(Acts 8,6-8; 1 Peter 3,15-18; John 14, 15-21: 6th Sunday of Easter: Year A)
Today’s
gospel gives us some comfort but at the same time calls for a
serious and authentic commitment to Christian life. Jesus wishes to
console the apostles on account of his imminent separation from them; to
assure them that he is not going away forever but only precedes them,
in order to prepare a place so that they could join him later. The
separation is, therefore, temporal and provisional, as they will one day
join him and remain with him forever. In this his consoling parting
discourse, Jesus promises the apostles something very important in their
time and for the future. He promises to send the Holy Spirit to them,
whom he described as the Spirit, the Comforter and the Spirit of Truth. The Holy Spirit is the Comforter because
he has the task to strengthen and sustain the apostles in the
difficulties they will be encountering. The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of
Truth as he has the task of illumining the apostles so that they will
be able to understand the truth proclaimed by Christ better. It is
important to remark that Jesus promised to ask the Father this gift of
the Spirit not just as a momentary and passing gift, but a gift that is
stable, lasting and permanent: I will ask the Father and He will give
you another Comforter that will remain with you forever. He will dwell
in you, be with you and in you. This is a wonderful and comforting
words from the Lord Jesus Christ to his disciples and to us. However,
Jesus expects the apostles and us to respond to this gesture by
loving Him, a love that is to be shown by keeping his
commandments. This is enunciated by Jesus in these words: Anyone who receives my commandments and keeps them will be the one who loves me.
The
promise made to the apostles at the Last Supper is for the whole Church
and for every single believer of every epoch. The comforting passage of
the Gospel is also for us, and necessarily so, given the fact that we
worry and are anxious sometimes as we see how things go wrong in the
world. As Christians and members of the Church we often have the
impression that we are at the mercy of
events and happenings and are incapable of influencing them in our
society. However, Jesus assures us that He will not leave us orphans and
that he is present in his Church even today and that He will guide her
through the tempests of our time: I will be with you every day till the end of the world (Matt 28, 20); The gates of hell will not prevail against it (the church) (Matt 16, 18); Have confidence, I have conquered the world (John
16, 35). But to be the Church of Christ, in communion with Him, it is
necessary to be in communion with Peter and John (See first reading). When the apostles in Jerusalem heard that the Samaria has accepted the word of God, they sent Peter and Johnto them. Why
were they sent? This was because they were the guarantee of the
authenticity of faith and unity of the Church. It is, therefore,
necessary to be in communion with the Pope, the successor of Peter and
with the Bishops, the successors of the Apostles in order to be in union
with Christ and so that the unity of all believers and the purity of
faith be guaranteed. We also know that the Holy Spirit is sent to the
Church today. It is the Holy Spirit that guides the Church to the full
knowledge of the truth about Christ that sustains her in all the
difficulties she encounters. The Holy Spirit is given to the Church as a
community of faith and given also to every believer. Again, to have
this Holy Spirit, it is necessary to be in communion with the Pope and
the bishops. Peter and Paul, prayed over them (the Christians of Samaria) that they might receive the Holy Spirit; they imposed their hand on them and they received the Holy
Spirit.
This
reality of the presence of the Holy Spirit in the Church and in the
believer and the reality of His continuous assistance, gives us
serenity, confidence and hope. We have to, however, know how to give
reason for our faith and hope as today’s second reading exhorts us to.
This means that we have to be able to comprehend the fundamental
doctrines of our faith well and their practical implications in our
lives; that we study and meditate assiduously the word of God as well as
the Catechism of the Catholic Church and receive
instruction in our Catholic Faith. We have to give testimony of our
faith with courtesy and respect, in fact, without arrogance. We are to
do so especially with the testimony of our lives and good conduct. Our
conducts should be able to manifest the genuineness and seriousness of
our faith, bearing in mind the fact that concrete facts of good works,
more than abstract reasonings, are able to silence those (not few of
them) who malign and criticize religion and the Church. May we in
today’s Eucharistic celebration ask the good Lord: To bestow
upon us the Spirit, the Comforter, the Spirit of Truth and may He remain
to guide and guard us in the Church and in our individual lives, now
and forever! Amen!
+John I. Okoye
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