Happy Easter to all!

The Gospel text that the liturgy proposes to us today, gives the impression that it is not in tune with the Easter season we are celebrating. The context is in the Cenacle, during the Last Supper; It is the moment when Judas leaves to deliver the Master to the high priests. We would have expected another manifestation of the Risen Lord to the disciples, but instead we are transferred to the Cenacle. Why? Because during the Last Supper, Jesus has pronounced a long speech that the evangelist John recorded for us in four chapters. It is important because they are the last words of the Teacher, the most sacred ones. Therefore, we will approach this text with emotion, with trepidation.

All the great characters of the Old Testament have made a speech before dying. There they remembered all the work they had done, made recommendations, promises, blessings. This is how we remember Moses, Samuel, David, Jacob ... who, before dying, calls all his children around his bed and gives everyone a blessing. Jesus behaves like the great characters of the Old Testament. He knows that he has a few hours left to live and feels the need to dictate his last will, his testament. This testament is read in the paschal time because the wills are opened when the loved one has already left this world.

Let's approach now this text with emotion, with trepidation because Jesus before leaving us wanted to put before our eyes all his love story, all his life given for others:

“When Judas had left them, Jesus said, "Now is the Son of Man glorified, and God is glorified in him. If God is glorified in him, God will also glorify him in himself, and God will glorify him at once.”

We have heard the verb 'glorify' 5 times. It even seems like too much repetition. Then, it does not seem to be the most opportune moment to talk about 'glory' and 'glorification.' It is a verb that seems out of place because Jesus is in a dramatic moment of his life. It is not the moment of glory. Let's see in what context Jesus presents this moment he is living as an opportunity for glory. Judas has left. It seems that it was swallowed by darkness. John the Evangelist points out that when Judas came out 'it was night.' Judas has allowed himself to be enveloped by the darkness of the world. He has not let himself be enveloped by the light of the Master, that of the new world. The proposal that Jesus made was something unacceptable to him and it was dangerous because he sees Jesus as someone who subverted the social, political, religious order.

Jesus preached a God that it was not the one preached by the rabbis, a righteous God. And Jesus did not like this God. He preached a man who serves, not a dominator. And this disarticulated all of Judas' convictions. And not even Jesus was able to change his heart and involve him in the new world. How would we have reacted to the betrayal of a person we had loved and for which we had strived to obtain the change of this person, the change that would have saved this person?

Jesus has felt this moment as a failure of his work; he had not managed to include Judas in his designs. And not only Judas, the other disciples were not very convinced and determined to give their lives for the Master. Let's think what our reaction would have been in front of that hard heart, stubbornly clinging to the convictions that even Jesus was not able to change. How would we have reacted at that moment when Judas, whom we had loved, left? And he left not to do his things, but to deliver the Master to death.

It is probable that we would have reacted with anger, cursing that opponent of the project of a new world, that person who carried the evil one in his heart. In Jesus, none of these aspects were present that would have characterized our reaction. He did not have the shadow of a grudge against the betrayal of Judas. Only an immense pain for not being able to breach the heart of his disciple.

This is the experience felt by all those who love and who want to lead to life the person they want to be happy, and that person makes death choices. The pain for the person they loved is immense. This is what happens with parents who do everything possible so that the son or daughter can make good choices in life and watch them go away at night. Jesus has experienced an immense pain, but no rancor, no irritation, no words against Judas.

It is in this context that Jesus gives the disciples his new commandment. We expected perhaps harsh, resentful words, but from the mouth of Jesus, exactly at this moment, the most beautiful words of love come out. It is his testament, and he can give it because he is demonstrating with his life that he practices love to perfection. It is a very current message for us today because if we commit ourselves to build a more just, more fraternal world, we will find what Jesus found.

Thousands are the people who for interest or ignorance are against it. We will find organizations and structures that propose to young people, to new generations, Wrong life models. They introduce moral degradation, the hedonism that make ridicules the most sacred values such as faith, family, marital fidelity, forgiveness. What to do? We are tempted to curse these people, these institutions because it is a modern persecution.

The Master invites us to react as he did. They are occasions to show the most love: love towards those who do evil, to those who oppose our values. We must love them as Jesus has loved Judas. And now appear the verbs to which I referred before: 'glorify'. There are only a few hours left for the capture of Jesus and his death sentence. For us, heirs of Greek thought, glorification is the celebration of our success. When everyone applauds us we are glorified. When we are famous we will have prestigious positions and we would be happy... This is our glory.

Jesus has been tempted to become glorious as the great ones of this world were glorious. The evil one had already suggested it ... but for that he should worship the evil one. 'You will become a glorious person, but need to follow my advice, accept my suggestions... and, therefore, you should not have scruples, crush the weakest if necessary, lie if necessary... and so you will become a great character, for the great ones of this world reach these positions listening to my advice'.... This is the message of the evil one.

Jesus has not followed this glory because this is not 'glory', it is 'vainglory' that then, in the story of God, which is the one that remains, it disappears. When the Bible talks about glory it does not mean the fame one has over others. This is 'vainglory' that comes and goes as the wind blows. The glory that no one can appropriate, the true glory in the Bible, is what counts in the eyes of God.

The name for ‘glory’ in Hebrew is 'kavod', which means weight. We all want our presence to have 'weight', to let our words have weight, be honest. According to the Bible, glory is a life that is not straw but the seed of the grain that weighs, that remains, that gives life. And that's why Jesus says: for me it is the moment of glory. What does 'the moment of glory' mean? Glory is the moment in which he can show the true face of God; he has come to this world to show the true face of God. And now Jesus has a unique opportunity to reach the maximum of this glory, of this manifestation of the face of God which is love and only love. It is the moment when Judas betrays him.

The Father in heaven did not want the Son to die but, delivering him into the hands of the people, they could not but attack him because they are not moved by the love that comes from God but for the evil one that suggests the glory of this world and to get it you have to be willing to do anything. In this situation, not willed by God, but created by people, Jesus is inserted in the design of the Father and choose this moment to manifest all his love because the maximum of love is given by the donation of life.

The Father did not want Jesus to die, but as people have committed this crime, through this sin of people the maximum manifestation of God's love has been realized. Therefore, the greatest manifestation of the face of God. Jesus, at this moment, is saying: you can abandon me, insult me, hit me, hate and even kill me, but you will not make me give up the unconditional love because this is my identity of the perfect image of God. The manifestation of this glory cancels the ugly face of God that we have invented; we look for the face we have invented and we love it and do not like this God that Jesus presents. Jesus has come to deny this face of God—a righteous God who punishes you if you do not obey Him, if you offend Him. NO!

This face of God was definitely cancelled in the glorious moment of Jesus when he donates his life. The falsity of the diabolical image is denounced that men have made of God. An image that makes us ill, unhappy when we want to resemble Him. Let's listen to what Jesus leaves us in inheritance:

“My children, I will be with you only a little while longer. I give you a new commandment: love one another. As I have loved you, so you also should love one another. This is how all will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another."

"My children, I will be with you only a little while longer." Jesus calls his disciples, and also us, "children". The Greek term is an affectionate diminutive, it says 'teknía' - 'children'. The disciples are not children of Jesus, they are brothers of Jesus, but at this moment in which Jesus presents his testament, he calls them 'my children'. The son is the one who must reproduce the father's face and at this moment, Jesus asks them: 'to make me present in the world.' Present your face as a proposal of man for all. And it indicates how we can resemble him in order to present everyone His person. He leaves them his testament.

What is it that Jesus leaves us in inheritance? It is not properties because I did not have them. Jesus said that he did not even have a stone to rest his head on. He had no home or assets. We would have expected that Jesus would have left them the power to work miracles, to solve the problems of the world with a magic wand. Jesus has not left that ability... or better, he has left his ability to do wonders, the ability to announce his Word for whoever adheres to his Word, who trusts in that Word experiences a prodigious transformation of the world and the heart of the people. So, what does he leave in inheritance? "I give you a new commandment: love one another."

Jesus leaves a commandment. It is not a recommendation or a suggestion. It is a commandment. This word does not sound good to us because it sounds like an imposition, and then punishment for those who do not obey. NO. Nothing of this. The commandment is not something that is written out, as were the Ten Words of the Old Testament. This commandment of love comes from within because Jesus came to bring to this creature that is man, a new identity, born of the gift of the divine life that he makes, the life of the Eternal, which is not something for the future, promised to the good ones at the end of this life. NO! This life of the Eternal is donated today to all. And this life becomes a 'commandment,' a need that comes from within, to love like the Father in heaven who has donated his very life.

It is a 'new' commandment. New not for a formulation that we also find almost the same in the Old Testament: "love your neighbor as yourself" says the book of Leviticus, which is the highest point that the Old Testament has reached. Also, some pagan wise men recommended this love to the neighbor.

We remember Seneca, Epithet, Confucius... all these great characters who have preceded this new commandment. Why is it new? The new is not opposed to the ancient. Ancient things are beautiful, the more time passes, the more value it has. What is 'ancient', not what is 'old'; what is old is discarded. What did the book of Leviticus say: "Love your neighbor as yourself." We also find it in the wisdom of the great characters of antiquity. It is not old material... they are ancient things, and the ancient must be conserved because it has a great value, but it is not definitive.

When you hear this word 'new', it immediately awakens optimism and hope. Ancient wisdom was good, you do not have to throw it away, it's preserved as a treasure, but this is not the wisdom we pursue. We do not love as one loves oneself. The measure given to us is another. It is the one that comes from the commandment that is our new identity: that of being sons and daughters of God.

Therefore, this inner commandment leads us to love as Jesus loves. This love is pure, absolute beauty, beyond which it is impossible to walk. This commandment cannot grow old because it is the life of God. Hundreds or millions of years can pass, but this commandment will always remain new. It will never be overcome. There will never be a better commandment. It is not possible to go beyond this love. It is unconditional love, even for the enemy. You cannot go beyond this horizon. There will never be another novelty. "Love one another as I have loved you."

What love is this that Jesus presents? It is the love that does not allow itself to be conditioned by the response of the people that can be not of love but of hatred, of exploitation, of oppression. The love of Jesus does not allow to be conditioned; it is completely free. This is the love that the Christian, the disciple, must bear witness in the world. It gives testimony to the presence of Jesus in the world through his Spirit, of that divine life that he has brought. And he says: "In that you will all know that you are my disciples, in the love you have for one another." In the community of disciples, Jesus has left only one distinctive mark. They are not our prayers, our devotions ... NO. It is love.

It is the vocation which every Christian is called, and it is unique. We are called to love. Then, the particular conditions in which one finds oneself and must manifest this love are diverse, but the vocation to which the Christian is called is unique: Love as Jesus has loved.

I wish everyone a good Easter and a good week.