Love One Another as I Have Loved You

May 18, 2025

The Gospel for this Sunday is actually set in the midst of the Last Supper. We hear Jesus tell His Apostles that He gives them a new commandment. “Love one another. As I have loved you, you should love one another. This is how all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.”
   
If Jesus had merely said, “Love one another,” this would not be the significant passage that it is. But He went on to say, “As I have loved you, so you should love one another.” We are not simply called to love one another, but to love as He has loved. That is quite the challenge.
   
So, what does it mean to love as Jesus loved? This is drawn from the Last Supper account in the Gospel of John, which is quite different than the account in the Synoptic Gospels. John includes the washing of feet in his presentation of the Last Supper. We see Jesus rise from the table, take a pitcher of water and a bowl and towel, and go to each of the disciples to wash their feet.

Now, it has been often noted that this was an act that one would not require of one’s lowest servant. Jesus is making a profound statement about His humility and the humility that must be demonstrated by His followers. As He washes their feet, He is giving them an example of service that they are to live out to each other. Of course, Jesus is speaking to you and me as well as to those in the Upper Room.

“If I, who you call Master, and rightly so, wash your feet, so you must wash each other’s feet. I have given you an example. The Son of Man has come to serve, rather than to be served.” We are called to be servants of one another. St. Paul writes, “See the needs of others as more important than your own.” This will demand an act of humility that many of us will find difficult.
—Fr. Mike Comer