34 I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another. 35 By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.” Jn 13:34-35
Right before Jesus said this, he had shown what love looked like by washing the feet of 12 of his closest friends. Jesus humbled himself, knelt down before each of them and washed their feet. Jesus, by his actions showed us to lay aside our self, our ego, our privilege, to see the need of another, to listen, to be open to changing our ways when we see it brings pain to another. It’s caring for and restoring the brokenness of one another, in our community and in the world.
An old Rabbi once asked his pupils how they could tell when the night ended and the day began. “Could it be,” asked one of the students, “when you can see an animal in the distance and tell whether it’s a sheep or a dog?” “No,” answered the Rabbi. Another asked, “Is it when you can look at a tree in the distance and tell whether it’s a fig tree or a peach tree?” “No,” answered the Rabbi. “Then when is it?” the pupils demanded. “It’s when you can look on the face of any man or any woman and see that it is your sister or brother. Because if you cannot see this, it is still night.”
We really are all ordinary people with ordinary needs, each with ordinary gifts and talents. Yet, each and every one of us has been created in the image of God … all different … all the same… created in God’s image of love. If we woke each day in wonder, gratitude and awe for God’s extravagant love within us, we will begin to see that same extravagant love in one another, the stranger will become our neighbor and our world and all who inhabit it will be renewed, restored and transformed.
St. Teresa of Alvila said, “Christ has not body now but yours. No hands, no feet on earth but yours. Yours are the eyes through which he looks compassion on this world. Yours are the feet with which he walks to do good. Yours are the hands through which he blesses all the world. Yours are the hands, yours are the feet, yours are the eyes, you are his body. Christ has no body now on earth but yours.”
Faith, hope, and love remain, but the greatest of these is love.
May the peace of God go before you and the love of God forever hold you tight. May the Spirit of God flow through your life and the joy God uphold you day and night. Amen.
Brenda