Catechesis Notes for the Week — A New Commandment I Give You that You Love One Another as I Have Loved You—The Passion narrative in St. John’s Gospel begins with Mary, the sister of Lazarus, anointing Jesus with oil. It was an act of love for Jesus and a confession of faith in Him. Mary loved Jesus because she had been touched by His love and anointed His body for His coming burial. On Palm Sunday the pilgrims who greeted Jesus with “Hosanna! Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord!” had also been touched by Jesus’ love and confessed their faith in Him because of it. When Jesus’ washed the disciples’ feet in the upper room, He forgave their sin, sanctified them by His Word for service as His apostles, and “loved them to the end” by preaching His forgiving grace and dying for their sins and the sins of the whole world upon the cross. At the conclusion of this week’s narrative, we hear the words of Jesus: “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.” Jesus loved us by laying down His life for our sins and by speaking those words of forgiveness that bind up our wounds and comfort our troubled consciences. This is why Mary, the Palm Sunday pilgrims, and all Christians love Jesus. John would later write of this, “We love Him because He first loved us” (1 John 4:19). Jesus calls this command “to love one another” a “new commandment” because it is rooted in the New Covenant in His blood. It’s meaning defines what is at the heart of the Gospel: “the forgiveness of sins.”CP230319