Welcome back. Today's reading is from the Gospel of John 13:31-35. "When Judas had gone out, Jesus said, 'Now is the Son of Man glorified, and in him, God is glorified. If God is glorified in him, God will also glorify him in himself and glorify him at once. Little children, yet a little while I am with you. You will seek me. And as I said to the Jews, so now I say to you: where I am going, you cannot come. A new commandment I give unto you that you love one another, even as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this, all men will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.'"

What jumps out at you today? So Judas has left. Judas leaves at the beginning of this reading, and so Jesus has been betrayed, and he stays on mission. He stays on mission. I mean, you live long enough, someone's going to betray you, and most of us have had that experience, and it can be debilitating. It can take your breath away. It can be tremendously disorienting, but Jesus just stays on point, just turns back to his disciples. He says, "Now is the Son of Man glorified. It's time." And then he says to them, "Little children." Now he's with a-- he's with a group of grown men, and yet, he refers to them as little children, and I find that fascinating.

I sometimes will see people doing things and behaving in a certain way, and I can't help but wonder, like, what happened to this person as a child to lead him or her to turn out in this way and whatever I'm witnessing in that moment. And we have to ask that about Judas, right? What people do is interesting. Why people do what they do is fascinating. You have to ask yourself, why did Judas do it? What was it about Judas' personality, his past experiences, his childhood, his life up until this point that made him think that this was the best way forward, that this was the best thing for him to do? What did he imagine was going to come of it?

My experience has been that when we do stupid things, it's not because we wake up in the morning and think, "Gee, I wonder what sort of stupid thing I can do to really mess my life up today." We do stupid things-- it's because we mistakenly believe that those stupid things will make us happy. It's because we mistakenly believe that some imaginary good will come from those stupid things, but we are mistaken and we are deceived and sometimes sometimes we're deceived by others, and sometimes we deceive ourselves. Judas is in this scenario, right? And then Jesus turns back to his disciples, and he gives them this new commandment. And this is identity, Christian identity. Sometimes you'll hear people say, well, this person's having an identity crisis, or this organization's having an identity crisis. Even there are times when people say the Catholic Church is having an identity crisis. And anytime we're having an identity crisis, as Christians, the solution is very simple.

Firstly, go to Genesis. Create an image of God, okay? Created by God, created in the image of God. You're a child of God. There's a lot of identity clarity right there. And then, of course, here, Jesus gives the next layer of that identity. He says, "People will know that you're with me by your love. You'll know that you're with me by your love." And this is a multifaceted challenge that we every day can find a new level of. Very often, we live out our Christian faith in ways that are not loving. And that is ultimately what is being challenged here today, is are we living out our Christian faith? Are we doing it in a way that's loving? Doing it in a way that's loving. And it's so easy to do it in a way that's selfish. It's so easy to do it in a way that's vain. It's so easy to do it in a way that is boasting, and we're called to do it in a way that's humble and loving. Have a great day. Remember, don't just be yourself. Be the very best version of yourself. All that God created you to be.