6th Sunday of Easter Year A Reflection.
GOD SEEKS TO BE WITH US ALWAYS: THE PROMISE OF THE HOLY SPIRIT.
OUTLINE
- Summary of of ideas of today’s Sunday readings
- Genuine love for God expresses itself in deeds and in the faithful obedience of His Will.
- God seeks to be with us always! The Promise of the Holy Spirit
1. Summary of of ideas of today’s Sunday readings
The Holy Spirit whom the Risen Christ will send occupies the center of this Sunday’s readings.
- In the 1st reading (Acts 8:5-8, 14.17), we see how Christian initiation is completed by the imposition of hands of the apostles by which the baptized receive the Holy Spirit in its fullness: the sacrament of Confirmation.
- In the 2nd reading (1 Pt 3:15–18), it is affirmed that Christ died in the flesh, but returned to life in the Spirit.
- In the Gospel (Jn 14:15-21), Christ promises to the disciples that he will ask the Father to send us another Defender, an Advocate, who is always with us, the Spirit of truth. The Holy Spirit always lives with us and is with us because through faith and baptism we have received and come to know Him.
2. Genuine love for God expresses itself in deeds and in the faithful obedience of His Will.
“If you love me, you will keep my commandments (Jn 14: 15).”
Jesus wants us to understand what love for God consists in: in the obedience of His Word and commandments.
- He asks from each one of us coherence between our faith and love on the one hand, and our life, on the other for genuine love expresses itself through deeds, and not just sweet words nor sentiments.
- This indispensable idea has been underlined by St. John in other passages of the New Testament: in one passage, St. John reminds us not to “love in word or speech but in deed and in truth” (1 Jn 3:18), and in another, he teaches us that “this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments” (1 Jn 5:3).
- Loving God consists in the faithful and generous self-giving and obedience to His Will.
Our Lord promises a reward: “And whoever loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and reveal myself to him (Jn 14:21).”
3. God seeks to be with us always! The Promise of the Holy Spirit
Furthermore, Our Lord Jesus Christ, out of love for us, always seeks to be with us. That is why he promised to send the Holy Spirit.
“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 promising here that through him the Father will send them the Holy Spirit, Jesus is revealing the mystery of the Blessed Trinity.
- Here, Jesus speaks of “another Advocate” for Jesus himself is God’s Advocate (cf 1 Jn 1:21; Heb 7:25). The word “advocate” or “consoler” which is anglicized as “paraclete” etymologically means “called to be beside one” to accompany, console, protect, defend.
Dear brethren in Christ, let us thank the Most Holy Trinity for their immense love for each one of us, seeking always to be with us and in us through the presence and action of the Holy Spirit in our soul in grace, to transform us into other Christs, to accompany, console, help and defend us amidst the difficulties we face in our earthly journey. Let us correspond to God’s enormous love by abiding and keeping His commandments.
Mary, Daughter of God the Father, Mother of God the Son, Spouse of the Holy Spirit, pray for us!
ORIGINAL PHOTO CREDIT AND SOURCE: Vicente Macip, La Coronación de la Virgen, photo mine.
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