Try and imagine if you can how Jesus took the religious world of his day and turned it topsy-turvy when he took many of the age-old beliefs and traditions of the Jewish people and supplanted them with a version of his own. In effect, he replaced the "Old Covenant" – the Law of Moses -- with the "New Covenant." For those who might think that the changes brought about by the Second Vatican Council were earth shattering, they were nothing compared to the revolution that Jesus brought about.

And what was the essence of this new faith? We certainly know that it wasn’t a gimmick-laden theology. In the 1st reading we are told that the Apostles in Jerusalem told the Gentiles, if they would be followers of Christ they simply had to "abstain from meat sacrificed to idols, from blood, from meat of strangled animals, and from unlawful marriage." What they did was to compressed the Law of the Pharisees with all its 613 prescriptions and prohibitions into just four: 3 dealing with dietary matters and one dealing with sexual impurity. To put this into proper perspective, and in no way meaning any disrespect, it would be like someone proposing a new religion today and telling us that: "everything about the Holy Eucharist is not important at all. That all we need do is abstain from liver and onions and avoid the pornographic sites on the World Wide Web."

But even that was relatively minor compared to what would be the main change or evolution in Jesus’ New Covenant. In last week’s gospel we heard Jesus tell his disciples about loving each other. This week we hear Jesus continue his Last Discourse by telling the disciples that those who love him keep his Word, and his Father will love them; and he and the Father will come and make their dwelling with them. This is the crux of Jesus’ New Covenant, which is that of "love," pure and simple. All of the Law of Moses and the Prophets would be summed up in the two great commands – "Love God above all things and love your neighbor as your self." This was to be the life of a follower of Christ from then until the end of time.

It sounds relatively simple but what does it mean?

St. Francis of Assisi had a deep love of both God and his fellow man. There is a story told about how one day he met a man who admitted he had no love of God. As they walked along they met a man who was both blind and paralyzed. St. Francis asked the sightless cripple: "Tell me, if I were to restore your eyesight and the use of your limbs, would you love me?"

"Ah," replied the beggar, "I would not only love you, but I would be your slave for the rest of my life."

St. Francis turned to the man who said he had no love of God and said, "See, this man would love me if I gave him his sight and his health. Why don’t you love God who created you with eyes and strong limbs?"

In actuality, God asks the same question of each one of us. Why don’t you love me, who gave you health and countless other blessings, like food and clothing, shelter and education and friends to share your life? Being cognizant of this, then, it is truly incumbent upon us to say to God, what the beggar said to St. Francis: "I will not only love you; I will be your slave the rest of my life."

That is the message of today’s gospel: "If a man loves me, he will keep my word." To truly love Christ means that we must have within us the desire to do what Christ wants. What Christ and the Father want is found in the Ten Commandments.

Somewhere along the line, some people have come to falsely believe that all we have to do is "love God" and not bother or worry about the Ten Commandments. But Jesus said: "Think not that I have come to abolish the law and the prophets; I have come not to abolish them but to fulfill them." To illustrate the point -- suppose I often said to my wife: "Dear, I love you," but then continuously did what my wife disliked: such as swearing and cursing all the time, smoking and drinking to excess, needlessly coming home late for meals frequently, not taking her out and not spending any time with her. Obviously, then, even though I said I loved her, my actions in doing what she disliked would show in reality I did not love her.

That is what Jesus is talking about today. If you really love me, he tells us, you will try and do what I want. We prove our love for God by doing what he wants and avoiding what he does not want, because God is all-good in himself and because He has been all-good to us. Like the beggar in the story, we will not only say we love God, but, we will be His willing slaves, His loving servants.

The love that Jesus is calling us to live out is not the version that is syrupy, sweet and sentimental and full of warm glowing feelings. If we are to truly respond to Jesus’ invitation to love as he loves, then we have to leave the sentimental stuff behind. His words are hard words about tough love, and point us to a brutal world to live out His love. Jesus tells us: that is how my love really is; now copy my love in your own living and life.