May 21^st 2017. SIXTH SUNDAY OF EASTER

GOSPEL: John 14:15-21

­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­Translated from a homily by Don Fabio Rosini, broadcast on Vatican Radio

Don Fabio’s reflection follows the Gospel reading ...

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GOSPEL: John 14:15-21

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."

The Gospel of the Lord: Praise to you Lord Jesus Christ

Kieran’s summary . . . We are inclined to think that the discovery of truth involves intelligent reasoning, investigation and analysis. We think that the human being is a source of truth, that he is capable of working out the truth by himself. But Jesus tells us that the truth is something that we must receive. It comes from without. It does not take intelligence to comprehend it; rather it requires openness so that we are able to welcome it. It involves the reception of a person. How do we receive this Holy Spirit? Jesus tells us that he will not leave us orphans. He goes away so that the Spirit will be sent, the Spirit that makes us children of the Father. This Spirit is not received by rational reasoning, no more that you can get to know me by just thinking in an intellectual way about me. You will only get to know me if you allow me to reveal myself to you. We can only receive the gift of the Spirit if we allow the Spirit to reveal himself to us. Once we do that, then we are entering into a relationship of love with him. Jesus says, “If you love me then you will keep my commandments”. This is not a moralistic threat by Jesus: Show me you love me by keeping my commandments! Rather, it expresses the truth that if I allow myself to be led into a relationship of love with Christ, then I will be led away from sin and will keep his commandments naturally.

We think that the discovery of truth is a matter of intelligent reasoning, but Jesus tells us that the reception of truth involves allowing God to reveal himself to me. The knowledge of the truth involves the docile reception of a person.

In the Gospel, Jesus says that he will go away and then come back again by means of the gift of the Spirit. In this way he will be with us always. This definitive gift, we are told, is something that the world cannot receive because it neither sees nor knows him. According to the world-view that has arisen in our rationalistic times, the human being is a producer of truth. Through his understanding and investigation, man discovers the truth. It is something within the reach of his rational capacities. But Jesus tells us that the truth is a gift, something from without that must be welcomed. The Holy Spirit, the third person of the Trinity, who comes from the Father and the Son, is the source of truth. I cannot come up with the truth by myself. We often think that the problems concerning truth are problems requiring comprehension and analysis. But Jesus tells us that truth involves the welcoming of a person! Let us consider a simple example. Say that someone analyses us in a purely cerebral way, using only the powers of his intellect, and then tells us that he understands us. We would be justified in feeling that we have not truly been understand. How often we hear people say, “You don’t understand me!” To understand another person we must allow the other to reveal himself. For me to know who you are, you must first show me. And that is how it is with God, and with everyone else. If we do not permit the other to come close to us, to reveal himself to us, then we remain in a process of purely speculative reasoning. The truth is something that comes to us. The problem is not how intelligent we are in understanding it, but how simply we can receive it, how willing we are to allow God to speak to us.

Jesus goes away but then comes back to us through the gift of the Spirit. This is a gift that transforms us from being orphans to being brothers and sisters of Jesus and children of the Father

Jesus tells us that he will not leave us orphans. What does this mean? If we are in a relationship of sonship with the Father then we are not people who begin with ourselves and finish with ourselves. Jesus does not want to leave us orphans because he wants to give us the gift of his relationship as Son of the Father, a filial relationship that is evident in very act and every aspect of his existence. This beautiful state of being is the opposite of solitude. It is something that the world cannot achieve on its own.

If we love Jesus, this means we have been led into a relationship with him. In so doing we will have been led away from vice and so will naturally keep his commandments

The first words of this Gospel are, “If you love me you will keep my commandments”. Often the sense of this is turned upside down and it is understood in a moralistic way. “If you love me then keep my commandments!” Like this it sounds like a scolding. But a more coherent reading would be, “The one who loves me keeps my commandments because when we love someone then we naturally wish to do that which the person desires”. The key to this entire discourse is not about being righteous or perfect or having a clear conscience. The key is love. It is not about a preoccupation with keeping certain rules or changing certain habits. Rather it is something that begins by focussing on the relationship with Jesus, that seeks to allow him to reveal himself to us. Then, once we experience how good it is to be with Christ, then the good actions and the keeping of his commandments follow. If we allow ourselves to be led into a relationship of love, into reciprocal joy, then it won’t be any problem to move away from vice! This Sunday we focus on allowing the development of this relationship with the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is the relationship between the Father and the Son. May the Holy Spirit descend upon us and transform us from orphans to children of God!