Fr. Anthony Keane: In today’s gospel, which gives us the farewell discourses of Jesus, dearest brothers and sisters, we are confronted with the mysteries of Life and Death. There is the horror of betrayal even by one who shared his table – Jesus was deeply disturbed and declared: ‘one of you is going to betray me’, and there are the chilling words of the text: As soon as Judas had taken the piece of bread he went out. It was night.
Lest we be too afraid, we also read: and light shines in the darkness of that night, and the darkness could not overpower it. And of divine Wisdom: compared with light she takes first place for light must yield to night, but against Wisdom evil cannot prevail.Despite the murderous threat of the Jewish establishment and the weighty Roman Empire, to which is added the treachery from among one’s own, despite all of this horror, Jesus says:‘Now has the Son of man been glorified’
– Glorified because the life of the Giver of Life has been confronted, existentially threatened and, thereby, gloriously revealed in all its power of love which overcomes death itself.
And in this power, ever ancient and ever new, we receive a new commandment: Love one another. This comes naturally, supernaturally, to us when we see the wonders that God works. For, Wisdom, unchanging, renews the world, and generation after generation, passing into holy souls, makes them into God’s friends and prophets.