Sixth Sunday of Easter

We often use the word “love.” We say everything from “I love pizza” to “I love my children.” Yet, we hope that people “love” their children in a very different way than the way they “love” pizza. In the Gospel today, Jesus tells us, “This is my commandment: love one another as I love you.” But what did he mean? In Koine Greek, the original language of the New Testament, there are different words for love, each of which means something different. For example, there is philos, which means “brotherly love” or close friendship; hence Philadelphia is the “City of Brotherly Love.” The word Jesus uses, however, is agape, which means to do good for the sake of the other person, without expectation of repayment or return.

For Jesus, it isn’t merely altruism, but the willingness to pour out your own life for the benefit of others, hence he says, “No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.” We see this agape in the passion, death, and resurrection of Jesus; he gave his life for our salvation.