The Sixth Sunday of Easter—the second to last Sunday of the season—continues with Jesus’s Last Discourse, and, if you notice, these discourses are focused on the coming of the Holy Spirit. These Gospel readings, then, set the stage for Pentecost, the descent of the Holy Spirit. Jesus tells the disciples that after He dies and rises and stays with them for a while (forty days) the Holy Spirit will come to them.
I’ve been impressed with the Gospel reflections
of Gina Hens-Piazza who provides reflections at America magazine. She
points out this week that Jesus in this passage is defining what love is.
Jesus, however, is suggesting a different relationship between love and obedience. He never threatens to withhold love, even when we turn away from the commandments. Instead, he makes obedience to the commandments the means by which we love one another. The concrete nature of love in human relationships becomes the means by which we love him. After all, whether they be mandates of commission or omission, commandments such as “Honor your father and mother” or “You shall not commit adultery” aim specifically at cultivating and preserving loving relationships among people. For Jesus, love is not contingent upon obedience but is the product of obedience. Divine commandments facilitate love of one another and result in love of Jesus.
Love in the Christian sense is certainly more
complex than an emotional feeling.
Today’s Gospel:
Jesus said to his disciples:
“If you love me, you will keep my commandments.
And I will ask the Father,
and he will give you another Advocate to be with you always,
the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot accept,
because it neither sees nor knows him.
But you know him, because he remains with you,
and will be in you.
I will not leave you orphans; I will come to you.
In a little while the world will no longer see me,
but you will see me, because I live and you will live.
On that day you will realize that I am in my Father
and you are in me and I in you.
Whoever has my commandments and observes them
is the one who loves me.
And whoever loves me will be loved by my Father,
and I will love him and reveal myself to him.”
~Jn:14: 15-21
Today’s reflection comes from Fr. Greg Heille O.P. from St. Louis. He is one of the Dominican friars from the
St. Albert the Great Province that provides these “Know Before You Go”
homilies. Fr. Greg rightly emphasizes
the foretelling of the coming of the Holy Spirit in this passage.
Fr. Greg:
Our Jewish brothers
and sisters celebrate a holiday that is called the Festival of Weeks which is
held seven weeks and one day, or 50 days, after Passover…Well fifty days
translates to Pentecost, and so we have in two weeks from now the solemn Feast
of Pentecost, 50 days after our celebration of our Easter Sunday. Early in our Easter season our celebration
was all about “Alleluia, He is Risen, He is Risen Indeed!” But now late in the Easter season our
celebration has more of a spirit of “Veni Sancte Spiritus, Come Holy Spirit."
In a way the Gospel
from John 14 looks ahead to the next four weeks of celebration in our
liturgical cycle. A week from now we
will celebrate the Feast of the Ascension…Our Gospel today in a way gives a
hint of ascension because as we think about Jesus ascending into heaven we can wonder
where is He now. And our Gospel today,
John 14, says, “I will not leave you orphans.
I will come to you.” “I will ask
the Father, and he will give you another Advocate to be with you always.” The word advocate in Greek is paraclete, and
its etymology is “one who is called aside to help.” A helper.
So as we approach
Pentecost we ae being promised by Jesus a paraclete, one who will walk along
side of us to help. We will not be left
as orphans…Jesus was brought to life in the Spirit. The Spirit walked with Jesus as His
helper. He was raised to life in the Spirit…And
we begin to realize that what God has done for Jesus so too He does for us. He raises us up in the Spirit. He walks along side of us as a companion, an advocate,
a helper.
That is the heart of our lives in the Spirit. We have a “vital connection to Christ and the Father through the Holy Spirit.” Be sure to listen to the end to where Fr. Greg explains that synodality is a walking of us all together on the Way.
For the pastoral homily, Cardinal Blasé Cupich of Archdiocese of Chicago
combined this Gospel passage with a link to today’s Mother’s Day holiday.
Archbishop Cupich:
We've seen some
remarkable transformations in this group of disciples that formed the early
church. We have Philillip who now very
publicly addresses the people and speaks of Jesus. Philip was the one who wanted death to know
from Jesus the way that he was going. And
Jesus said to him, "How long have you been with me and yet you do not know
me?" But all of a sudden with the gift of the spirit, something changes in
him dramatically. And it occurs to me as
we celebrate Mother's Day that there are many qualities that are reflected in
mothers that we find in this early church that's transformed by the spirit.
The first thing is
the way the the disciples take initiative. Jesus is no longer with them.
They're on their own. And yet they go
out and they make a difference. How
often mothers are the ones in the home who have to take initiative to get
things going. Maybe those times in which there are birthdays or celebrations of
holidays. They're the ones who take the initiative. They're the ones who kind
of learn on the spur of the moment. I remember my own mother who was married
when she was uh a young 22 years old and by the time she was 30, she had six
children and she had to learn how to balance her life and balance being a mother
to all those children. She took initiative much like we see in that early
church. But we also see these early
disciples being willing to adapt and be flexible to the point that there were
new members of the community who were different. We hear about of course the
formation of the deacons. When the Greek Christians felt that they were being
overlooked, the disciples were able to adapt and create a whole new order
within the church that of deacons. They
paid attention to the specifics of the different groups that were there. I think my mother reflected that as well. She
always said that each child was different. The being a parent is not an exact
science simply because there are so many variables in each child that comes
along. She was once asked, "Do you love any of your children more than the
others?" And her answer was swift and clear. No, she said, but only if
they need it. I think that that's the
way each one of us have experienced our mothers as well. That they know us and they look for ways in
which they're going to meet the needs of each one of us in our particular circumstances,
much like the early church was able to do.
Mothers as well were
the point of unity within a family. So often the ones who brought people
together for healing, telling and encouraging us to have forgiveness, but also
the kind of unity that stays with us in our life even when our man mothers pass
from this life. Much like the unity that we hear about in the gospel where
Jesus says, "Even though I will be away from you, I will be in you as my
father is in me and I am in you." How often we are able to carry within us
the voice, the image, the words of our mothers within us. In a way showing us that
the unity within a family is being able to have a sensitivity to the lives of
others but also a fond remembrance of each other no matter what the
circumstances are in life. Even if we are separated by distance or even by
death.
God bless our mothers. They are the image of Jesus in our lives.
Sunday Meditation: "On
that day you will realize that I am in my Father and you are in me and I in
you.”
How can we not listen to “Veni Creator Spiritus” after Christ’s
foretelling of the Holy Spirit?
Come, Holy Ghost,
Creator, come
from thy bright
heav'nly throne;
come, take possession
of our souls,
and make them all
thine own.
Thou who art called
the Paraclete,
best gift of God
above,
the living spring,
the living fire,
sweet unction and
true love. (...)
O guide our minds
with thy blest light,
with love our hearts
inflame;
and with thy
strength, which ne'er decays,
confirm our mortal
frame. (…)
Through thee may we
the Father know,
through thee
th'eternal Son,
and thee the Spirit
of them both,
thrice-blessed three
in One.
In Gregorian Chant! Beautiful!
