By Fr Francis Gonsalves, SJ –
Sixth Sunday of Easter – May 17, 2020
Acts 8:5-8,14-17; 1 Pet 3:15-18; Jn 14:15-21
“You will know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you” (Jn 14:20)
Prologue: In this passage of Jesus’ ‘Farewell Discourse’ Jesus promises his disciples that he will not leave them orphaned. He will abide in them through the Advocate or ‘Helper’: The Spirit of truth. This could be a good opportunity to prepare for the Feast of Pentecost, as well as the Most Holy Trinity. The three ‘Persons’ of the Trinity can be understood in terms of Love, Life and Light, roughly corresponding to the Father, the Son, and the Spirit, respectively.
Three Signposts from Scripture:
1. What happens when someone you love is on the point of death and you are beside that person’s deathbed? On the one hand, you will be sad and anxious, worrying about how you’ll manage to live without that person; and, on the other hand, the one dying will seek to console you, while also expressing his/her last will and parting advice to you.
This is the context of this passage wherein we sense the sorrow and worry of the disciples, in contrast to the hope and promise which Jesus gives them. Jesus, who knows that “the world will no longer see me,” promises his disciples: “I will not leave you orphaned; I am coming to you” (vv.18-19). How will he come to them and be present unto them?
He is foretelling his abiding presence with them; even more, ‘in’ them as a gift not of ‘something’ but of Someone: Godself! In sum, Jesus tells them that they will experience God dwelling in them: divine indwelling. Jesus reminds them: “If you love me, you will keep my commandments” (v.15), the greatest of which, quite clearly, is love.
He concludes this passage by saying: “They who have my commandments and keep them are those who love me; and those who love me will be loved by my Father, and I will love them and reveal myself to them” (v.21). “God is love,” (1 Jn 4:8) and God so loved the world that God the Father gave us His Son, Jesus (see Jn 3:16): divine love in the flesh!
2. Jesus, God’s Love, incarnate, is the visible form, face and fulfillment of what it means to live life fully. His mission is expressed pithily in his revelation: “I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly” (Jn 10:10). In the Johannine gospel tradition, Jesus often reveals himself as Life; for example, “I am the resurrection and the life” (11:25) and “I am the way, the truth, and the life” (14:6). However, after his earthly life is over, he will not be physically present to them as an individual ‘person’ or a single ‘body’, but will continue to be among them and in them as he says, strikingly, “you in me, and I in you” (v.20). This mutual indwelling is what makes us images and instruments of the ‘Christ’, the Anointed One. Jesus promises eternal life to all his disciples who seek and strive for Life that lasts.
3. Jesus’ promise of everlasting life is not only some distant hope in the afterlife, but is already initiated here, through the promised ‘Advocate’ or ‘Helper’: the ‘Spirit of truth’ (vv. 16-17). An advocate—from the Latin, advoco, meaning, to call to one’s aid—is one who sheds light on dark and doubtful matters. Advocates offer counsel and comfort, and instill courage in those wronged by others. The Holy Spirit will be the guiding Light of the disciples, providing counsel, comfort and courage. Jesus promises to gift his disciples with the Spirit not for a day or two, but “to be with you forever” (v.16). This means that the Holy Spirit will never ever leave our side: helping, guiding, inspiring, counseling, comforting, animating, encouraging, energising, strengthening and sanctifying.
Linking the First and Second Readings to the Trinitarian Themes of Love, Life, Light:
• In the first reading from the ‘Acts’ we see Philip—not the apostle, but the deacon—going to the city of Samaria which, for the Jews, was ‘impure’. Unlike their own people who were considered ‘chosen’ by God and ‘pure’, the Samaritans were considered ‘mixed’ by race and by religion. Descendants of Assyrian planters and Jewish migrants, they retained some elements of the Jewish worship but had a separate temple and holy mountain (see Jesus’ conversation with the Samaritan woman in Jn 4:20-21). The important point to note here is that they seemed more open to the Spirit than the Jews. Apostles Peter and John preached to them and “laid their hands on them and they received the Holy Spirit” (v.17).
• Another function of the Spirit is mentioned in today’s second reading where Peter exhorts his community: “Always be prepared to make a defence to anyone who calls you to account for the hope that is in you.” Seen in tandem with John’s gospel that attributes the functions of teaching (14:26) and witnessing (15:26) to the Spirit, we are reminded that the Spirit throws light upon our darkness, clarifies the confusion in our minds and instills courage into our hearts. Today, there’s no need to ‘defend’ the faith as ‘apologetics’ but we ought to “account for the hope”—the life in Christ—that abides in us as individuals, as Church.
Call for Creating a Triune-Consciousness:
Abba Awareness: Jesus tells us to call God ‘Abba’ and to pray the ‘Our Father’. This ought to evoke in us a greater awareness of God’s providential, paternal love and tender, maternal care. Our Abba is not distantly ‘up there’ in the highest heavens but ‘down here’: with us, creating, supporting and calling us to be sons and daughters in God’s Son, Jesus. This is a loving invitation to each of us to be loving, caring and creative.
Christ-Consciousness: “I am in Christ; Christ is in me.” Thanks to my baptism, as a Christian, I am ‘anointed in the Anointed One’. Thus, I carry Christ with me, much as He bears me and my burdens. Am I conscious of His presence in my life? Do I foster His life in abundance?
Spirit-Sensitiveness: “The Spirit blows where it wills” (Jn 3:8). Besides Luke’s gospel that prominently highlights the presence of the Holy Spirit in Jesus’ life, the Acts of the Apostles can be called the ‘Acts of the Spirit’, for, the Spirit is mentioned 65 times, the Spirit being the vivifying force of newborn Christianity. Do I sense the omnipresent and omnipotent working of the Spirit? Within me? In others? In the whole cosmos?
An Appropriate Anecdote:
A tale is told of God seeking to hide from humankind since people’s persistent petitions were becoming burdensome. An angel advised God, “Go to the Himalayas for no one will ascend those heights!” God wasn’t sure about that. “What about descending to the depths of the Pacific?” suggested another. “No,” mused God, “deep-sea divers will find me there!” A third angel advised God to hide in the dense Amazon forests. Finally, the wisest whispered, “Why don’t you hide in the human heart?” God smiled, “Yes, people rarely seek me there!”
Prayer: “Abide in me, O God of Love, Lord of Life, Spirit of Life, every day of my life, Amen.”
Fr. Francis Gonsalves is a Gujarat Jesuit, former Principal of Vidyajyoti College, Delhi, and currently Dean of Theology at Jnana-Deepa Vidyapeeth, Pune. He is also the Executive Secretary of the CCBI Commission for Theology and Doctrine. He has authored many books and articles and is a columnist with The Asian Age and The Deccan Chronicle national dailies.