Jn 15:12-17
As I love you: The love of Jesus is like him. It can be mistaken by the world as a crazy venture, a vain sacrifice of a brokenhearted lovesick simpleton. Jesus’ love is one that risks all in order to gain all or, rather, in order that all will gain. It is totally selfless, never reserving any for himself, enduring pain and betrayal, never expecting anything in return. It gives because its nature is to give all, without reserve.
As Jesus has said before, all that he speaks and does are the words and works of his Father. Likewise, the kind of love that he exhibits is the love of the Father for us. He has risked sending us his Son when he could have sent another. He has risked loving us when we are all undeserving of his great love. We remain slaves to various forces assailing us and yet he calls us as his friends. Crazy though it may seem, God is like that. He chooses to love us no matter what the consequences may turn out to be.
But to love in return, he tells us instead to love one another as he loves us, and not to love him directly according to our strength and emotions. The wisdom of our God is shown in this crazy love. It is a love which makes a fool of every other kind of love existing in the world: illusory, fleeting, fickle-minded, fragile, whimsical, vain, conditional. It is a love expressed in an unyielding and unconditional commitment to the beloved.