[Salvation]

From: John 14:15-21

The Promise of the Holy Spirit

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Jesus said to His disciples: [15] “If you love Me, you will keep My commandments.
[16] And I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Counsellor, to be with
you for ever, [17] even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because
it neither sees Him nor knows Him; you know Him, for He dwells with you, and will
be in you.

[18] “I will not leave you desolate; I will come to you. [19] Yet a little while, and
the world will see Me no more, but you will see Me; because I live, you will live
also. [20] In that day you will know that I am in My Father, and you in Me, and I in
you. [21] He who has My commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves Me;
and he who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him, and manifest
Myself to him.”

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Commentary:

15. Genuine love must express itself in deeds. “This indeed is love: obeying and
believing in the loved one” (St. John Chrysostom, “Hom. on St. John”, 74). There-
fore, Jesus wants us to understand that love of God, if it is to be authentic, must
be reflected in a life of generous and faithful self-giving obedient to the Will of God:
he who accepts God’s commandments and obeys them, he it is who loves Him (cf.
John 14:21). St. John himself exhorts us in another passage not to “love in word
or speech but in deed and in truth” (1 John 3:18), and he teaches us that “this is
the love of God, that we keep His commandments” (1 John 5:3).

16-17. On a number of occasions the Lord promises the Apostles that He will send
them the Holy Spirit (cf. 14:26; 15:36; 16:7-14; Matthew 10:20). Here He tells them
that one result of His mediation with the Father will be the coming of the Paraclete.
The Holy Spirit in fact does come down on the disciples after our Lord’s ascension
(cf. Acts 2:1-13), sent by the Father and by the Son. In promising here that through
Him the father will send them the Holy Spirit, Jesus is revealing the mystery of the
Blessed Trinity.

“Consoler”: the Greek word sometimes anglicized as “paraclete” means etymologi-
cally “called to be beside one” to accompany, to console, protect, defend. Hence
the word is translated as Consoler, Advocate, etc. Jesus speaks of the Holy Spirit
as “another Consoler”, because He will be given them in Christ’s place as Advo-
cate or Defender to help them, since Jesus is going to ascend to Heaven. In 1
John 2:1 Jesus Christ is described as a Paraclete: “We have an advocate with the
Father, Jesus Christ, the righteous”. Jesus Christ, then, also is our Advocate and
Mediator in Heaven where He is with the Father (cf. Hebrews 7:25). It is now the
role of the Holy Spirit to guide, protect and vivify the Church, “for there are, as we
know, two factors which Christ has promised and arranged in different ways to
continue His mission [...]: the apostolate and the Spirit. The apostolate is the ex-
ternal and objective factor, it forms the material body, so to speak, of the Church
and is the source of her visible and social structures. The Holy Spirit acts inter-
nally within each person, as well as on the whole community, animating, vivifying,
sanctifying” (Paul VI, “Opening Address at the Third Session of Vatican II”, 14
September 1964).

The Holy Spirit is our Consoler as we make our way in this world amid difficulties
and the temptation to feel depressed. “In spite of our great limitations, we can look
up to Heaven with confidence and joy: God loves us and frees us from our sins.
The presence and the action of the Holy Spirit in the Church are a foretaste of
eternal happiness, of the joy and peace for which we are destined by God” (St.
J. Escriva, “Christ Is Passing By”, 128).

18-20. At various points in the Supper we can see the Apostles growing sad when
the Lord bid them farewell (cf. John 15:16; 16:22). Jesus speaks to them with
great tenderness, calling them “little children” (John 13:33) and “friends” (John 15:
15), and He promises that He will not leave them alone, for He will send the Holy
Spirit, and He Himself will return to be with them again. And in fact He will see
them again after the Resurrection when He appears to them over a period of forty
days to tell them about the Kingdom of God (cf. Acts 1:3). When He ascends into
Heaven they will see Him no longer; yet Jesus still continues to be in the midst of
His disciples as He promised He would (cf. Matthew 28:20), and we will see Him
face to face in Heaven. “Then it shall be that we will be able to see that which we
believe. For even now He is with us, and we in Him [...]; but now we know by be-
lieving, whereas then we shall know by beholding.

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Source: “The Navarre Bible: Text and Commentaries”. Biblical text from the
Revised Standard Version and New Vulgate. Commentaries by members of
the Faculty of Theology, University of Navarre, Spain.

Published by Four Courts Press, Kill Lane, Blackrock, Co. Dublin, Ireland, and
by Scepter Publishers in the United States.

[Salvation]

Scripture readings from the Jerusalem Bible by Darton, Longman & Todd

Readings at Mass

Liturgical Colour: White.

If the Ascension of the Lord is going to be celebrated next Sunday, the alternative Second Reading and Gospel shown here (which would otherwise have been read on that Sunday) may be used today.

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First reading

Acts 8:5-8,14-17 ©

Philip went to a Samaritan town and proclaimed the Christ to them. The people united in welcoming the message Philip preached, either because they had heard of the miracles he worked or because they saw them for themselves. There were, for example, unclean spirits that came shrieking out of many who were possessed, and several paralytics and cripples were cured. As a result there was great rejoicing in that town.

  When the apostles in Jerusalem heard that Samaria had accepted the word of God, they sent Peter and John to them, and they went down there, and prayed for the Samaritans to receive the Holy Spirit, for as yet he had not come down on any of them: they had only been baptised in the name of the Lord Jesus. Then they laid hands on them, and they received the Holy Spirit.

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Responsorial Psalm

Psalm 65(66):1-7,16,20 ©

Cry out with joy to God, all the earth.

or

Alleluia!

Cry out with joy to God all the earth,

  O sing to the glory of his name.

O render him glorious praise.

  Say to God: ‘How tremendous your deeds!

Cry out with joy to God, all the earth.

or

Alleluia!

‘Before you all the earth shall bow;

  shall sing to you, sing to your name!’

Come and see the works of God,

  tremendous his deeds among men.

Cry out with joy to God, all the earth.

or

Alleluia!

He turned the sea into dry land,

  they passed through the river dry-shod.

Let our joy then be in him;

  he rules for ever by his might.

Cry out with joy to God, all the earth.

or

Alleluia!

Come and hear, all who fear God.

  I will tell what he did for my soul:

Blessed be God who did not reject my prayer

  nor withhold his love from me.

Cry out with joy to God, all the earth.

or

Alleluia!

EITHER:

Second reading	1 Peter 3:15-18 ©

Reverence the Lord Christ in your hearts, and always have your answer ready for people who ask you the reason for the hope that you all have. But give it with courtesy and respect and with a clear conscience, so that those who slander you when you are living a good life in Christ may be proved wrong in the accusations that they bring. And if it is the will of God that you should suffer, it is better to suffer for doing right than for doing wrong.

  Why, Christ himself, innocent though he was, had died once for sins, died for the guilty, to lead us to God. In the body he was put to death, in the spirit he was raised to life.

OR:

Second reading	1 Peter 4:13-16 ©

If you can have some share in the sufferings of Christ, be glad, because you will enjoy a much greater gladness when his glory is revealed. It is a blessing for you when they insult you for bearing the name of Christ, because it means that you have the Spirit of glory, the Spirit of God resting on you. None of you should ever deserve to suffer for being a murderer, a thief, a criminal or an informer; but if anyone of you should suffer for being a Christian, then he is not to be ashamed of it; he should thank God that he has been called one.

EITHER:

Gospel Acclamation	Jn14:23

Alleluia, alleluia!

Jesus said: ‘If anyone loves me he will keep my word,

and my Father will love him,

and we shall come to him.’

Alleluia!

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.’

OR:

Gospel Acclamation	cf.Jn14:18

Alleluia, alleluia!

I will not leave you orphans, says the Lord;

I will come back to you,

and your hearts will be full of joy.

Alleluia!

Gospel	John 17:1-11 ©

Jesus raised his eyes to heaven and said:

‘Father, the hour has come:

glorify your Son

so that your Son may glorify you;

and, through the power over all mankind that you have given him,

let him give eternal life to all those you have entrusted to him.

And eternal life is this:

to know you,

the only true God,

and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.

I have glorified you on earth

and finished the work that you gave me to do.

Now, Father, it is time for you to glorify me

with that glory I had with you

before ever the world was.

I have made your name known

to the men you took from the world to give me.

They were yours and you gave them to me,

and they have kept your word.

Now at last they know

that all you have given me comes indeed from you;

for I have given them the teaching you gave to me,

and they have truly accepted this, that I came from you,

and have believed that it was you who sent me.

I pray for them;

I am not praying for the world

but for those you have given me,

because they belong to you:

all I have is yours

and all you have is mine,

and in them I am glorified.

I am not in the world any longer,

but they are in the world,

and I am coming to you.’