SUNDAY REFLECTIONS - SIXTH SUNDAY OF EASTER

Acts 8: 5-8, 14-17; 1 Peter 3: 15-18; John 14: 15-21

(Rev. Dr. Francis Perry Azah)

Dearly Beloved in Christ, the Easter season will soon come to an end. In a few days, we will celebrate the Ascension of the Lord into Heaven. And soon, the feast of Pentecost will remind us of the wonderful event that is the coming of the Holy Spirit upon the Apostles. For Jesus will leave us and go to Heaven, and the Spirit of God will come and dwell in us: a mysterious exchange will take place. In the gospel passage, filled with concern for the disciples that he was going to leave behind, Jesus promised, “I will not leave you as orphans. I will give you another Advocate” (John 14:16-18). In the first reading, Philip goes to Samaria, where the word of God had not been preached before, and he begins to proclaim the good news about Jesus in the power of this Spirit. The people responded, were baptized and confirmed, and they received the Holy Spirit.

Jesus assured his disciples: "If you love me, you will keep my commandments." (Jn. 14, 15) We hear these words in the middle of Jesus' great departing speech, meant to comfort his disciples before he leaves them. But here we could almost doubt whether this speech is actually a speech of comfort, or rather an exhortation. Christ says, “If you love me, you will keep my commandments” (Jn. 14, 15), and he will ask for the gift of the Spirit, and again he says, “He who loves me will be loved by my Father.” (Jn. 14, 21) It sounds as though the gift of the Spirit and God's love for us depend on our love for him and on our keeping the commandments.

What about when we make mistakes? What about if we, at some point, don't keep Jesus' commandments; if we fail in love? Will we then be no longer loved by the Father? And this is supposed to be a joyful message? What is up with this? The Spirit works with us, through us, and is in us. This is the Spirit that Jesus today in John’s Gospel calls the Advocate. An advocate is someone who pleads for another in court or who intercedes for others when they can’t speak for themselves. This theologically compressed section of the Gospel today is the best description we have of the Holy Spirit's work. Jesus first indicates that he himself is our advocate to the Father in heaven. He has taken the case of men and women and pleaded to the Father. Because he cannot be with us forever, since his advocacy involves dying for us, God the Father will send another Advocate who will always be with us till the end of time. Jesus tells the Apostles that this advocate will be the Spirit of Truth, and will be someone that the world does not understand because it cannot know the Spirit. Once again, the will of God is not like our own. The world neither sees the Spirit nor knows it. But Jesus tells the Apostles that they will know the Spirit because the Spirit will come to them, be in them, and abide with them. Jesus knows that he must leave the Apostles physically, but he does not want to abandon them – to leave them as orphans. He and the Spirit are one, and so through the Spirit, Jesus will be with us.

In worldly terms, Jesus will not be physically present, and the world will not see him, but he tells the Apostles that they will see him, and because he lives in the Spirit, they will also live. Then we have the beautiful sentence which ties the Trinity to us: “On that day you will know that I am in my Father and you in me, and I in you.” God will be present in each of us. We are indeed temples of the Lord and of the Holy Spirit. Finally, Jesus stresses and reiterates his law of love. We love Jesus by carrying out his double commandment of loving God and neighbor. Because of that love, God will also love us, and Jesus will reveal himself to us. This is really a high theology that John is describing, hard to understand in human, earthly terms, but in spiritual terms is so hopeful, so beautiful, so loving.

In a special way, we encounter Christ in the celebration of the Eucharist. There is fulfilled in special manner Jesus’ words of comfort: “You will know that I am in my Father and you in me, and I in you.” (Jn. 14: 20). In this celebration we anticipate the future, actually indescribable meeting that “God has prepared for those who love him.” (1 Cor. 2:9). In this life we will never wholly reach the peace and happiness that we really desire, but when we receive Jesus lovingly in the Eucharist, we already participate in a mysterious fashion in this infinite happiness. We can have a notion of what it means to be embraced by an infinite love that never abandons us and that also unites us most closely to one another.

Let us pray for the grace to ever more realize and appreciate this gift of the Eucharist, this veiled encounter with Jesus Christ, and thereby to grow in friendship with him. The more the Lord Jesus comes into us, the more the action of the Holy Spirit is strengthened and spread out in us. In all these ways, we have a powerful divine Spirit, who will stand with us to advise and protect us.