"I will not leave you orphans" ~ The Coming of the Spirit

The Sixth Sunday of Easter

Acts 8:5-8, 14-17
Ps 66:1-3, 4-5, 6-7, 16, 20, (1)
1 Peter 3:15-18
John 14:15-18

As we meditate on the readings each week, we see that they are bringing us ever closer to the feast of Christ's Ascension and to Pentecost. In today's Gospel, Jesus tells his disciples that if they love him and keep his commandments, the Father will send the Holy Spirit to teach and guide them after Jesus leaves their earthly presence forever.

The word, IF, places a condition on the followers of Jesus... and on us also. That condition is to love. When we love, we are able to obey the person we love. And Jesus tells us that we must keep his commandments. When we love and obey, we willingly place the needs and desires of the other person before our own. In other words, we are able to renounce self in the interests of the other...we are able to sacrifice.

We cannot live for ourselves alone. The selfishness that living only for ourselves breeds, places us in opposition to what it means to be an adopted child of God and an heir of the Kingdom. Instead, we are to imitate Jesus, whose life is the perfect example of love, obedience and sacrifice.

Love means reaching out to others... just as Jesus did when he told his disciples, "I will not leave you orphans..." (John 14:18)




~ Image by Turn Back To God