Step by Step (5th Sunday of Easter)

In the Gospel today, Jesus gave a new commandment, “love one another, as I have loved you.”  The apostles, in the first reading, were sharing a new direction in spreading the Good News: preaching to the Gentiles.  The second reading, from the Apocalypse of John, narrates the forming of a new Jerusalem.

Often, when we talk about new things, we think of throwing out with the old.  In fact, whenever there is spring cleaning to be done, I hear those helping me saying, “Throw these out!”  Yet for all the newness mentioned with in the readings today, it is not asking us to disregard the old altogether.  What is new is built upon the old.  The new commandment of Jesus is built upon an older commandment, “you shall love your neighbor as yourself.” (Lev 19:18)  Without an idea of what the old Jerusalem stood for, how could John recognise the new Jerusalem.  It could have been called by another name.  It was because he knew what the old original Jerusalem was that he recognised the new Jerusalem.

In any journey, we take a new step and leave the old behind.  However, the old should neither be forgotten nor destroyed.  I am sure that we have seen this before: children running up an escalator that is descending.  Every step we take to move up is hindered by the steps behind disappearing and in effect we are back on the first step.

Yes, we have to leave the old behind to move forward but we need also to remember that we have left it behind.  A love that is merciful will be forgiving.  Yet I am very wary of the axiom, “Forgive and forget.”  We should forgive and yet we should remember that we have forgiven.  St. Peter was forgiven  by Jesus.  Jesus did not mention the sin again.  However, he remembered that St. Peter needed to know he was forgiven.  It has been suggested that the three times Jesus questioned St. Peter in John 21 corresponded to the three times St. Peter had denied his Lord.  In the legend of St. Peter leaving Rome during the persecutions (the Quo vadis legend), Jesus told St. Peter that he was going back to Rome to be crucified again.  I am sure that although Jesus did not mention his sin, St. Peter remembered what he had done before.  By remembering his past, St. Peter was able to take up the courage to bear witness to his Lord by giving his life.  Jesus did forgive but I believe that He used what was remembered to fortify His Apostle.

So, I believe that we must leave behind the past, not allowing it to overwhelm us.  However, the other extreme of forgetting it totally would also be detrimental.  We must forgive and remember that we have forgiven.  We are forgiven and must remember that we are forgiven and loved.