What Jesus did in the Upper Room of Zion we learn from the synoptics, and what He wanted from John. There is the flesh of the Eucharist, and here is the spirit. There Jesus says, "This is my body, this is my blood"; but here I could say: "This is My heart."

Three testimonies about the Eucharist: in the first, Jesus sacrifices; in the second, he reigns; in the third, he loves.

The main thing for John is love – heaven on earth: that is why, in the sunny-white brilliance of the morning star – the Eucharist, John's ray is as blue as the sky.

XVIII

We could even point to the very place where the Eucharist, invisible to us, is celebrated in John.

I give you a new commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.

This is one of the two words about the mystery of love – the Eucharist, and immediately after it – another:

By this shall they know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love;

. (John 13:34-35.)

It seems that between these two words the "Supper of Love" is performed,

, as the Eucharist will be called in the first communities, perhaps by the very name that John overheard in the heart of the Lord. [810]

The pearls of the words of Jesus are dissolved in the wine of John; but perhaps there are those that lie at the bottom of the bowl undissolved. It seems that the "new commandment" of love is one of them.

"Love thy neighbor as thyself" (Lev. 19:18) is an ancient commandment, but vain, which has become a dead "law," the very one by which the Lover is crucified. Man cannot love by himself: it is natural for people, as well as for all living creatures, not to love each other, but to hate each other in the struggle for life. To people, no man could say, "Love," except one Man, Jesus, because He alone loved; He is Love itself; there was no love before Him, and there will be no love without Him.

Ye can do nothing without Me (John 15:5).

least of all – to love. It is the commandment of His love that is "new" in that people can love only in Him and through Him. His love is unique, just as He Himself is the One.

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The commandment of His love is also "new" in that it resurrects – conquers death physically. Death is decomposition, separation of living organic cells, their mutual repulsion is hatred; their union, mutual attraction – love: this is why the power of love resurrects – conquers death not only spiritually, but also physically.

We overcome all things by the power of Him who loved us.

… For neither death nor life... shall not separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus (Rom. 8:37-39),