunday Series,
Where this week we're pondering the Gospel of John chapter 13 verses 31 to 35.
As always,
I invite you to close your eyes,
Take a deep breath,
To sit comfortably,
To let the worries and the distractions that have been with you until this point just flow away even for a moment,
To allow yourself to be immersed in the words of the Scripture and the thoughts that come from the contemplation that we'll share together today.
A reading from John's Gospel.
When he had gone out,
Jesus said,
Now the Son of Man has been glorified and God has been glorified in him.
If God has been glorified in him,
God will also glorify him in himself and will glorify him at once.
Little children,
I am with you only a little longer.
You will look for me and as I said to the Jews,
So now I say to you,
Where I am going,
You cannot come.
I give you a new commandment,
That you love one another.
Just as I have loved you,
You also should love one another.
By this,
Everyone will know that you are my disciples,
If you have love for one another.
Jesus said,
The Son of Man has been glorified and God has been glorified in him.
The room is heavy.
The night has already begun to unfold into betrayal and violence and yet here in this moment,
Jesus speaks of glory.
But it's not a glory of thrones and triumph.
It's a deeper glory,
The kind that only love could reveal.
A glory hidden in the breaking,
A glory hidden in the giving,
A glory that's hidden in the laying down of everything.
Little children,
Jesus says,
The words are tender,
Parental,
Protective,
Almost aching.
I am with you only a little longer.
The disciples don't fully understand yet.
The ones gathered there with him,
Leaning close,
They're still wrapped in confusion,
In old dreams of crowns and kingdoms.
But Jesus speaks into the mystery.
He says,
I give you a new commandment,
That you love one another.
Just as I have loved you.
Let those words settle deep.
Just as I have loved you.
We don't merely imitate Christ from a distance.
Are you seeing what's happening here?
We allow Christ's love to move through us.
This is what the disciples did.
And in doing so,
They were to become the love that they received.
To live out of the union that they already have.
The union that Christ is securing,
Not by power,
But by surrender.
The love Jesus speaks of,
It's not a task to perform.
It's a state to live from.
Rooted in Christ.
Drawn from Christ.
Alive because we are alive in Christ.
Because Christ is demonstrating how we can be one with God.
And we are caught up in that oneness through his offering.
We don't love by our own fragile strength.
We love because we are now participants in the very life of God.
This is a deeper mystery.
That through Christ,
We are united to the current of divine love itself.
And as that love courses through us,
It naturally spills over to others.
See,
When we talk about love,
We forget,
Love's not a strategy.
It's not a badge we wear.
Love is the very oxygen of the kingdom of God.
It's the breath,
The pneuma,
The ruach,
The aspiration of the spirit moving through our lungs.
It's the DNA of the life that we now live.
But then Jesus goes on.
By this,
Everyone will know that you are my disciples.
Not by eloquence,
Not by achievements,
Not by arguments won or banners raised,
But by love.
By the unmistakable fragrance and aroma of Christ still alive in the world through the hearts that are bound to him.
To love one another is not to add another duty to our list.
It's to become what we already are.
It is to let the seed of divine love planted within us break open and grow.
It is to let ourselves be known by a different kind of logic.
The logic of the cross,
The logic of washing feet,
The logic of meals shared with betrayers,
The logic of glory hidden in humility.
It is to live from the certainty that we are already held,
Already loved,
Already glorified with the glory he shares with the divine.
And so we extend it.
Not to earn anything,
But because love,
Real love,
Is too large to stay contained.
It must,
Must move outwards.
It must flow through us as it flowed through Christ.
Take a deep breath in and out.
And as the truth of this love settles deep in your soul,
Allow the words of this prayer to go with you today.
O Christ,
Glorified in surrender,
Glorified in love,
Plant your love so deeply in us that we no longer resist its flow.
Root us in the union you have secured.
Let us know ourselves as yours,
Little children held in unbreakable arms.
Teach us to love,
Not by striving,
But by resting in you.
And when we encounter one another,
Let it be your love that moves first.
Not fear,
Not pride,
Not the old ways of measuring and earning,
But love,
Pure,
Undeserved,
Divine.
May they know we are yours,
O Christ,
Not by the banners we wave,
But by the way we stay,
The way we forgive,
The way we lay down our lives for each other.
You have loved us to the end.
Now love the world through us.
Take one more deep breath in,
My friend,
And out.
And as you rise from this moment,
May the love that you have enjoyed and continue to enjoy with God overflow in abundance through you and to those around you.
And may grace,
Peace and love go with you every step of the way,
This day and always.
Amen.
And until next time,
Peace be with you.
