Jesus said: “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 major theme for this 5^th Sunday of Easter focuses on the essential reason and the commandment of Christ to love, evangelize, spread and proclaim continually the Good News of Jesus Christ to everyone, for the progressing heavenly manifestation to enfold, and for Christ Jesus to offer the totality of himself to God for our salvation. All these happenings in today’s readings can be summarized in one single reason or theme, which is God’s infinite, compassionate and merciful love for us all.

“God is love” (1 John 4:8). Love is the essence and reason for all existence of God’s creation. It is because of love, the love of God, the love of Christ, the love of the Gospel, and the love for humanity that motivated earliest Christian missionaries to persevere against all odds to proclaim their faith and hope in Jesus Christ, even when they had to undergo many trials, tribulations, pain and sufferings, and offering up their lives in sacrifice for God, for goodness of all, and for the salvation of humanity. Because of their sacrificial love for Christ, for God and for all, God transforms, sanctifies, and renews everything in God’s creation. This Christian love is the reason for our discipleship, and the vocation of our mission.

Love indeed is Jesus Christ’s most important legacy that he gives us, and the most important commandment that he insists on all his disciples to fulfill. Jesus Christ teaches that authentic love is not a feeling produced by the emotions. It is a thoughtful, free and deliberate act of the will. Moreover, love is a “commandment,” not “a suggestion,” which is to be the identifying feature or hallmark of the followers of Jesus.

God does not want us holding a relationship of Transaction but Transformation. Therefore, Dynamic Christian disciples are those who (1) BELIEVE, (2) GROW, (3) SERVE, (4) LOVE and (5) LEAD others to Jesus. Today’s topic invites us to fulfill Christ’s command to love one another as Christ has loved us.

How can we help each other learn to love ourselves firstly and correctly as Christ has loved us, so to love each other as God loves, be more compassionate, loving and humane, sharing our resources, comforting and protecting the vulnerable ones, forgiving people’s shortcomings, challenging them to be better, constantly walking in the footsteps of Jesus to fulfill God’s will?

Wishing everyone a blessed week in the Lord.