“This is how all will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another” (Jn 13:35).

Jesus is having dinner with his friends. It is his last supper before leaving this world, the most solemn moment in which he communicates his last will, almost a testament:

“As I have loved you, so you also should love one another”.

Down through the centuries, this will be the distinguishing mark of Christ’s disciples: by this everyone will recognize them!

It was like this from the very beginning. The first community of believers, in Jerusalem, was well-liked and respected by all the people because of its unity, to the point that every new day others came to join their ranks.

Even a few years later Tertullian, one of the first Christian writers, reported what was said of the Christians: “Look at how they love each other, and how they are ready to give their life for one another”. It was the fulfillment of Christ’s words:

“This is how all will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another”.

Mutual love is therefore the “habit that ordinary Christians, old and young, men and women, married or not, adults and children, sick or healthy, can wear in order to shout out or proclaim always and everywhere with their own lives the One they believe in, the One they want to love”

In the unity that springs from mutual love among Christ’s disciples, one can see a reflection of the God whom Jesus revealed as Love. The Church, in fact, is an icon of the Trinity.

Today, this is the best way to announce the Gospel message. A society often dazed by too many messages seeks witnesses rather than teachers. It wants examples rather than preachers.

It is more easily convinced if it sees a Gospel that is practiced, where new relationships characterized by brotherhood and love exist.

“This is how all will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another”.

How then should we live this Word of Life?

By keeping mutual love alive among us and forming “living cells” of Christ’s Body everywhere.

Chiara Lubich wrote, “If various spots in a city were set alight … by the fire that Jesus brought on earth, and this fire, through the good will of the inhabitants, managed to resist the ice of the world, we would soon have the city aflame with the love of God.”

“The fire that Jesus brought on earth is himself. It is charity: the love which not only binds the soul to God, but also binds souls to one another.”

“Two or more people united in the name of Christ, who are not afraid or ashamed to make an explicit declaration to one another of their desire to love God, but who actually make of this unity in Christ their Ideal, are a truly divine force in the world.”

They could meet in parishes, in associations, in social bodies, or in schools, in offices, and everywhere.” “And in every city these souls could turn up in families: a father and a mother, a son and a father, a daughter-in- law and a mother-in-law.

“It is not necessary that they already be saints, or Jesus would have said so. It is enough that they be united in the name of Christ and that this unity never diminishes.”

“Naturally, they will not remain two or three persons for very long, for charity spreads by itself and grows enormously.”

“Every small cell, set alight by God in any point of the earth, will necessarily spread, and Providence will distribute these flames, these souls on fire, wherever it thinks fit, so that the world in many places may again experience the warmth of the love of God, and acquire new hope.”

Text by F. Ciardi and Gabriella Fallacara Taken from the “Word of Life,” a monthly publication of the Focolare Movement Graphic by Anna Lollo with Fr. Placido D’Omina (Sicily, Italy) “This is how all will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another”.