Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint John 14, 15-21
Jesus said to his disciples:
“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, whom the world cannot accept,
because it neither sees nor knows him.
But you know him, because he remains with you,
and will be in you.
I will not leave you orphans; I will come to you.
In a little while the world will no longer see me,
but you will see me, because I live and you will live.
On that day you will realize that I am in my Father
and you are in me and I in you.
Whoever has my commandments and observes them
is the one who loves me.
And whoever loves me will be loved by my Father,
and I will love him and reveal myself to him.”
God is with us!
1) If you love me. See how interesting the chronology of Christ’s words is: “…if you love me you will keep my commandments.” First love, and then follow the commandments. When you love someone you change the way you look at life, and even change the way you live. When you are moralistic without love, the only thing you achieve is to obey rules and laws, but by hurting and destroying others. That’s what happened with the Pharisees. That’s why, as a Church, we must be careful, because if we are strict observers of the rules and laws of the Church without charity, everything falls apart. That’s why we must fall in love with Jesus and ask for a heart full of charity, and then look at life and look at others through the eyes of God’s love.
2) Always with you. God gives us strength and never leaves us. I believe that “the Communion of Saints” is an important element in our religion, but we do not know how to take advantage of it. As Christians we’re never alone because there is always someone praying for us and moreover, God loves us so much that He has given each one of us a guardian angel. Do you pray to your guardian angel? No one is alone in life. Let me remind you that the Church has cloistered monks and nuns who devote their day to praying for you, even if you don’t know so. Today, at mass, thank God for them and their prayers.
3) Advocate. We are approaching the celebration of Pentecost. We are still in the Easter season, and we have to continue to make the most of the joy of Easter. We have to ask the Holy Spirit to give us the strength to continue living with the joy and enthusiasm that Easter has given us. We must stop worrying over silly things; there is only one life and we have been called to evangelize with passion and simplicity. We are called to be other Christs on earth.
Remember that something good is on the way!
God bless you and be with you in the name of the Father, of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.
