Daily Meditation: Monday, April 26, 2004

‘Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another.’ - commentary

04/26/2004

Jesus said, ‘Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another.' What was the nature of Jesus' love? What did he see in a human being? The response is found in the Sermon on the Mount when he addressed his disciples and the crowd that had followed him, saying: ‘Be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect.' What this means is that in his disciples and in all those who came to him, Jesus saw the image of the heavenly Father, of the Divinity, and it was to this Divinity within them that he addressed himself as he showed them the path to perfection. Others could not see beyond the pitiful appearance of those they called lepers, the possessed, prostitutes, adulterers, thieves, and so on. But Jesus recognised in all beings a soul and a spirit that only asked for good conditions in which to manifest their beauty and light. It was these souls and these spirits that he loved, and it was to them that he spoke.