I came across a writer who drew on her experience to add some personal texture to Jesus’ words at his Last Supper, “As I have loved you, so love one another.”

She had the habit of phoning her father every week. Regularly she ended the call with, “Love you, Dad.” And regularly his joking response was “Me too!”

In one night’s conversation when he was in the hospital, he switched around the usual routine and ended with the “I love you.” Right away she chimed in with her “Me too!”

As it happened, he died that night. She writes how she’s treasured those words ever since, their meaning growing ever more precious with the passing years.

She shares her story as a way to further appreciate Jesus’ words at the Last Supper, “As I have loved you, so you should love one another.” Mixed in with the memories of her father’s passing, she imagines how tightly and tenderly the disciples must have held onto Jesus’ final words and have felt their reverberations for years to come.

The lesson for us: to stand with the disciples and listen to this farewell sentence as if we were hearing it for the first time: “Love one another. As I have loved you, so you should love one another”

Taking our cue from the writer, may we also try to absorb these farewell words of Jesus, especially as highlighted everyday in our Eucharist. May we allow them to penetrate ever deeper as the months and years go by. “Love one another as I have loved you.”

In a conference to his priests, Vincent strikes the same theme.

Well then, my brothers, love one another, bear with one another, support one another, and be united in the Spirit of God, who has chosen you for this great undertaking and will preserve you for its fulfillment.

(Volume: 5 | Page#: 441) To Several Priests of the Mission, October 1655 added on 6/28/2011