Patrick Comerford
Easter is a 50-day season, beginning on Easter Day (20 April 2025) and continuing until the Day of Pentecost (8 June 2025), or Whit Sunday. Today is the Fifth Sunday of Easter (Easter V, 18 May 2025), while in the calendar of the Orthodox Church this is known as the Sunday of the Samaritan Woman. Later this morning I plan to sing with the choir at the Parish Eucharist in Saint Mary and Saint Giles Church, Stony Stratford.
Before today begins, I am taking some quiet time this morning to give thanks, to reflect, to pray and to read in these ways:
1, reading today’s Gospel reading;
2, a short reflection;
3, a prayer from the USPG prayer diary;
4, the Collects and Post-Communion prayer of the day.
John 13: 31-35 (NRSVA):
31 When he had gone out, Jesus said, ‘Now the Son of Man has been glorified, and God has been glorified in him. 32 If God has been glorified in him, God will also glorify him in himself and will glorify him at once. 33 Little children, I am with you only a little longer. You will look for me; and as I said to the Jews so now I say to you, “Where I am going, you cannot come.” 34 I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another. 35 By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.’
Today’s Reflection:
The early church writer Jerome tells the well-loved story of how the author of Saint John’s Gospel and the Book of Revelation, Saint John the Evangelist, continued preaching in Ephesus, even when he was in his 90s. Saint John was so feeble in his old age that the people had to carry him into the Church in Ephesus on a stretcher. And when he was no longer able to preach or deliver a full sermon, his custom was to lean up on one elbow on every occasion and say simply: ‘Little children, love one another.’
This continued on, Sunday-after-Sunday, even when the ageing John was on his death-bed. Then he would lie back down and his friends would carry him back out of the church. Every week in Ephesus, the same thing happened, over and over, again and again. And every week it was the same short sermon, exactly the same message: ‘Little children, love one another.
One day, the story goes, someone asked him: ‘John, why is it that every week you say exactly the same thing, “little children, love one another”?’ And John replied: ‘Because it is enough.’
If we want to know the basics of living as a Christian, there it is in a nutshell. All we need to know is: ‘Little children, love one another.’
That is all he preached in Ephesus, week after week, and that is precisely the message he keeps on repeating in his first letter (I John), over and over again: ‘Little children, love one another.’
There is no such thing as ‘loveless Christianity.’ It is like saying you can have a meal without eating anything.
Where there is no love there is no Christianity. And Saint John says it over and over again to his readers – in his Gospel, in his three epistles, in the Book of Revelation – because it is worth repeating, because, indeed, it is enough.
Christ’s love for us shows that it is enough. That is the real hope in the promise of a New Heaven and a New Earth. And that is the message at the heart of the Gospel reading this Sunday: ‘I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another’ (John 13: 34-35).
In this reading, Christ is preparing the disciples for his departure. After the Last Supper, he washes their feet in a sign of servanthood. Peter misunderstands Christ’s action. Christ tells him that to share in Christ requires accepting Christ as his servant as well as his master. Peter will understand later (verse 7).
The reading ends with Christ giving his new commandment: ‘I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another’ (John 13: 34-35).
Christ is risen!
The Lord is risen indeed. Alleluia!
Today’s Prayers (Sunday 18 May 2025, Easter V):
‘That We May Live Together: A Reflection from the Emerging Leaders Academy’ is the theme this week in ‘Pray With the World Church’, the Prayer Diary of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel). This theme is introduced today with a programme update from Annsli Kabekabe of the Anglican Church of Papua New Guinea:
Reflecting on my time at the Asian Rural Institute (ARI), I was really inspired by their motto, ‘that we may live together.’ At the ARI, I experienced a vibrant community working together, and it reignited my passion for supporting the marginalised in my home country, Papua New Guinea. While the challenges in rural communities can seem overwhelming, the lessons I learned about sustainable agriculture and servant leadership opened my eyes to new possibilities.
Our visit to Fukushima was particularly inspiring. The Great Eastern Japan Earthquake and Tsunami in Japan, along with the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Plant explosion in 2011, continue to haunt the people of Sendai and Miyagi. What struck me most was the importance of early warning systems to save lives and the need for well-identified evacuation sites to ensure people’s safety. These lessons are so relevant for Papua New Guinea, where natural disasters linked to climate change pose a constant threat.
As I return home, I carry the belief that ‘building better brains for a better future’ begins at the grassroots. The youth and marginalised people in Papua New Guinea have incredible potential, and I believe education is the foundation to build sustainable, thriving futures.
The USPG Prayer Diary today (Sunday 18 May 2025, Easter V) invites us to pray reflecting on these words:
‘It will not be so among you; but whoever wishes to be great among you must be your servant, and whoever wishes to be first among you must be your slave; just as the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life a ransom for many.’ – Matthew 20: 26-28 (NRSV).
The Collect:
Almighty God,
who through your only-begotten Son Jesus Christ
have overcome death and opened to us the gate of everlasting life:
grant that, as by your grace going before us
you put into our minds good desires,
so by your continual help
we may bring them to good effect;
through Jesus Christ our risen Lord,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.
The Post-Communion Prayer:
Eternal God,
whose Son Jesus Christ is the way, the truth, and the life:
grant us to walk in his way,
to rejoice in his truth,
and to share his risen life;
who is alive and reigns, now and for ever.
Additional Collect:
Risen Christ,
your wounds declare your love for the world
and the wonder of your risen life:
give us compassion and courage
to risk ourselves for those we serve,
to the glory of God the Father.
Yesterday’s Reflections
Continued Tomorrow
Scripture quotations are from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicised Edition copyright © 1989, 1995 National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide. http://nrsvbibles.org
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