This coming Sunday is the 5th Sunday of Easter in Year C of the Lectionary Cycle. In yesterday’s post we explored a possible understanding of Jesus’ command to love each other. Today continue to read O’Day  reflection (734):

To interpret Jesus’ death as the ultimate act of love enables the believers to see that the love to which Jesus summons the community is not the giving up of one’s life, but the giving away of one’s life. The distinction between these prepositions is important, because the love that Jesus embodies is grace, not sacrifice. Jesus gave his life to his disciples as an expression of the fullness of his relationship with God and of God’s love for the world. Jesus’ death in love, therefore, was not an act of self-denial, but an act of fullness, of living out his life and identity fully, even when that living would ultimately lead to death. …

Continue reading →

This coming Sunday is the 5th Sunday of Easter in Year C of the Lectionary Cycle. In yesterday’s post we explored a possible understanding of Jesus’ departure reference. Today we explore the last of the three parts of this very short reading: the Commandment to Love. 34 I give you a new commandment: love one another. As I have loved you, so you also should love one another. 35 This is how all will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”  Continue reading →

This coming Sunday is the 5th Sunday of Easter in Year C of the Lectionary Cycle. In yesterday’s post we explored a possible understanding of Jesus’ reference to “glorification.” Today we explore the second of the three parts of this very short reading. Referring again to his imminent departure, Jesus said to his disciples, “My children, I will be with you only a little while longer You will look for me, and as I told the Jews, ‘Where I go you cannot come,’ so now I say it to you” (v.33). Continue reading →

This coming Sunday is the 5th Sunday of Easter in Year C of the Lectionary Cycle. In yesterday’s post we explored what was meant by the word “glory” in the Old Testament Scriptures as a way of considering what the apostles and disciples might think when Jesus says to them: “Now is the Son of Man glorified, and God is glorified in him.”  The term is more robust than a single one-line definition. May it can be best said as the revelation of God’s godliness to people in the events of their lives – at least as far as humanity can experience such things. But when experienced, one’s thoughts and being turn to encounter God. Continue reading →

This coming Sunday is the 5th Sunday of Easter in Year C of the Lectionary Cycle. In yesterday’s post we placed the Sunday gospel in content vis-a-vis the flow of events of Holy Week, as well, in the content of John’s larger project that is the whole Gospel. We are no longer in the “Book of Signs” but since John 12:23 are in the following section known as the “Book of Glory.” Our short gospel is from John 13:31-35 and can be divided into three parts: Continue reading →

This coming Sunday is the 5th Sunday of Easter in Year C of the Lectionary Cycle. While it appears after Easter, the gospel reading is taken from the evening of what we call Holy Thursday. So, perhaps we should place this short gospel passage in context. The public ministry of Jesus has drawn to a close with John 12.  Here in Chapter 13 begins the “private ministry” of Jesus preparing his disciples for his impending death.  Continue reading →