In the commercial world, we all know what a trademark is; it is that symbol that identifies a particular company, or clothing designer, etc. Examples include the Nike Swoop, “X” for Twitter, and a spider for the Spider clothing brand. As soon as you see these things, you know what they represent or symbolize, and you associate certain memories or feelings with them as well. The Apostle and evangelist, John, reveals to us what Jesus wants our trademark to be: “By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another” (Jn. 13: 35).
This “trademark” of love is modeled for us in Jesus himself. The kind of love that Jesus wants us to represent and to live openly and joyfully in our daily lives is shown most powerfully and effectively in selfless, self-giving, self-sacrificing actions. This is not a merely poetic, or a mulishly romantic, self-indulgent, Hollywood idea of love. It is more than just words. It is love in action. It is the Good Samaritan kind of love that sees, serves, and walks with those ‘neighbors’ who are suffering, even with those we do not know. It is the kind of love that feeds the hungry, gives drink to the thirsty, clothes the naked, visits the sick and imprisoned, out of sincere compassion, not out of duty or to be recognized. It is love that is hard, hard like the love that Jesus showed us through his life, death, and resurrection. This trademark love is selfless, it forgives out of compassion and understanding. It is capable of transcending the indifference, the frustration, the hurt, the anger, the misunderstanding, even the hatred of the world. It is this kind of love that Jesus calls us to live towards one another daily. Why?
The world is dark and broken precisely because it lacks this kind of love. Might this commandment reveal the wisdom of God? Might this be why Jesus gave us his new commandment? “A new commandment I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another” (Jn. 13: 34). He gave us this commandment at the Last Supper, only a few hours before his arrest and his death on the cross. His disciples heard it, but clearly they did not fully understand the true depths of what they were being called to do until after they had witnessed Jesus’ death and Resurrection. They didn’t really come to a fuller understanding of the importance of this commandment until their experience of Pentecost in the upper room after Jesus’ Ascension back to the Father. It was only after they had received the Holy Spirit that they gained the courage to love all others and the world as Jesus loved them. Are we hiding in our own ‘upper rooms’ of fear and doubt, unable to love as Jesus commands? Are we open enough to let the Holy Spirit enter us and enliven us with the courage to live this kind of love?
As we see in the scriptures, it was hard for those disciples who had walked with and shared meals with and conversed with Jesus personally for three years to get to this understanding of the love that God wants us to have for one another. We can understand, then, why it is so hard for us to ‘get it’ too. After all, we see what happened to Jesus. We have seen in the Acts of the Apostles what happened to those apostles and disciples who willingly and joyfully accepted and submitted to the wisdom of this commandment. We are no different now than they were then. We understand the immediate, heavy weight of our natural self-concern, our desires for self-preservation. In a world that promotes, perpetuates, and condones selfishness and undisciplined passions, love of this kind appears to be nothing less than foolishness or madness.
To love as Jesus commands us to love is often seen by the worldly as foolishness. It is true that to love in this way, in this world, is to welcome ridicule, judgment, slander, even persecution, but this is the kind of love that we were made in and for. Jesus is simply calling us to be the persons he made us to be. It is this kind of love that brought Jesus into this world. Indeed, it is this kind of love that saved and continues to save the world from its most fearful enemies, sin and death.
Paul defines this kind of love so beautifully in the 13th chapter of his First Letter to the Corinthians, verses 1-13. He says that the world might recognize and praise us for our eloquence, our perceived ‘wisdom’ or our powers to prophecy, for what appears to be our deep faith, or our public generosity toward the poor. But he goes further, saying that if we are recognized for all of these things but have no love in us for the other, we are nothing more than noisy, clanging bells, empty words, and deeds. In the end, we achieve nothing. To be more specific, Paul tells us what this ‘trademark’ love does: It is patient and kind, never jealous, or pompous, it is not filled up with itself, or rude to the other, it always seeks the interests and the good of the other before itself, it is neither quickly angered, nor does it brood over past injuries. It does not take pleasure in wrong actions or lies, but rejoices always in the truth. It never fails.
This is the love that Jesus commands of us. This is the love that changes everything, yes, even the world. It is never too late to begin the hard work of learning to love one another, as Jesus loves us. There is true, divine wisdom in this seeming ‘foolishness’ of love. Maybe one day, when people are asked what the most outstanding ‘trademark’ of Christians is, they will be able to say: “They love one another.” That will be the force, the only force, that will change the world.
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