11This is the message which you have heard from the beginning, that we should love one another, 12and not be like Cain who was of the evil one and murdered his brother. And why did he murder him? Because his own deeds were evil and his brother’s righteous. 13Do not wonder, brethren, that the world hates you. 14We know that we have passed out of death into life, because we love the brethren. He who does not love abides in death. 15Any one who hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him. 16By this we know love, that that one laid down his life for us; and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren. 17But if anyone has the world’s goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God’s love abide in him? 18Little children, let us not love in word or speech but in deed and in truth. (1 John 3:11-18)

In no passage of the first letter of St. John does the word "brother" appear as often as in these few verses: in the plural or singular, it is found seven times. And surprisingly, in the story of Cain and Abel to which our passage refers (Genesis 4:1-16), the same word is also found seven times. This is perhaps only a coincidence, but it immediately orients us in a certain direction: when brothers and sisters are together, loving is not automatic. Rivalries may spring up, and conflicts arise. How then should we behave?

"Not like Cain," says our passage (v. 12), but like "that one" (v. 16). And "that one" is obviously Jesus. It is as if the author is pointing his finger at him.

Cain felt threatened by his brother, because Abel was apparently more acceptable. In order not to feel this threat he had to eliminate this brother, exclude him from his horizon. Whereas "that one", Jesus, what did he do? He was able to "lay down for his brothers and sisters” his transient and fragile earthly life (his "soul," as the text says in verse 16), to give it for others. Whereas the former actually lived in a world of death, not only one where everything ends up succumbing to death, but one in which death is inflicted on those who threaten us, the latter sets us in a totally opposite situation; thanks to him we are established in life (v. 14), and that life is eternal (v. 15). It is therefore possible to open ourselves to others (v. 17) without feeling threatened, and to give everything for them, even our own life (v. 16).

For the author of the letter, brotherly love lies at the heart of this opposition between life and death. To love means to make a choice. We must "choose to love," as Brother Roger put it. Although according to some Jewish writings we should have pity for Cain, since he is in us all, we must choose not to be like him. We must therefore choose the life given in Christ rather than the world of death that surrounds us naturally.

To love means to live and to cause to live. To live the only true life, that which is eternal. To receive it again and again, despite our unworthiness, and to communicate it to others who are poor like us. It is possible that this letter opposes the ideas of some Christians who, on the lookout for high-minded and spiritual thoughts, felt they were above ordinary believers and despised gestures like opening their hearts and sharing their possessions (v . 17).

Love always follows a downward movement. It is never satisfied with words, ideas or feelings. It is touched by the very real misery it sees, which disturbs it. It seeks ways of dealing with this; it gives itself tirelessly and never shrinks from the most humble toil.

However, St. John links this need to prove love by acting to an urgent call to love "in truth" (v. 18). By that he does not mean primarily that love must be sincere and stand the test of truth. The word "truth" for him refers to what God has shown of himself, to the way Jesus showed us what love is (v. 16).

Although we all have some notions about love and aspire to it, we do not know what love is. What we call love is not always love. To discover all that is contained in the word, we have to look carefully at the example of Jesus, who never set himself over his brothers and who, in addition, did not hesitate to give his life. The truth of our love is not judged according to purely human, psychological criteria. It consists in what Jesus has enabled us to see and to understand.

One could summarize the passage by saying that loving means choosing life and truth. If these words no longer have the full and deep meaning they had for John, let us nevertheless make them attractive by giving them all the freshness and broadness revealed in Jesus.

 If it is a duty for Christians to love, a commandment, how can we be penetrated more and more by the certainty that nothing is more beautiful than loving, because love conquers death?

 How can we root our love for others to an ever greater extent in true life? How can we orient it according to the truth of the Gospel?