We are in the Sixth Sunday
of the Easter. The readings of today are centred on Holy Spirit. Today’s Gospel
is situated around Jesus telling His disciples that He is going away from this
world. In this context of perplexity and fearfulness of disciples Jesus assures
them that He will not leave them as orphans (Jn 14:18). He promises them the
Holy Spirit from the Father (Jn 14:16).
True love is expressed in two
ways; word and deed. True love cannot be limited to one kind of expression
alone. One who says that I love him/her and never do anything that brings
fortune to him/her is a liar. Similarly, the expression of love in words are not
just limited to three words (in English) I
Love You. One can express his/her love for the other without even using these
famous three words. True love is expressed in different form of words such as; the
words of encouragement in the time of depression, the words of consolation in
the time of desolation, the words of inspiration in the time of hopelessness, the
words of courage in the time of emptiness and the words of light in the time of darkness. This is what
exactly happening in today’s gospel (Jn 14:15-21); Jesus is giving words of encouragement
to his disciples not to lose hope in Him when he goes away from this world. He did not stop with these words of encouragement
he promised them the gift of the Holy Spirit from the Father. He pledges them
that He would pray to the Father (Jn 14:16) to send the Holy Spirit upon them.
The disciples also loved
Jesus in word and deed. Their love for Jesus made them to proclaim the good
news; the resurrection of Jesus to the ends of the world. They boldly bore
witness to Jesus, the son of God in front of kings and senates. The message of
Christ was the words of encouragement, consolation, courage and inspiration. Above
all the disciples kept His commandments and instilled Christ values in the
communities. The disciples did all these not when Jesus was with them
physically but after He has had ascended into heaven. For others Jesus was
absent from this world but for the disciples Jesus was present with them. They
were enabled to do all these things due to the descent of the Holy Spirit upon
them. Jesus was alive in them in the form of Holy Spirit. Jesus said that only
they – who receive the Holy Spirit can know that He is alive and He lives (Jn
14: 19). Thus, to receive the Holy Spirit we need to accept Jesus and become
His disciples.
To be a disciple of Jesus is
to love Him and keep His commandment. To do this we need the assistance of the Holy
Spirit, a guide and counsellor. In the first reading (Acts 8:5-8,14-17) after
the Samaritans had welcomed the message of Christ that was proclaimed by Philip
(Acts 8:5-6), the apostles sent Peter and John to lay their hand on them so
that they may receive the Holy Spirit (Acts 8:14-15). And indeed, the Holy
Spirit came upon them (Acts 8:17).
With the help of Holy Spirit
we made every ready to defend our faith in Jesus. We do this not to offend the
oppressor or suppressor of our faith but to bear witness, to express our love
for Jesus in word. We do this with
respect and simplicity (1 Pet 3:15) as said in the second reading (1 Pet
3:15-18). In deed we keep our Lord’s
commandment and endure sufferings that come along the way. The world’s ethos is
to suffer for wrong doings and rejoice in good deeds. But St. Peter in his
apostolic letter says “it is better to suffer for doing good, if it is God’s
will, than for doing wrong” (1 Pet 3:17). If we love Jesus, we keep His commandment
which is love, when we do this there is no place for doing wrong things. Therefore,
there is no way for suffering, yet we suffer is the reality. It is because the
world has not yet received the message of Christ in its fullness and actualized
the message of Christ in concrete situation. To overcome this we need the
assistance of the Holy Spirit.
As we battle the deadly
covid-19 pandemic, let us renew our love for Christ Jesus in word and deed. Let
us express our love for Jesus and others with the words of comfort and deeds of
mercy to one another. Let us ask Jesus to pray to the Father, that we may
receive the Holy Spirit to bear witness to our
hope in Him in this time of tribulation and see His presence and live in
Him (Jn 14:19).
Jesus says, “I will not leave you orphans, I am coming to you” (Jn 14:18).
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