GOSPEL COMMENTARY JN 14: 15-21
Newness of life in Christ
Fr. Jack Peterson, YA
As we proceed through the magnificent season of Easter, there is a progression in the focus of the readings from recalling the various resurrection appearances of Jesus to His disciples to looking intently at the life of the early church and the absolutely critical role of the Holy Spirit in that church and in the lives of the first disciples of Jesus.
The Holy Spirit needs to receive more attention in our lives as Christians. Newness of life in Christ is the direct result of the presence of the Holy Spirit in our lives. In our Gospel today, Jesus states “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 …”
The Holy Spirit is the advocate who comes from the Father and the Son to dwell in our hearts. He delivers God’s boundless mercy and healing. He enables us to say in faith, “Jesus is Lord.” He leads us to all truth so that we can have confidence in our understanding of the deep truths of our faith along with the path that Jesus has marked out for His brothers and sisters. He infuses us with gifts that enable us to live and witness authentically to the great faith we profess. He sets our hearts on fire with burning love for the God who extended His arms on the cross to redeem every person ever conceived on this earth. He enters the depths of our being and makes a home for Himself there so that each of us becomes a living tabernacle, not unlike Mary, bringing Christ into every corner of the world.
The Acts of the Apostles speaks regularly about this awesome Advocate. In today’s reading from Chapter 8, we hear, “Now when the apostles in Jerusalem heard that Samaria had accepted the word of God, they sent them Peter and John, who went down and prayed for them, that they might receive the Holy Spirit, for it had not yet fallen on any of them.” The sending and reception of the Holy Spirit was a critical part of coming to the fullness of faith in Jesus Christ. Before Pentecost, there was confusion and fear. After Pentecost, there was clarity and boldness of faith in Jesus.
By the grace of the Holy Spirit, Christians are capable of discovering the enormous love that God has for them. This love enables them to be obedient to what Acts calls “the way,” the way of life modeled by Jesus and the new pattern for our own lives. Once again, Jesus taught his disciples, “If you love me, you will keep my commandments.” Love for Jesus leads to obedience. The Holy Spirit empowers us to come humbly before our Lord, truly sorry for our sins, open to His healing grace, confident in the power of His grace to transform our lives, and willing to follow the shepherd even when the path is hard, filled with scary passages, and exhausting. Genuine love for Christ leads to what St. Paul describes as the “obedience of faith.”
The promised advocate is also manifest in our efforts to serve our neighbor in the name of Christ. In fact, the Holy Spirit makes our ministry resemble the ministry of our Lord. Listen to St. Luke’s description of the life of St. Philip: “Philip went down to the city of Samaria and proclaimed the Christ to them. With one accord, the crowds paid attention to what was said by Philip when they heard it and saw the signs he was doing. For unclean spirits, crying out in a loud voice, came out of many possessed people, and many paralyzed or crippled people were cured. There was great joy in that city.” Powerful preaching, miraculous healing and great joy marked the life of the first Christian communities.
As a church, we are progressing rapidly towards our celebration of Pentecost when the Holy Spirit was poured out in abundance upon God’s fledgling flock some 50 days following the Resurrection. Most of us, through baptism and confirmation, have already received this great Advocate in a very real way. Let’s pray for God’s grace to open our hearts and unleash the grace and power of the Holy Spirit dwelling therein and send us out into our broken and hurting world with tremendous zeal for building a culture of life and love in imitation of Jesus and the early Christians.
Fr. Peterson is assistant chaplain at Marymount University in Arlington and director of the Youth Apostles Institute in McLean.
Year A - Sixth Sunday of Easter
If you love me, you will keep my commandments.
John 14:15-21
15 "If you love me, you will keep my commandments.
16 And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate, to be with you forever.
17 This is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, because he abides with you, and he will be in you.
18 "I will not leave you orphaned; I am coming to you.
19 In a little while the world will no longer see me, but you will see me; because I live, you also will live.
20 On that day you will know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you.
21 They who have my commandments and keep them are those who love me; and those who love me will be loved by my Father, and I will love them and reveal myself to them." (NRSV)
Inspiration of the Holy Spirit - From the Sacred Heart of Jesus
My dear child, I am preparing a place for you in Heaven. Before you can be with me, you must follow my instructions:
Love me with all your heart, with all your mind, with all your soul and with all your strength.
Open your heart and let me fill you with my spirit of love, peace, joy and truth.
Allow me to be the king of your life.
Make humility the foundation of your temple; decorate your walls with virtues.
Praise me and thank me for all that I do for you.
Acknowledge me all the time.
See me in my creation, see me in everyone and rejoice. Accept me in others; remember my presence in them.
Come into my presence with reverence, bring an offering of thanksgiving, enter my courts with praise.
Remember your nothingness, acknowledge your sins and accept me as your Savior.
Delight in my presence, do my will joyfully.
Open your ears to my word; open your eyes to my greatness.
See through my spirit.
Open your mouth to praise me. Use your tongue to bless; bless me and bless your brothers.
Allow your hands to be my hands, your feet to be my feet, your mind to be my mind. Let your heart be my heart, my place of rest, my heaven.
Invite me often to be with you, welcome me without fear.
Open your physical and spiritual wounds to my healing.
Pray for the conversion of sinners. Pray for others.
Unite yourself to me and become an instrument of reparation for your sins and the sins of others.
Unite yourself strongly to my mystical body the church, to my heart: the holy Eucharist the blood and life of your soul, to my soul: the Holy Spirit.
Be generous as I am generous; imitate my holiness and my perfection.
Pray from the heart, pray to my mother and she will shine the light of our grace on you.
Make your life an act of praise and thanksgiving. Let me be your praise, your love and your adoration.
Be my docile instrument of peace, love, joy, mercy, and healing.
I am all yours... Be all mine...
Author: Joseph of Jesus and Mary