NOTES for Joh 13:36-38

Before the denial, immediately after the Last Supper, Peter thought he could serve God, that his love was enough, that he had everything needed to lay down his life for Christ, to follow Him. We too often think: "Well, I definitely have strength for this; I would never go that far," and so on. And then we act even worse, or fail to handle something even less difficult.

Peter was defeated because he did not say to Jesus: "Help me stand firm; give me the strength to follow You." He said, as we often do, that he would do it, relying on his own strength. After the denial, after repentance and forgiveness, Peter became the head of the Church; he now knew that all hope must be placed in God.

Often even the people most unsure of themselves are in fact extremely self-reliant. We do not fully realize that without God we could do nothing, including, and especially, following Him. But if we ask Him not to allow a denial, if we ask God for faithfulness, He will give it.

Today's reading helps us understand more deeply the nature of the Kingdom and its difference from our world, which has not yet been transformed. The passage concerns Jesus' words at the Last Supper, commonly called the ‘commandment of love’ (verses 34–35). At first sight, these words seem somewhat strange. Indeed, what could the apostles have found new in a call to mutual love? The need to love one's neighbour is spoken of extensively in the Old Testament, in the writings of learned rabbis and in the teachings of Torah teachers. Yet Jesus' words contained something no one before Him had spoken of. It is no accident that the call to mutual love comes immediately after His words about the glory with which the Father is glorified in the Son and the Son in the Father (verses 31–32). ‘Glory’ here evidently means God's presence, which accompanied the Jewish people throughout their history, beginning with the Exodus, and dwelt first in the Tabernacle and then in the Temple. It is no surprise that the Kingdom too is permeated by this presence. Yet it was Jesus' disciples who were to carry the Kingdom into our world as it undergoes transformation; this task was entrusted to the apostles and to those who would become their followers (John 17:18–21). And apparently the easiest way to recognize Jesus' disciples is by those expressions of love which are the signs of the Kingdom brought into the world by the Saviour. Of course, such expressions of love were known in the world before Christ's coming. In the biblical understanding, love is above all not emotion but an attitude toward another. The one who loves is not the one who admires or delights in the beloved, and certainly not the one who flatters them, but the one who wishes them good—not merely in words, of course, but in deeds. In the Kingdom, however, love becomes something more than a simple attitude. Any relationship involves interaction with the one to whom we relate, and interaction is possible only within a particular medium that carries it. In our world, not yet fully transformed, that medium is the realm of the psyche, associated with expressions of our inner life that do not go beyond the existing order of things. So-called earthly love is only a glimmer of the Kingdom penetrating a world afflicted by evil and sin. But Jesus speaks of a love that can be regarded as a manifestation of the Kingdom itself, a love that forms, so to speak, the very substance of the Kingdom. Human beings are incapable of such love; it can be received only as a gift conveyed by the Saviour from the Father. But a person can become a bearer of this love in a world awaiting transformation and renewal, and it appears that this is precisely what Jesus calls His disciples to do. He calls them to receive the Kingdom, to enter it, to make their home in it and, while living in the Kingdom, to carry it with them and reveal it to the world. This is the Church's principal and sole task. Everything else is only a means of accomplishing it.

Jesus has gathered His disciples for the final meal, the meal of the covenant. He gives them a new law unlike the old one. His commandment concerns love within His community. It is so easy, after all, to love those who share your beliefs, your brothers...

But the Lord tells them that one of them is a traitor. His commandment now becomes almost impossible to fulfill: how can they love one another if any one of them may suddenly prove to be an enemy? Each tries to distance himself from the dreadful stigma of traitor, but Jesus stops them. He predicts that they will all prove unfaithful—and very soon, before morning.

The disciples, and after them all believers, are not divided into good and bad, faithful and unfaithful. They are united by one human weakness and one incomprehensible commandment: to love one another without trying to guess who will prove to be an enemy, and to imitate the love of the Teacher, who loves them unconditionally.