Then, another might ask: "Lord! Why do You present love as a new commandment, when we know that love was also commanded in the Old Testament?" He adds: "As I have loved you, so you also must love one another." "As," He says, "I loved you freely, without prior merits, even when human nature was in enmity with God and separated from Him, I nevertheless took it upon Myself and sanctified it, so you too must love one another freely; and if a brother offends you, do not remember it."
Do you see, the new commandment consists in loving one's neighbor freely, even if we owe him nothing at all. But the Law said "love your friend," commanding love as if paying a debt to a neighbor who began loving first.
Jn. 13:35. By this shall all men know that you are My disciples, if you have love one for another.
Showing that after His departure they will not be humiliated but will become glorious, He says: "By this all will know." Do you see, He declares that they will become known to all, and by this He comforts them not a little. Passing over in silence the miracles they will perform, He sets love as their distinguishing mark. For many of those who performed miracles will hear "I never knew you" (Matt. 7:23). If the whole world was brought to faith by miracles — what is surprising about that? They had the power to perform miracles precisely because they had love. But if they had fallen away and separated from one another, everything would have perished for them, and no one would have believed when they were raging against each other, since what made them worthy of faith more than miracles was that the believers were "of one heart and one soul" (Acts 4:32).
Jn. 13:36. Simon Peter said to Him: Lord! Where are You going?
Peter, having become bold from great fervor, when he heard the Lord say "where I am going, you cannot come," asks: "Where are You going?" He speaks to Christ as if to say: "What kind of path is this that I cannot travel?" He asks this not so much wishing to learn where He is going, as covertly expressing the thought that even if You were to go by the most difficult path of all, I would still follow You. So much did he love always being together with Christ!
Jn. 13:36. Jesus answered him: where I go, you cannot follow Me now, but you will follow Me afterward.
Therefore Christ also answers Peter's thought: "You cannot follow Me now, but afterward you will follow Me."
Jn. 13:37. Peter said to Him: Lord! Why can I not follow You now? I will lay down my life for You.
But Peter is so irrepressible in his eagerness that he even contradicts Christ. He is not satisfied with having received the good hope of following Christ later, but insists on his own way and self-confidently says: "Why can I not follow You now? I will lay down my life for You."
See what power desire has! Peter had heard the Lord say that "greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends" (John 15:13); therefore he himself strives for this degree and desires to attain the very highest love, which is why he promises to lay down his life for the Lord.
Jn. 13:38. Jesus answered him: Will you lay down your life for Me? Truly, truly, I say to you: the rooster will not crow before you deny Me three times.
The Savior, showing him that He alone, and not any man, can promise this with certainty, says: "The rooster will not crow before you deny Me three times," that is, right now; for little time remains.
The Lord was saying this late at night, and the first and second watches of the night had already passed. Since Peter was contradicting out of great love, the Lord accepts the love but cuts off the contradiction. Therefore He deprives him of help from above and brings him to the knowledge of his own weakness. For if you love, you must submit to the One you love. I said that you cannot, yet you contradict. From the denial you will clearly learn that what I say cannot fail to come true. Therefore, sparing him, He allowed him to fall, so that he would not experience this later as well, when he would receive the stewardship of the whole world, but would come to know himself. And see how he fell: not once, but three times. Thus abandonment by God exposes our powerlessness, and whoever is attentive finds in this the greatest benefaction.