May 25^th 2014. 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. 

I shall ask the Father, 

and he will give you another Advocate 

to be with you for ever,

that Spirit of truth 

whom the world can never receive 

since it neither sees nor knows him; 

but you know him, 

because he is with you, he is in you.

I will not leave you orphans; 

I will come back to you.

In a short time the world will no longer see me; 

but you will see me, 

because I live and you will live.

On that day you will understand 

that I am in my Father 

and you in me and I in you.

Anybody who receives my commandments 

and keeps them will be one who loves me; 

and anybody who loves me 

will be loved by my Father, 

and I shall love him and show myself to him.'

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

Kieran’s summary . . . Maybe sometimes we wonder why the gift of the Spirit seems to be absent from our lives. We hear of Spirit-filled people doing wonderful things and we ask ourselves why that is not the case with us. The first reading and the Gospel both emphasize that the Spirit is received only after one has first welcomed the word of God. In the Gospel Jesus says, “If you love me you will keep my commandments; I will ask the Father and he will send you another Advocate to be with you forever.” How wonderful it would be to have this Advocate! But He comes to us gradually and only when we welcome the word of God. The question then is how do we welcome the word that the Lord is addressing to us? We must contemplate on this matter and discern the ways in which God is speaking to us in our lives. Each of us has already received a “word” from the Lord. Each of us has a nugget of pure joy inside of us that owes its origin to a moment in our lives when a word of profound Gospel truth was spoken to us. This might have been in the words someone said to us in the home or in Church, in the example of the lives of the saints, or in acts of loving service that were directed to us. We must contemplate on that joyful truth that we already possess, no matter how small or insignificant it might be, for that is the door through which the Holy Spirit will enter our lives! And not only, contemplate it, we must be faithful to it! “If you love me you will keep my commandments . . .” That is the door to the Spirit and it may be the only door! Jesus tells us that he will not leave us orphans. When we welcome and are faithful to this word that he has already given to us, then we open ourselves of the Spirit. This Spirit of sonship banishes the spirit of self-centeredness and makes us children of our heavenly Father. Let us be faithful to that word the Lord has addressed to us! Let us discover it through contemplation, welcoming it wholeheartedly! In this way we open ourselves to the reception of the Holy Spirit.

First we must receive the word of God. Then we receive the gift of the Spirit

As we near the end of the Easter Season, we begin preparing for the Feast of Pentecost. Both the first reading and the Gospel present us with a two-phase process of receiving the Spirit. In the reading from the Acts of the Apostles, Philip preaches in a Samaritan town and the people receive the word of God. Then Peter and John come to the town, lay their hands on the Samaritans who receive the gift of the Spirit. In the Gospel we see a similar process. Jesus says: “If you love me you will keep my commandments. I shall ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate to be with you for ever”. We are asked to keep the Lord’s commandments, to be faithful to the word that has been given to us. Once we do this then we are enabled to make the leap that consists in the reception of the gift of the Holy Spirit. Jesus goes on to emphasize this point still further: “Anybody who receives my commandments and keeps them will be one who loves me; and anybody who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I shall love him and show myself to him”.

The Spirit cannot be received ex-nihilo in hearts that have no preparation

It is important to recognize the necessity of this two-phase process. The Holy Spirit is not obtained out of nothing. Rather, there is a clear road that must be followed that leads to the gift of the Paraclete. If the Church taught that someone could suddenly receive the Spirit of God in his heart with no preparation whatsoever, then that would smack of magic. The normal route for the entry of the Spirit of God into our hearts is to welcome first the word of God. We often forget that God’s action in our lives is of a gradual sort. We are inclined to think that the spiritual life is a case of black and white: either the Spirit is given to us or it is not. But this is the wrong way to view the interior life of the Spirit, not to mention the salvation and redemption of humanity. In Scripture we see that the Lord works by gradual means. He always gives us first a word. Abraham began by receiving a word from the Lord. Then he began a journey that led to him having the capacity to show a complete and absurd trust in the Lord. The entire history of the Jewish people is a story of a people who are being gradually prepared to enter into ever closer relationship with their heavenly Father. To arrive at the Father we must have the Spirit of sons, and this requires the sort of gradual journey that we find in the Scriptures.

Each of us has a nugget of pure joy inside of us that derives from a word of profound Gospel truth that has been spoken to us during our past lives

Our spiritual lives begin with the reception of a simple word from the Lord. Some people strive for instant progress in the spiritual live. They torture themselves if they feel they are not getting anywhere, if they do not achieve a certain rapid development. But this focus on results and experiences is misplaced. What we are called to do is to be attentive to the small and simple word that God addresses to us. In all of us there is a feeling of joy, of cheerfulness, that takes its origin from the fact that we have received something profoundly true from the Gospel, or from the Church, or from someone who spoke to us or served us in the name of Christ. To be faithful to this beautiful element is the sure road that leads upward. This is the doorway through which the Holy Spirit enters.

The word that the Lord has addressed to us in a word that renews us and transforms us. It banishes from us the sulky, sullen, fatigued spirit of self-centeredness. The Lord does not want us to be self-referential orphans. He wants to sow in us the seed of sonship. By being faithful to his word we open ourselves to the Spirit that makes us children of our heavenly Father

In the Gospel Jesus says, “I will not leave you orphans.” We are all children of a heavenly Father and Jesus does not want us to live and act as if we were individuals. He wants us to escape from the habit of behaving as if we were orphans. The word that Jesus plants in us is a seed that regenerates us and makes us new. The Lord changes us from being solitary, self-centred, distrustful and fatigued individuals. He places a seed in our hearts, a word that transforms. We must be true to the first stirrings of the faith within us. Perhaps when we were small a grandparent awakened in us a miniscule seed of delight and joy in the truth of the Gospel. Faith always begins with something small, but from that small beginning it goes ever forward. The Lord has addressed a word to each and every one of us that opens our hearts to the Holy Spirit. We must be faithful to that word.