Gospel of Saint John

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Welcome to this continuation of our study of the book of the Gospel of St. John. And today in Lecture 11, we're going to focus on the Upper Room, Part 1. We basically have four more lectures to go. We're going to cover the Upper Room today, and next time we'll go through the Upper Room again, and then finally we'll go through the Passion and the Resurrection. And then we will close off this study, therefore in July 15. So far we've seen that the Gospel of St. John

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The purpose of his gospel is to convince us that Christ is who He says He is and that we should believe in Him. Always keep in mind that purpose. This is why He's writing His gospel. It's a catechism. When He sat down to write it, He didn't think, oh, I'm writing a gospel. He basically, He was a bishop essentially of a whole area in Turkey and then He wanted to take care of His people. So He sat down and wrote down

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what he thought was important for them to believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, the Savior of the world. And the way he did it is by using a mechanism that everyone back then was familiar with.

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the covenantal lawsuit. Anybody would see that structure would know exactly what he's trying to talk because that immediately in their heads, there'll be the strong party, there'll be the weak party, there'll be the blessing. There is the conditions of the king, the strong party is putting forth, then there are the blessings and the curses. And if you put all that together, now you understand who you're dealing with. That is a very common, familiar mechanism for them to deal with situations with a fundamental change.

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because that's how things would happen. So another example I will give you is something that perturbs a lot of people. You hear it often read, but never really properly explained, is that when Jesus is talking about a change, he will say, the sun will not give its light to moon, the stars will fall. I mean, it's cosmic, cosmic, apocalyptic description. And then a lot of people, especially today, because of our knowledge of physics and astronomy, were thinking literally,

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A mayhem up there in the stars. But that's not at all what he means. Back then, how did people measure time and seasons? What did they use? What was their big clock?

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The stars, the sun, the moon. And every time a kingdom, a king came and conquered, what happened? Reset. You start counting the years from the moment that this king won.

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So when I say the sun will not give it's light, the moon will fall, the stars will fall, what am I saying? Reset. I'm resetting time.

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Okay? So it's all covenantal based. So they understood all that, we don't, so we kind of get ourselves a little in the tizzy. So in this gospel, he started precisely this way. In the beginning was the Word, the Word was with God, and the Word was God. Here I'm introducing to you the Strong Party. Saint Matthew, Saint Luke did it genealogically. He's doing it trinitarian. Starting from the Trinity, onward. Then the Strong Party came.

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And oh, surprise, he didn't come where you expect him to come, which should be Jerusalem. He came way out in the boonies. And then, double surprise, the Sheikina, the spirit, which under Ezekiel left the temple and was gone before the destruction of temple, comes back. And it's not in Jerusalem, it's right here. And then we see how he begins by overtaking his enemies. Essentially,

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the old covenant which was prophesied but had become the enemy because people started to put more faith in the laws themselves rather than in the giver of the law. And that include everyone. His disciples, the apostles, the Pharisees, everyone. Everybody is in the same boat. So what does he do? He shows them that he is the author of all of this. He is stronger than all of this. He takes it over. He takes it back, one by one. So he takes back the temple.

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when he's baptized because the shekinah, the spirit is on upon him. And we hear the voice of the father confirming that. And then he takes back the whole institution of marriage, which is the rock, the foundation of the entire society at Cana. And then he starts to take back every one of their rituals. So he's conquering all of that. However, the heart

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bit and so at this point his disciples everybody else are tracking they're tracking because this what a king supposed to do he comes he establishes himself he conquers where they stop tracking is when he doesn't follow up the way they're expecting to go to Jerusalem right kick all these guys out take over makes himself a nice little tidy throne sit on it and then they can self a in fact after they after he multiplies the bread what did they do

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They start to take him by force and make him a king. Because you're not playing the narrative. That's what you're supposed to do. And then we've seen him since then, as we transition from the conquest to the governing, we see how everything becomes counterintuitive. Everything is counterintuitive. Nothing fits the narrative they're expecting. And that culminated last time with Lazarus. St. John tells us that Jesus loved Mary, Martha, and Lazarus, so he delayed two days.

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And that same message is going to continue today. Because so far, this mission has been more or less insular. It concerned mostly the Jews, a little bit of the Samaritans, but that's about it. So the church is not yet complete. His kingdom is not yet complete. It will become complete today. So what we're going to see today is how, chapter 12 through the end of chapter 14,

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There is a triggering event that happens. The Gentiles seek Jesus. And as a result, Israel divides before the light. So the Gentiles come to Him, Israel divides. And then this parallelism repeats. The Lord washes His own, and the betrayer goes out at night. So there those who come to Him, and there those who leave. And then the last three parts is when Jesus gives the new commandment.

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and then says he's the way to the Father and promises the Holy Spirit. Now look at this architecturally. Look at the structure of these eight passages from the beginning, chapter 12 verses 20 through chapter, through the end of chapter 14. I'm gonna show it to you architecturally because it is really striking. I'll do that in a minute, but let's go through this. If you want to ask questions during the talk or if you want to not forget your questions, you can grab this.

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um And if you're streaming, you guys can do that also on the stream. eh I'll give you just a second. So, as long as you keep those, the sort of roadmap in mind, then as you read the Gospel of St. John on your own, you come to a passage, you ask yourself this question, who is Jesus talking to? Who is he addressing? Is he in a moment where he's basically taking over? Is he in a moment where he's structuring the church?

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Is he in the moment where he's saving it? And that movement recapitulates into your own life. You're the one who needs to be taken over. You're the one who needs to be cleansed. And then you're the one who needs to be saved. If now you take this gospel and apply it morally, this is called the moral sense of scripture. The four senses of scripture are in the Catechism, starting with chapter one, paragraph 101.

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But the moral sense is that how is that gospel applying to my own life? Because I'm the one who has some habits and some tradition that I established which set me against Christ. I'm the one who is surprised by how Christ comes to me. He doesn't come the way I want him to come. He comes in the annoying neighbor. He comes in the person who is bugging me at work. He comes in a variety of ways that disrupt my life. Christ disrupts Israel. He's going to disrupt your life.

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And then you have all these things in your mind, all the prayers, all the intentions, and because He loves you, what does He do? He delays. This is how the Gospel not only shows you who Christ is, but shows you Christ is in your life. The roadmap isn't just about when Christ came, it is about how Christ is today behaving with His church, and how Christ is behaving with each and every believer. This is why this Gospel is so, so powerful.

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So please, let's stand up and invoke the Holy Spirit. In the name of the Father, of the Son, of the Holy Spirit, amen. Come Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of your faithful and kindle in them the fire of your life. Send forth your spirit and they shall be created and you shall renew the face of the earth. O God, who by the light of the Holy Spirit did instruct the hearts of the faithful, grant that by the same Holy Spirit,

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We may be truly wise and never enjoy his consolations through Christ our Lord. Amen. In the of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen. And I do want to highlight this one bit in this prayer. Grant by the same Holy Spirit and watch the order. We may be truly wise so that we may enjoy his consolation. Wisdom.

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is a virtue which requires knowledge and understanding. And so what you're doing by coming to these Bible studies, by doing your own meditation, by reflecting, by reading, you're growing in wisdom. And the more you grow in wisdom, the more you're able to enjoy the consolation of the Holy Spirit. All right, structure. Here's the structure of these two chapters. First leg, the first pillar, Gentiles seek Jesus. That's John chapter 12, verse 20 through 36.

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The second leg, the unbelief and judgment that follows. The third leg, the foot washing. And the fourth one, Judas and the knight. What joins all of them horizontally? The new commandment. What is the new commandment? Could you repeat it? Love one another as I have loved you. Love one another is easy. That bit is easy. If it was just love one another, oh oh, no problem.

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It's as I have loved you. That's the bit. The strong party tells you how you behave. You don't define it, you follow. That is the horizontal. That is the altar. So what is the church made up of? There is coming and going, sinners and saints, people who follow and people who betray. Do not be scandalized. Do not be surprised. Let your heart be at peace. The church will always be like this until the consummation of ages.

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If you're still living with this sort of um desire or utopia that one day the church here on earth will be made just of saints and everybody will process in pure white robes and singing hallelujah, well, ah I'm sorry to break it to you. That's not going to happen. That's not the promise. The church here is an embassy. It's a hospital. What do you expect to find in places like these?

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expect to find refugees and people who have a right business and spies and it's a mess. Church will always be a mess. Do not let your heart be troubled by that. That's the horizontal. That is the new commandment. Love one another as I have loved you. Now then you look at the vertical, the three last parts that we're going to look at, the three last parts. I am the way the father, I mean the two last parts, I'm sorry.

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The New Commandment is the first of these three last parts. Then, am the way to the Father. Christ ascends. He is Jacob's leader. He is the latter. He is the one who ascends. And then he's the one who brings back down the Holy Spirit. And then between the structure, what do you see? Huh? When you look at the vertical axis and the horizontal axis, what do you see? The cross. So you cannot look at the cross without seeing the altar. You cannot look at the altar without seeing the cross.

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You cannot look at the cross without seeing the church. You cannot look at the church without seeing the cross. This right here is Christ completing the structure of the church. The new commandment, love one another as I have loved you. Oftentimes, unfortunately these days, we take it as like, it seems as if our reaction to it when we hear it is, oh, you should in fact tremble because behind that commandment,

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from the strong party, there are blessings and there are curses. This is not optional. If you call yourself Christian, this is not optional. This is a commandment. You must. Your entire life is structured around that. It's a must. Part of me would have wished he didn't give us that commandment because it is hard. If you take that seriously, this is hard.

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This takes you out of yourself completely. Which is what he wants. But we'll get to that. Okay? Keep that structure in your head. This is what he's trying to do here. Right? And it is the hard part of the entire mission is to get them to understand that the kingdom he's establishing is not the kingdom they have in mind. It's not the kingdom we have in mind. Christ never promised us peace in America. He never promised us that our life will be peaceful and comfortable.

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and anxiety free and will have no issues and there are never, he never said that anywhere I don't know where we get that stuff in our heads why? well because of original sin because of original sin because specifically of the sin of Adam who didn't want to do anything he don't want to stop his wife from taking that fruit he want to stop go confront Satan when he invaded his garden want to do anything that's what we want we just we want to veg

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We get upset with God when he just doesn't fix stuff. So, you know, love one another as I have loved you. The hard part with this is, if you ask yourself this question, because often we grow up with conditional love. Like I love somebody if they love me back. That's what it is. Tit for tat, right? As I have loved you, was none of that. How many of us are really truly

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ready to love someone who doesn't love us back. At all. I have a bit of news for you. We cannot do that. We just can't. We can't. On our own we cannot. We need the Holy Spirit. We need all the graces that God gave us so that we can do what we're supposed to do. So that's a double whammy. Love one another as I loved you. He says that and then we go, wait a minute, we cannot do that.

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So you're asking us to do something we can't even do. So I can't even take credit for it because I can't do it. Yeah, you can. But if you ask for the Holy Spirit, you'll be able to. Total dependency. There's a fundamental humiliation for all of us in this. Because we can't, we cannot do any of this. And we fight, and we resist, and we insist, and we try, but we can't. Only through the Holy Spirit. And how do you know you're fighting and resisting?

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and refusing and having a temper tantrum over it. Very, very easy. Very, easy. You're anxious. That's it. Anxiety. God is never the source of your anxiety or mine. Never. Peace I give to you. My peace I give you. No, no, thank you. I prefer my anxiety. I don't want your peace. Anxiety. Anxiety is your barometer for how much you're fighting and how much you're resisting.

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and how much you want to be independent and how much you secretly do not want to do what he asks you to do. That's the ugly mirror. Exciting. And guess what? We're all in the same boat. All of us are exactly in that same boat. So that no one may boast, but all may boast in the glory of God. That's, I'm paraphrasing Saint Paul. All right, so the Gentile seeks Jesus. Now among those who went up to worship at the feast were some Greeks.

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So these came to Philip who was from Bethsaida in Galilee and said to him, Sir, we wish to see Jesus. Philip went and told Andrew. Andrew went with Philip and they told Jesus. And Jesus answered them, the hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. Typical St. John irony. We just have two guys eating some gyros and fries going to Andrew and Philip saying, hey, we want to talk to Jesus.

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How do you think Jesus' answer ought to be if I were to look at it purely at the human rational level? What do you think it would be? Oh hey, how are you? That would be an appropriate answer. We want to see you. Oh, you're welcome. Please, let's sit down and have you know, coffee or tea or whatever, right? Look what he says. The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. Guess what? That dissonance, that disconnect between the way we're thinking and the way he thinks,

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Didn't exist just for the Greeks. It exists for each and every one of us today. It exists for all of us. Christ's answers for us are bewildering. They confuse us. They anger us. They don't seem to make sense. But what is the purpose of His answer? As always, to lead someone to follow me so that I can lead you to the truth so the truth sets you free. Always. Always, always. The hour...

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has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. Jesus has always obeyed his father. Jesus always obeyed his father and always waited for his father to tell him the hour. Not because he couldn't do it himself, but out of love. So at Cana, he waited. He thought his hour hadn't come, but he realized my hour has come now. At Caesarea Philippi, he waited for his father to show him who among the apostles would be the chief apostle. Always waited for his father.

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And now his father told him the hour has come when the Greeks came to see him. Why? Because they're still the missing component, the missing piece in his new kingdom. His new kingdom isn't just for the Jews, it is for the whole world. And now the world has come to him, so he understands the hour has come for him to overtake the world and for him to be glorified.

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The Greeks did not come to Jesus, did not go to Jesus directly. They go first to Philip. Observe, Philip. Is that an Aramaic name? Philip? No. That's a Greek name. Philip has a Greek name. So they go to the guy who's like them. Which is why we're all having a part to play. Because there could be somebody who's going to be like you. And you're going to be the Philip he goes to. And then Philip decided to go to Andrew.

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What did Andrew do? Andrew brought Simon to Jesus, because Andrew is Simon's brother. So he's the one who brings. So Philip goes to Andrew, and then the two together go to Jesus. So observe the hierarchy of the church. Observe the ecclesiology being formed right in front of your eyes. And then Jesus answers them, and his answer is very bewildering. The hour.

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has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. I assure you, Philip and Andrew did not understand what he said. If anything, they may have been thinking, oh, Arnold Schwarzenegger, finally, we're to have the throne and he's going to go kick them all out, then, if anything. But they didn't understand the cross. They have no clue. So if Jesus treated them this way, do not be surprised if he treats you the same.

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Don't be surprised if your life suddenly makes no sense. If things in your life are happening that are bewildering, confusing and chaotic. This is the reason. The reason, the one you're not seeing, is your need for conversion. We have a much greater need to be converted than we think we do. He knows we don't. Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone. But if it dies, it bears much fruit.

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He who loves his life loses it and he who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life. If anyone serves me, he must follow me and where I am, there shall my servant be also. If anyone serves me, the father will honor him. Now watch the sort of the contradiction. Christ says, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone. Really? If I'm a grain of wheat,

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Cradle in a blade of wheat. Where am I? I'm on a beautiful field with a whole bunch of other guys like me. If anything, I am certainly not alone. It's a party out there. If I'm a grain of wheat that falls in the ground and buried all by myself, I am super alone. Make sense? He inverts it. Unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone.

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It remains alone. You could be in the middle of family and friends. You could be surrounded by people you love and who love you. And you can be utterly alone unless you're dying to yourself and you're bearing fruit. That's what he's saying. So what is loneliness? Loneliness is a form of avarice.

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Loneliness is the fruit of avarice. Avarice is when you don't give. You cling to stuff. You keep it to yourself. That's what he's saying. The only way to not be alone is to die to yourself and bear fruit. We think that in order for me not to be alone, I need to go be with others. So it's a whole bunch of loneliness stuck together.

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And a whole bunch of loneliness stuck together produce more loneliness, not less. That's why social media can be so depressing. Loneliness is a fruit of avarice. It's the fruit of people who are unwilling to forget themselves and then produce fruit. See how counterintuitive it is? See how we really, this business of loving one another as he loved us is a lot more demanding and challenging for us?

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if we were really honest about it. If it dies, it bears much fruit. The only way for us to bear fruit is to die to ourselves. This is the choice. And how do I know if I'm dying to myself? It's anxiety. The anxious I am, the more I'm clinging to myself. Logic suggests if you believe in God, God can do everything. And if you believe in God, God is good and God wants your good, your highest good. God...

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is omnipotent meaning all powerful God loves you he is all love if you put those two together it means that he is going to take care of you if he's going to take care of you you have nothing to fear nothing to worry about why are you so anxious he who hates his life now watch watch the the the words here because they're really important Christ is not saying he who hates his life period he he adds a qualifier

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He who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life. So if you feel like you're a misfit, if you don't fit in, if you are suffering by the way the world around you works, if you are pining for a better world, if you're hoping for problems to be solved, but more importantly, if you're doing what is before that, if you're dying to self,

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and bearing fruit you will keep it for eternal life and underlying all that underlying all that is what? the cross because this comes right after the son of man will be glorified the cross leads Jesus to all of this and it leads all of us to the same the cross why do I insist on that? because again you cannot do any of this on your own what do I mean by that? yeah you can go feed the hungry you can go

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close the naked, you can visit the prisoners, you can take care of the poor, can do all those things externally. All those things are done, but you are just as wretched and as poor and as alone as you were before because you're counting on yourself. If you do not count on the grace of God, if you understand without the grace of God, you can do nothing, then there is no holiness inside of you. Trans-sanctification is not taking place. If anyone serves me, he must.

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Follow me. Follow him where? To Golgotha. To the cross and then to the resurrection. And where I am, there shall my servant be also. If anyone serves me, the Father will honor him. So here's a question. Where is Christ now? Yes. Where else? At the right hand of the Father, what else? In your heart, where else? Everywhere, but there is something I want you to say, which is sort of obvious. Thank you. In our tabernacles, right?

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Yeah, in the Eucharist, in the Tabernacles. Where I am, there my, shall my servant be. You love Christ, you want to serve Christ, the Tabernacle. Okay. If anyone serves me, the Father will honor him. What does it mean for the Father to honor someone? How does God honor someone, honor a human being? To bestow honor upon someone is to bestow part of your own glory. So, if let's say,

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You are a painter. You like to portraits. And I come and I say, wow, this portrait is beautiful. You're honored. But if Leonardo Da Vinci were to come and say, this portrait is beautiful, it's completely different honor, isn't it? Why? Because the glory is different. Mine is just average, normal guy. This is Da Vinci. The father will honor you.

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It's a big deal. It's a really big deal. We don't think it's a big deal. Most of us, we read this verse and we wean and we keep going. You see what I'm saying? Yeah, that's the disconnect between where we live and where Christ wants us to live. So I would suggest take that into meditation, prayer. Imagine yourself before the Father and the Father is honoring you. And try to understand a little bit better what that means. And ask your God and angel to illuminate your conscience and your mind to help you.

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See this, see this picture. What does it look like? Are you just you and the father in a teeny-weeny little room, all by yourselves, there's nobody else? Is the most holy trinity there? Is our lady and the saints there? Are the angels there? Is all of heaven there when he's gonna honor you? Or you're by yourself? What do you think? Yeah. If you make it your goal, the purpose of your life is for the father to honor you.

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and you structure your entire life around this. I want the Father to honor me. Now is my soul troubled and what shall I say? Father, save me from this hour. No, for this verses have come to this hour. Father, glorify thy name. Then a voice came from heaven. I have glorified it and I will glorify it again. And then Jesus answered, This voice has come for your sake, not for mine. Now is the judgment on this world. Now shall the ruler of this world be cast out. And I, when I'm lifted up from the earth, will draw all men to myself.

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And then we have the controversy that follows. So you can see, this is the... By the way, this is the last public discourse of Christ in the Gospel of St. John. This is it. It's coming to an end. And at the end of this public discourse, he announces that the ruler of this world, Satan, is going to be excommunicated, going to be thrown out. The conquest is complete. With the cross. That's what the cross does. On the cross, he takes over. The Father glorified His name.

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His name is His Son, through all the public ministry of Christ, and will glorify it again through His death and resurrection, and then throughout the ages. that is a way, this is the way by which the Father hands all things to His Son. Everything is handed over to Him. And then from the cross, through the resurrection, Christ ruled the world. And His ruling began with His

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death on the cross and will continue until the end of time. the strong one whom you have to go understanding he has power over all things is Christ. He's the one that really matters because he told Pilate, you would not have power over me if it was not given to you from above. So Israel divides before the light. When Jesus had said this, he departed and hid himself from them.

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Though He had done so many signs before them, yet they did not believe in Him. It was that the word spoken by the prophet Isaiah might be fulfilled. Lord, who has believed, our report unto whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed. Therefore they could not believe, for Isaiah again said, He has blinded their eyes and hardened their heart. Lest they should see with their eyes and perceive with their heart, and turn for me to heal them.

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Isaiah said this because he saw his glory and spoke of him. Nevertheless, many even of the authorities believed in him, but for fear of the Pharisees, they did not confess it, lest they should be put out of the synagogue, for they loved the praise of men more than the praise of God. So Isaiah, that's chapter 51. I'm sure if you've gone to Passion Friday Services, this is the...

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passage typically read from Isaiah. It's the prophecy of the passion, the first two verses. And the next one is the prophecy of judgment. So you see the mercy through the first and the judgment through the second. He had done so many signs, they did not believe in him. And we always have to examine our hearts because our hearts harbor secret desires and then secret...

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tendencies that could lead us to not believe in Christ despite all the signs. And then Judas, as we're going to see, Judas Iscariot is exhibit A. He was with him for three years, he saw him do all these signs, he was in proximity with Jesus right by him, but Judas was always alone because there was this clinging to something he considered to be more valuable and more important than surrendering to Christ.

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and that not surrendering blinds the eyes and heart on the heart. And in that case, what was the secret desire of their heart? The people who refused to acknowledge Him, not confess Him, not say He is who He is. They did not want to be put out of the synagogue, meaning excommunicated. Why? They loved the praise of men. In this case, it's vanity.

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provokes their downfall. Vanity and pride. Back to the brain. Here they are in the synagogue, surrounded by people, praised, seemingly not alone, but deep down they are utterly wretched and alone. So they refuse. The Greeks come and they depart into the darkness, hid himself from them. The way

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Our Lord told St. Faustina that he is about to punish the world by allowing his church to be persecuted, which is counterintuitive. But if you really think about it, if the church is persecuted and the church is kicked out of a country, what happens? Christ is no longer in the country. Truth recedes. Darkness settles in. It is the worst possible punishment. It is the wrath of God. Yeah. If you want to know what God is up to,

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watch church closing, watch the number of vocations. That tells you way more about God's plans than anything else going on in this world, politics or otherwise. That is a surefire indicator because Christ hides himself. That's the wrath of God. And Jesus cried out, this is it, that's the last salvo in his public ministry. He who believes in me, believes not in me, but in him who sent me.

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And then further down he says, who rejects me and does not receive my sayings has a judge, the word that I have spoken will be his judge on the last day. And again he refers back to the father. The word that I have spoken, that word is his entire public ministry. His work, his ministry will be his judge. Why? Because when they are confronted, when they stand before him, he will lay out before them everything he has done. And they refuse to believe.

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and that will be their judgment. And by saying that, um the Father who sent me has himself given me commandment what to say and what to speak, and I know that this commandment is eternal life. He is reasserting that he receives all things from his Father. Reasserting the fact that he is a strong party, he has full authority, and therefore the word he speaks will be the one to judge those who do not believe.

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So you see with this, there is this closing of this public ministry and Christ will no longer, will never speak in public again. So he moves on to his own. Now before the Feast of the Passover, Jesus knew that his hour has come to the part of this world, to the Father, having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end. And during supper, when the devil has already put it into the heart of Judas' Caryat, Simon's son, to betray him,

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Jesus knowing that the Father has given all things into His hands and that He had come from God and was going to God, rose from supper, laid aside His garments, girded Himself with a towel, poured water in the basin, began to wash the disciples' feet and to wipe them with a towel with which He was girded. The first part of the paragraph tells us that what He is doing is an illustration of the commandment He is going to give them. So He does it first and then He gives the commandment. He loves them.

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by serving them. Normally, the only one to wash the feet of a man in this time would be a slave. So Christ takes on the position of a slave to wash their feet out of love. What is important here is not only the fact that he became a slave, it is the fact that love doesn't care about social norms.

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Or rather, love will not let social norms stop it from doing what it's supposed to do. So if you love someone but you're afraid of being embarrassed, you don't love that person. It's that simple. You're kidding yourself. If a friend is being humiliated in public and you're embarrassed to stand up and speak, you don't love your friend. Just at least admit it. At least be honest with yourself. Because love will not be stopped by these social norms. Love will do what is right.

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and what is true and what is good. That's what Christ is showing us we're supposed to do.

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Love is not reciprocal. The devil has already put it into Judas Iscariot and yet Jesus washes his feet. If you knew you had a friend who's about to betray you, you know he's going to betray you. Would you wash his feet? Love one another as I have loved you. think now you understand a little bit better what I said. It's kind of, you know, I wish he didn't say that because it is very hard.

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But why is it very hard if you analyze it carefully? Why is it very hard? It is very hard because in the moment when you said no, which is honest, thank you for saying it. The moment you said no, you were all alone. You've separated yourself from God to say that no anxiety is the measure. The distance between us and God, because if you were

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United to Christ, who is the strong party, who is love and truth, who cannot be deceived nor will deceive you, if you're completely united to him, what does it matter? Whether this person betrays you or that person betrays you, you're with Christ. So what causes us to say no is that we separate. And by the way, this is the common lot of all of us. But if you start to understand the movement of your heart,

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you know what to pray for. You know the spaces, the shadows in your heart that separate you from Christ and you start to pray for those. That is the journey. That is what's most important for all of us to do. Now, ah he rose, laid aside, girded himself, poured water, began to wash, wiped them. Six verbs, six actions, not seven.

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So you know it's incomplete. It is not yet complete. It will be complete after his death and after the coming of the Holy Spirit. What Christ is doing here is not sacramental. Let me explain what I mean. He came to Simon Peter and Peter said to him, Lord, do you wash my feet? Jesus answered him, what I am doing you do not know, but afterwards you'll understand. Peter said to him, you shall never wash my feet. Jesus answered him, if I do not wash you, you have no pardon me.

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So aside from the fact that we see the prefiguration of the sacraments, right? Sacrament of baptism that washes you and the sacrament of confession that washes your feet.

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So you don't get to baptize, you're not baptized twice, only baptized once. And you go to confession to confess your sins. Aside from that, there is something really important. The actions that Christ did so far are not sacramental. When he washed the feet of his apostles, he was not establishing a new sacrament. If that's the case, why does he tell Peter, if I do not wash you, you have no part in me? That's not a sacrament. So what does he say that?

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What makes it that if he doesn't wash the feet of Simon Peter, Simon Peter has no part in him? You see, it's not sacramental. It's... I'm sorry? Yes, it is an example, but it's mostly behavioral. You see, when Jesus washes their feet, think about it for a second, imagine you're one of them.

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And Jesus is washing, Jesus is going to wash your feet. He, the Master you admire, the Master you look up to, He is your ideal. You understand? He's the one you want to imitate. You want to be like Him. And the one you want to be like Him is acting like a slave. That was not part of the deal when you started looking up to Him. You understand?

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Because when you start looking up to him, if you're Simon Peter, you're looking up to the hero. The guy who's gonna come kick the uh Romans out. Get rid of these pesky Pharisees. Fix it. You're looking up. You're looking up, not down. And now Christ is basically saying you're gonna have to look down. So what is affecting Peter? Back to what you said earlier. Exactly it. He's all alone when he says that. You will not wash my feet.

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Because if you wash my feet and you're my ideal, I'm going to have to imitate you and I want to do that. That's why he has no part in Christ. On two accounts, one, you need me. You can't do it on your own, Simon. You need my grace. That's one. Two, you're going to imitate me if you want to be part of me. So in order for us to have part in Christ, there two things that we're to do. One, depend on his graces.

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and to imitate him. Simon Peter doesn't understand that. He thinks that he's still stuck up on the procedure itself. So he goes, wait a minute, no, no, no, no, no, no, I don't want to be cast out. I want in. So my feet, my hand, my head. He still doesn't understand. But as usual, Jesus always illuminates, always illuminates. So he illuminates his mind again with his explanation.

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Do you think after all of this Simon understood? Well, nope. If he understood, he wouldn't have betrayed him. He didn't understand. He didn't understand. How many of you fear being misunderstood or fear not understanding something? Fear being asked a question and you don't have the answer. Fear being put on a spot and you can't explain. Fear being in a situation where you have to say something and you don't know what to say. I would be...

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I think if I were to take a bet I would say all of us. You see, again, if you believe that God is with you, God is all-powerful, God loves you, and God will take care of you, what does it matter if you understand now or not? What does it matter if you're embarrassed or not? See this distance between what we profess, oh yeah, I love Jesus, and we go to church and give the sign of peace, and we turn around and then we wave to people around us, makes us feel good, and the same people we're gonna ignore.

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and treat us strangers as soon as we get out of the church because we have no clue who they are, what they're suffering, what they're going through. We don't go to them. We never ask them. We don't interact with them. We don't do any of this. But we just, we did the bobbing head thing and then we feel good about it. I'm not bringing this up to lay down on you. So I'm trying to do this. What I'm saying is that if you really want to be, if you want to be converted, if you really want to love God, you need to know where you are. Why are the things that are

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hampering you, what are the things that blocking you, what are the things that you need help with, what are the things that are not doing very well, and go like Martha and Mary before him and say, this is me, remember me, I'm a hot mess, here I am, what should we fix today? And then, because he loves you, he's going to delay, which is gonna upset you because you're thinking, I did the right thing, I humbled myself, I've opened up.

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I showed my vulnerability, I told him I need help, and what do I get? Cold shoulder. Nothing. That is the struggle. That is the spiritual combat. That is where everything is going to be played. There. Okay. You are all not clean. And then he tells them, you say I'm a teacher on the Lord and so am I, and no servant is greater than his master, you want to do what I just showed you.

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That's essentially what he's saying. And if you know these things, blessed are you. If you do them. You know them, good. But you've got to do them and then you'll be blessed. What is the bit that is not said? If you know them and you don't do them, you will be cursed. There is no neutrality here. We're servants. It's not like he's giving us a choice. You must.

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That's why this love of another as I have loved you is not a cute little thing you can look at and go, oh, that's kind of cute. It's a command. It binds our life, whether we want it or not. And then I am not speaking of you all. I know whom I have chosen. It is that the scripture may be fulfilled. He who ate my bread has lifted his heel against me. That's Psalm 41 or 47.

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It's in note. It's a Psalm that David wrote specifically or most likely after his son Epsilon had betrayed him. So this strikes really close to Jesus' heart. It's the one who was closest to him, Judas, who was going to betray him. So he knows about betrayal. The Lord knows about betrayal. He knows about being humiliated. He knows about being um deceived. He knows. He lived it. It's a personal thing for him.

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not asking us to do something he didn't go through but does he let any of this... cow him down? does he let any of this rule his life? does he let any of this turn him into someone who is better and vindictive and resentful? no no no so if you're close to him if you stick close by and you live by his graces no matter how hard the storm is no matter what you're facing he will see you through

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So always think about this. If you feel anxious, you can bet loneliness is really close by. And as soon as you're anxious and lonely, you are in a state of a mild form of atheism. You're not believing in it. You're believing in yourself. That's okay. It's going to happen. Just notice it, snap out of it, and then begin again. Don't get upset. Don't get angry with yourself. Don't beat yourself. Don't blame yourself.

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None of that does anyone any good. Recognize it. Here I go again. And then go back. And then go back. And then go back. And keep doing this. I tell you this now before it takes place and when it does take place you may believe that I am He. Again, high title. I am the Lord. Okay, so briefly. ah Judas essentially. This is probably... He announces the fact that he's going to be betrayed and then...

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This is probably the hardest verse in the entire scripture. Then after remorseful, Satan entered into him. Jesus said to him, what you're going to do, do it quickly. And then he left and it was night. Satan didn't enter into Judas as a sort of a forced attack that can't happen. He entered into Judas because he was invited to. All right?

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So full responsibility is still on Judas, not on Satan. Just want to be very clear. And here is one who is close to Jesus, he's an apostle. So a betrayal in a church, yeah, from the very beginning, it was there already. And so we hit the new commandment where he talked about that. So I'm not going to belabor the point because I've already done it. A new commandment I give to you that you love one another even as I have loved you. That you also love one another. By this old man will know.

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that you are my disciples if you have love for one another. And that's the heart of the matter. This is the crowning jewel of the entire mission of Christ to be able to say this and make it possible for us to do precisely that. And then afterwards, he's going to talk about going up to the Father and then sending down the Holy Spirit. We're late, I don't have time to go through it, but you can read the notes. In doing so, and before he completes this

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discourse, what Christ has essentially done is remind everyone of their own mission. You are to imitate me. If you choose to do it on your own, if you choose this world and what it has to offer, you will always end up alone because this world is going to cultivate in you the virtue of the vice of avarice, the vice of pride and vanity, the things that will keep you alone, that will keep you disconnected from others.

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because you're disconnected from me. So you need to let go of all of this. And I gave you an example of what to do. You have to forget yourself and then bear fruit. And when you do that, you will receive the consolation of the Holy Spirit. You will not be alone. You will be with me. And then you will be with me and in my father's house. And my father will come and honor you. This is the mission of the church. This is what he's doing. This is his kingdom. And all that St. John wants to do

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is to make his readers and the listeners understand the mission ahead of them. He's less interested in telling you the story of Jesus. He's more interested in turning people into saints and giving them the means to do so, which is why he wrote his gospel. So I will close with this. The most beautiful title that Jesus gave to himself. It is underrated and hardly

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ever anyone notices it. It's in the bottom of this page. Jesus is the one who loves the Father. That is the most beautiful title of Jesus. Beyond the I am the truth, I am the way, I am the light, He's the one who loves the Father. If you want to imitate Jesus, love the Father. So the Greeks see Jesus, the nation begins to arrive. Israel divides before the light. The signs do not force faith.

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Jesus washes his own, the church is formed by cleansing love. And Judas goes into the night, external nearness is not communion. You can be close to Jesus as you want, it doesn't mean you're with him, you have to love him. The new commandment becomes the covenantal law of the church. And Christ opens the way to the Father. And the Father gives the spirit to dwell with the church forever. To see Jesus is to follow him into the love by which

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Earth is joined to heaven. That is the mission of the church. That is the mission of each and every one of us. God bless you. We're going to take a quick break and we'll come back for questions. Please rise. Let's end with a word of prayer. In the name of the Father, of the Son, of the Holy Spirit, amen. Lord Jesus, we want to thank you and praise you and give you glory for every good thought and inspiration you've given us tonight. We ask you, Lord, to send forth your Holy Spirit upon all of us, to give us the courage and the grace

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put these inspirations into effect. We ask this through an intercession of Mary most holy as we pray. Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee. Blessed art thou among women, blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, mother of God, pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death, amen. Saint John. Saint Joseph. Saint Michael the Archangel. All ye angels and saints.

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In of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, Amen.