Featuring Dr. Vincent P. DeMeo

In the Gospel of John, Jesus commands his followers to love (15:12). One may wonder about this demand since all human beings naturally love something in some way. What is it precisely that Jesus requires his disciples to love and in which way does he desire that they love it? Jesus reveals the answer at the very moment when the hour of his passion and death has arrived (12:23). Through the parable of the grain of wheat that falls into the earth and dies (12:24-25) and through his discourse on the vine and the branches as well as his commandment to love given at the Last Supper (15:1-17), Jesus discloses the precise character of his cruciform love which he commands, namely, that his disciples ought to pursue common goods—such as truth, justice, peace, unity, and most of all, God himself and his “eternal life”—with a “greater love” (15:13) than they have for their private, perishable goods. Such a love “bears much fruit” (12:24; 15:1-8, 16) effects a joy that is full (15:11), and leads to “eternal life” (12:25).