May our expression of love for Christ be made manifest by keeping his commandments and, through the grace of this Sunday's Eucharistic celebration, may we become worthy to receive the Holy Spirit which He promised us.
Happy Sunday!
DOCTRINE AND FAITH
Acts 8,5-8.14-17; 1 Peter 3,15-18; John 14,15-21; 6th Sunday of Easter, 17th May 2020)
On this Sunday, the liturgy already prepares us for the feast of Pentecost. In fact, all the texts refer to the Holy Spirit. In the Gospel, we have the first announcement of the coming of the Comforter, which is the Spirit of truth, the Holy Spirit. In the first reading, the apostles Peter and John went to Samaria to lay hands on the baptised, who received the Holy Spirit. In the second reading Peter spoke to us of the paschal mystery of Jesus: Christ put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the spirit.
The coming of the Holy Spirit is an event of paramount importance; it can be said that it is the purpose of the whole Incarnation and redemption, because it corresponds with the promise made by God through Jeremiah and Ezekiel of the new covenant. Especially through Ezekiel God had said: I will give you a new heart, I will put a new spirit within you, I will remove the stone heart from you and I will give you a heart of flesh. I bring my spirit within you (Ezek 36,26-27). This transformation made by God makes the new covenant possible, which is an intimate and strong union between believers and God. In the discourse after the dinner, Jesus says: I will pray to the Father and he will give you another Comforter to remain with you forever, the Spirit of truth. Jesus cannot remain forever with the apostles, because he has assumed a human life, which has limited him, above all, to transform human death into a journey of covenant with God, into a journey of redemption and union of man with God. So he has to leave, as he said severally. But the Spirit of truth can remain forever with the disciples, because he is not tied to a particular human life. He is the Spirit of God, who is eternal as God and who, therefore, can remain forever with all the disciples of Christ. There is a difference: Jesus was visible as a man, while the Spirit is not visible. The world cannot receive him - says Jesus - because it does not see him and does not know him. The Spirit is an invisible reality, an inner reality, certainly very important, but is not perceivable with human senses. To know the Spirit, one must have an interior relationship with him, and the world does not have this relationship. Here, world is to be understood as the totality of all sinful and selfish tendencies: it is the world of sin, and this world, which is impervious to the Spirit, does not know him. Instead, the disciples of Jesus knew him, because he lives with them and - Jesus adds - he will be in you. Therefore, we must, ardently, desire to welcome the Holy Spirit. It requires an internalisation of effort. We cannot remain on the superficial level of things, but need to reach the depths. This is possible, thanks to the Holy Spirit, who is the Spirit of truth, that is, of full revelation. In another passage Jesus says: He [the Holy Spirit] will guide you to the whole truth (John 16,13), that is, he will manifest all the depth and fullness of the mystery of Christ. At the beginning of our Gospel passage, Jesus also said: If you love me, you will keep my commandments; and at the end: Whoever accepts my commandments and observes them loves me. So he insisted a lot on the relationship between keeping his commandments and love for him. It is indeed true that authentic love is not only affective, made only of feelings, but effective, made of generous acts. In our case, these acts consist of observing the commandments of Jesus, which are commandments of generous love. When you truly love a person, you love his or her well-being and you want to do what she/he wants. Otherwise the love is not real, but only a search for sentimental satisfaction. However, love is a much deeper reality than just a simple sentimental satisfaction: it is the gift of oneself to the other, and this is done with acts that correspond to the wishes of the loved one. If we love Jesus, then we must desire to please him, honour him with our life and observe his commandments. We let ourselves be guided by him, so that our lives may be, truly, beautiful in his eyes, worthy of him and glorify him. Therefore, it is very important for us to keep his commandments, which are commandments of love, to remain truly united to him. The Holy Spirit helps us a lot to keep the commandments of love given by Jesus, He gives us an inner push to do what pleases God and Jesus. Then Jesus assures us that his presence will not be completely taken away from the disciples: I will not leave you orphans - he says -, I will return to you. After the crucifixion and death, Jesus returned to the disciples as the Risen One, and continues to, mysteriously, return in the life of all the disciples. A little while longer the world will not see me again; but you will see me, because I live and you will live. The new presence of Jesus among his disciples will be perceived thanks to a communion of life with him. It is about a very strong presence: Jesus says that he lives, and that the disciples will live from the same divine life, which makes people connect to one another in an interior manner. This mutual interiority is a mysterious and beautiful reality which realises the ideal of perfect union in love. On that day you will know that I am in the Father and you in me and I in you. Here the mutual interiority is clearly expressed. Jesus, as Son of God, is in the Father; but he is also present in every believer: he comes to each of us in Communion, and also with his grace he continues in our everyday life. On the other hand, we are in Christ, he is greater than us and we cannot contain him. Jesus comes into us, but surpasses us and inserts us into his mystical body, which is a wonderful and grandiose reality. Whoever loves me will also be loved by my Father and I too will love him and manifest myself to him. This is a beautiful promise of intimacy, full of love! Christian life is a splendid reality, because it is a life of union in love: union with Christ, the heavenly Father, the Holy Spirit, and with all believers.
The first reading shows us how the work of Christ was continued by the disciples. In particular, the first stage of the apostolic work, after the conversions that took place in Jerusalem and Judea, was the preaching in Samaria. The Samaritans were a population despised by the Jews, whom they considered a mixture of pagans and Judaism. Jesus, however, had gone to Samaria and had converted a good number of them (cf. John 4). Philip, driven by the Holy Spirit, went to Samaria to continue the work of Jesus and carry out the work of the Risen One. His ministry has a marvellous success. In fact, the grace of God attracts people, transforms society. We read in the Acts: The crowds unanimously listened to Philip's words by hearing him speak and seeing the miracles he performed. The result is that in that city of Samaria a great joy spreads. The work of the risen Christ, through the apostles, is a work that propagates peace and joy. Philip is not an apostle, he does not belong to the group of the Twelve, but to that of the Seven, which was established by the apostles after Pentecost. In this passage, we see that there is a difference between the Seven, who are the predecessors of the deacons, and the apostles, the predecessors of the bishops. The people to whom the preaching of the Seven was addressed were only baptised in the name of Jesus, but did not receive the Holy Spirit. The apostles lay their hands on them, and they receive the Holy Spirit. Thus the joy which the passage speaks about becomes complete when the Holy Spirit is received and He manifests his goodness and power with a multiplicity of gifts.
In the second reading, Peter speaks of the apostolic vocation of every Christian. The apostolate is not reserved for bishops or priests, but is the characteristic of the whole Church, thanks, precisely, to the action of the Holy Spirit in the hearts of all believers. Peter invites believers to always be ready to answer anyone who asks for the reason for the hope that is in them. Here we see that the attitude and behaviour of Christians revealed great hope. In his Letter, Peter wants to inculcate this hope. It reminds us that through the resurrection of Christ we have been regenerated for a living hope: hope for a perfect union with God and for a definitive union after death. The Christians of Peter's time attracted people because they were seen as full of hope. People wanted to know the reason for this hope, for the joy they had even when they were persecuted. In fact, when they were persecuted, instead of feeling defeated / discouraged they still showed themselves full of hope. Each of us must also be ready to account for the hope he/she possesses, thanks to the coming of Jesus, his death and resurrection, and for the gift of the Holy Spirit. We Christians must spread hope around us. The world always needs it so much. Without hope life is not worth living. But, with hope you can move forward with dynamism and achieve beautiful things in life. The Holy Spirit gives us the ability to testify to faith, hope and love. Hope in particular, because its dynamic aspect corresponds with the thrust that the Holy Spirit gives. Our hope comes from the dynamism of the paschal mystery of Jesus: dynamism which is communicated to us by the Holy Spirit. On this Sunday we are invited to think about the feast of Pentecost now approaching with great fervour, with great expectation, because the Lord always prepares precious graces for us, not only for ourselves, but also for all the people with whom we come in contact and to which we must communicate the Christian hope. +John I. Okoye
(graphics by chukwubike)
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