Jesus gave a new commandment for His disciples to follow on the night before He died. “Love one another as I have loved you,” He said, for by this “all will know you are my disciples.” John 13 : 34-35. Jesus did not just say, “love one another.” He qualified this by adding, “as I have loved you.” In other words, Jesus raised the standard of Love by offering Himself as the model, by equating love with His own example, His own way of loving us.

This love of Jesus is pure gift. It has come down to us from Heaven in the human form of the Son of God. It does not come naturally to us. We do not merit it nor can we acquire it by our own efforts such as is possible with the moral virtues. It is the third of the three great gifts or theological virtues which are the result of Divine Grace: faith, hope, and love. And, the greatest of these, of course, is Love. 1 Corinthians 13 : 13.

Jesus also completed the great commandment of the Old Testament to “love the Lord your God with all your mind, heart, and soul, and your neighbor as yourself. ” Deuteronomy 6 : 5. He did this by offering His life and His example as the fullest expression of the love of God. If you have difficulty loving God, passionately, whom you do not see, look to Jesus who is the living embodiment of God’s love, in the flesh. As the Son of God and as the Son of Man, Jesus is God with a human face. He alone can empower us to love God fully in mind , heart, and soul, and to love our neighbors as ourselves.

We enter into this Love of Jesus when we respond to it as a gift to be treasured and shared with others. Jesus makes it clear that this is how people will recognize us as His disciples, by our love for one another the way He has loved us.. You cannot impose this gift on others as some are inclined to do. You can propose it, you can nurture it in others by your example, but you cannot force it on anyone for it is, after all, a gift.

There’s a story about a group of salesmen who were rushing through an Airport to catch a flight, and, in their haste, knocked over a blind girl’s table of apples. One member of the group returned to the terminal where the apples were scattered all over the floor. The blind girl was crying in frustration as she tried to pick up the apples. This lone salesman knelt beside her, and helped her put the apples back on the table. He then pulled out his wallet, and gave the girl $40 for the damage that was done. As he walked away, the bewildered, blind girl called out to him, “Mister!” He turned around and quietly walked back to her. “Are you Jesus?” she asked, feebly. The salesman told her he was nothing like Jesus who was so good He would never have run into her apple display in the first place. He said: ‘I am merely trying to follow His example.” She nodded, gently: “I only ask because I prayed to Jesus to help me and He sent you.”

This salesman was recognized by the blind girl as a disciple of Jesus by his loving actions towards her. So much did he impress the blind girl that she thought he might even be Jesus.

If you claim to be a disciple of Jesus, you should act like Him. Following Him is more than simply quoting scripture or going to Church. Following Him is behaving like Him, hearing His word and putting it into practice day by day. It is not easy to do this, at times, but what a gift it is when you are able to pass this love along to others!

When you are in doubt about what to do, simply ask yourself: what would Jesus do?

He will show you what to do.

—Fr. Hugh Duffy