Readings & Reflections with Cardinal Tagle’s Video: Sixth Sunday of Easter A & St. Paschal Baylon, May 17,2020
When Phillip “proclaimed the Christ” to the crowds, “with one accord” they “paid attention to what was said.” Their full acceptance of the Word of God provoked Peter and John to go to them and lay hands on them so that they would receive the Holy Spirit. This fulfills what Jesus promised us the night before he died: “The Father will give you the Spirit of truth. He will be in you.” The Father will give you the Spirit of truth. He will be in you.” The “reason for our hope” is a Person we have met: Christ the Lord, whom we sanctify in our hearts and whose commandments we keep . Just as the crowds today are transfixed by the attraction of Philip, so we are captivated by the One who has loved us and revealed himself to us. It is the source of “great joy.”
AMDG+
Opening Prayer
Heavenly Father, we thank you for sending the Holy Spirit, the Guide to truth. Thank you for granting us knowledge of the truth, and for empowering us to tell the truth to others. Lord, at times my ambivalent heart tells me that You are too distant and far from my reach. But time and again, You have proven me wrong. Lord, whenever I feel empty, You fill my heart to the brim and your love overflows. When I lose sight of the truth, You guide me to the path of righteousness and when I am weak and afraid, You give me power and the courage to live a life of self giving. Lord with all these, I am blessed, because the Spirit dwells deep within my heart. In the Mighty Name of Jesus, I give thanks. Amen.
Please donate to St. Dominic Church CLICK HERE
Reading 1
Acts 8:5-8, 14-17 – Peter and John laid hands on them, and they received the Holy Spirit.
Philip went down to the city of Samaria and proclaimed the Christ to them. With one accord, the crowds paid attention to what was said by Philip when they heard it and saw the signs he was doing. For unclean spirits, crying out in a loud voice, came out of many possessed people, and many paralyzed or crippled people were cured. There was great joy in that city.
Now when the apostles in Jerusalem heard that Samaria had accepted the word of God, they sent them Peter and John, who went down and prayed for them, that they might receive the Holy Spirit,
for it had not yet fallen upon any of them; they had only been baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. Then they laid hands on them and they received the Holy Spirit.
The word of the Lord.
Responsorial Psalm
Ps 66:1-3, 4-5, 6-7, 16, 20
R. (1) Let all the earth cry out to God with joy.
or:
R. Alleluia.
Shout joyfully to God, all the earth,
sing praise to the glory of his name;
proclaim his glorious praise.
Say to God, “How tremendous are your deeds!”
R. Let all the earth cry out to God with joy.
or:
R. Alleluia.
“Let all on earth worship and sing praise to you,
sing praise to your name!”
Come and see the works of God,
his tremendous deeds among the children of Adam.
R. Let all the earth cry out to God with joy.
or:
R. Alleluia.
He has changed the sea into dry land;
through the river they passed on foot;
therefore let us rejoice in him.
He rules by his might forever.
R. Let all the earth cry out to God with joy.
or:
R. Alleluia.
Hear now, all you who fear God, while I declare
what he has done for me.
Blessed be God who refused me not
my prayer or his kindness!
R. Let all the earth cry out to God with joy.
or:
R. Alleluia.
Reading II
1 Pt 3:15-18 – Put to death in the flesh, Christ was raised to life in the Spirit.
Beloved:
Sanctify Christ as Lord in your hearts. Always be ready to give an explanation to anyone who asks you for a reason for your hope, but do it with gentleness and reverence, keeping your conscience clear, so that, when you are maligned, those who defame your good conduct in Christ may themselves be put to shame. For it is better to suffer for doing good, if that be the will of God, than for doing evil.
For Christ also suffered for sins once, the righteous for the sake of the unrighteous, that he might lead you to God. Put to death in the flesh, he was brought to life in the Spirit.
The word of the Lord.
Gospel
Jn 14:15-21 – I will ask the Father and he will give you another Advocate.
Bishop Robert Barron’s Homily: Give a reason for the hope that is in you click below:
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.”
The Gospel of the Lord.
Reflection 1 – Alive in the Spirit
Dr. Scott Hahn’s reflection: Listen Here
Jesus will not leave us alone. He won’t make us children of God in Baptism only to leave us “orphans,” He assures us in today’s Gospel (see Romans 8:14-17) .
He asks the Father to give us His Spirit, to dwell with us and keep us united in the life He shares with the Father.
We see the promised gift of His Spirit being conferred in today’s First Reading.
The scene from Acts apparently depicts a primitive Confirmation rite. Philip, one of the first deacons (see Acts 6:5), proclaims the Gospel in the non-Jewish city of Samaria. The Samaritans accept the Word of God (see Acts 17:11; 1 Thessalonians 2:13) and are baptized.
It remains for the Apostles to send their representatives, Peter and John, to pray and lay hands on the newly baptized—that they might receive the Holy Spirit. This is the origin of our sacrament of Confirmation (see Acts 19:5-6), by which the grace of Baptism is completed and believers are sealed with the Spirit promised by the Lord.
We remain in this grace so long as we love Christ and keep His commandments. And strengthened in the Spirit whom Jesus said would be our Advocate, we are called to bear witness to our salvation—to the tremendous deeds that God has done for us in the name of His Son.
In today’s Psalm, we celebrate our liberation. As He changed the sea into dry land to free the captive Israelites, Christ suffered that He might lead us to God, as we hear in today’s Epistle.
This is the reason for our hope—the hope that sustains us in the face of a world that cannot accept His truth, the hope that sustains us when we are maligned and defamed for His name’s sake.
Put to death in the flesh, He was brought to life in the Spirit, Paul tells us today. And as He himself promises: “Because I live, you will live.” – Read the source: https://stpaulcenter.com/reflections/alive-in-the-spirit-scott-hahn-reflects-on-the-sixth-sunday-of-easter
Reflection 2 – A love that is lifelong
As of May 16,2020, COVID-19 deaths worldwide is 309,047; USA – 88,523; Philippines – 817 (For other countries click this link: https://www.statista.com/statistics/1093256/novel-coronavirus-2019ncov-deaths-worldwide-by-country/). With this pandemic, death is just right around us. We are very careful in protecting ourselves against the invisible Covid-19 because we love good health for our body. Who can protect us against the enemy from within: anger, envy, pride, lust, gluttony and avarice that can destroy our peace and good health of both body and soul? There was a woman who exuberantly described how much she enjoyed her church and loved Jesus. Yet she refused to speak to her mother-in-law, fought with her sisters, and tried to dominate her husband. If she couldn’t show her devotion to Jesus by obeying His command to love others, the happiness she felt at church meant nothing. “For many, love is just a word, a passing phase, a brief emotion; but love that honors Christ our Lord responds to Him with deep devotion” (Hess, Our Daily Bread, RBC Ministries).
In today’s Gospel, Jesus said to his disciples: “If you love me, you will keep my commandments…” (Jn 14:15). Pope Benedict XVI commented on this verse: “Faith does not just mean accepting a certain number of abstract truths about the mysteries of God, of man, of life and death, of future realities. Faith consists in an intimate relationship with Christ, a relationship based on love of him who loved us first (cf. 1 Jn 4:11), even to the total offering of himself…. But what does it mean to love Christ? It means trusting him even in times of trial, following him faithfully even on the Via Crucis, in the hope that soon the morning of the Resurrection will come. Entrusting ourselves to Christ, we lose nothing, we gain everything. In his hands our life acquires its true meaning. Love for Christ expresses itself in the will to harmonize our own life with the thoughts and sentiments of his Heart. This is achieved through interior union based on the grace of the sacraments, strengthened by continuous prayer, praise, thanksgiving, and penance. We have to listen attentively to the inspirations that he evokes through his Word, through the people we meet, through the situations of daily life. To love him is to remain in dialogue with him, in order to know his will and to put it into effect promptly…. Faith as adherence to Christ is revealed as love that prompts us to promote the good inscribed by the Creator into the nature of every man and woman among us, into the personality of every other human being and into everything that exists in the world. Whoever believes and loves in this way becomes a builder of the true “civilization of love”, of which Christ is the center.” To read more on a love that is lifelong: A marriage God wants for you click this link: http://www.pagadiandiocese.org/2015/08/25/a-love-that-is-lifelong-a-marriage-god-wants-for-you/ and catholic couples are called to join the family life in your ministry in helping couples for practicing the civilization of love.
Reflection 3 – The Spirit of Truth
Today we receive Jesus’ promise to send the Paraclete, the Spirit of Truth when He said: “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.”
The “the Spirit of truth” which the world cannot accept, because it neither sees nor knows him, could be a message sent to us through a brother or sister in community. The spirit of truth may, in a number of ways, appear to be judgmental to some, yet soothing and nourishing to others. The truth we have in our Lord is two pronged and works differently amongst people and can only positively work in us if our spirit is one with God and His people, as Jesus Himself said, “But you know him, because he remains with you, and will be in you.” But when we are in sin, the Spirit is not able to work in us, unable to bring us the grace of His peace and understanding because the Spirit leaves us, causing the hardening of our heart. We are not only confused and blinded but all we see is our impaired heart which regrettably may have been filled to the brim with “SELF” and which naturally will flow into self vindication and eventually vengeance.
When we find ourselves seemingly being judged by a message, the next best thing to do is to pray and ask God for His grace to be able to discern how we can grow from it, how we can draw closer to our Lord, how we can better our service for the Lord rather than judge the bearer of God’s good news to us. The spirit of truth through God’s word will always accomplish His true plan for us unless we block it and we become defensive of our ways.
Instead of misusing the authority given to us by our Lord in our ministry and ensuring that no one may cross our path again, we ought not to look at others as aggressors but as God’s vessels of healing and mercy. Instead of instituting structures to protect our own areas, let us open the gates of our hearts to God’s indwelling presence through His Spirit so that everything that comes from us, our words and actions, our witnessing will be ways of bringing everyone closer to God, ways of up-building His church.
Peter in our second reading exhorts all of us not to give in to feelings of discouragement and revenge because the persecution from the evil one has just begun. We should never be offensive such that we curtail the gift of others and impede their role in community and their God-anointed tasks. We should not abuse and misuse authority given to us through our role in community. But we should be able to receive and accept the truth embodied in God’s message to us through our brother or sister. It is always “better to suffer for doing good, if that be the will of God, than for doing evil. For Christ also suffered for sins once, the righteous for the sake of the unrighteous, that he might lead you to God. Put to death in the flesh, he was brought to life in the Spirit.”
But most importantly let us Sanctify Christ as Lord in your hearts. Always be ready to give an explanation to anyone who asks you for a reason for your hope, but do it with gentleness and reverence, keeping your conscience clear, so that, when you are maligned, those who defame your good conduct in Christ may themselves be put to shame. All these are possible because of the Gift of the Holy Spirit, our Advocate! The SPIRIT dwells within us!
Direction
Let us always be ready to witness to our faith through God’s indwelling presence.
Prayer
Heavenly Father, make me your true vessel. Work in me and through me in the mighty Name of Jesus. Amen.
Reflection 4 – To Love is to Obey
A great king was well loved by his people. Unfortunately, he developed a serious heart disease, and needed a heart transplant. When the people heard this, they gathered outside the palace in front of the king’s bedroom. It was such a touching sight to behold, as the people were crying and each one shouting, “Take my heart, O my King!” The king was truly moved by the display of affection from his people. But he did not know whose heart he will take, for each one is saying, “Take my heart, O my King!” Finally, he told the crowd: “I am going to throw down a feather. I will take the heart of the one on whom the feather lands.” Then he threw down the feather on the crowd. It floated in the air for some time and gradually descended upon the people. But it could not land on anyone – because each one, while screaming, “Take my heart, O my King”, would also blow the feather away. In other words, their love for the king is only in words, without the corresponding action and commitment.
In the Gospel this Sunday, Jesus said, “If you love me, you will keep my commandments.” Very clearly, the proof of our love of God is our obedience to His commandments. Jesus compressed all these commandments into one, namely, the commandment of love. At the Last Supper, he declared: “A new commandment I give unto you, that you love one another as I have loved you.” In other words, if we really love God, we must follow all His commandments, particularly that of love of our neighbor.
The Apostle John is very clear and strong on this: “Whoever says, “I love God,” but hates his brother is a liar. The one who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love the God whom he has not seen” (1John 4:20). This is true with many of the so-called nominal Christians. They loudly profess their love of God, but they also continue in their selfish ways, ignoring and inflicting harm on their neighbor. After all, like the people of the king in our story, it is easier to pronounce words of love, but it is a completely different thing to manifest this love in actions of fidelity, generosity and sacrifice.
The world is seriously ill. Its illness is called selfishness. It is the root cause of so many serious problems that we see in our society today. Due to selfishness, people are obsessed with the ambition of becoming rich, powerful and popular. Greed, materialism and pride rule their hearts. This results in all sorts of troubles, sufferings, abuses and the rapid spread of the culture of death. We are now reaping the fruits of selfishness and greed that we planted. We are simply following the footsteps of our first parents, Adam and Eve. They knowingly disobeyed God’s commands in pursuit of their selfish desires and ambition. Such disobedience brought about death and all the troubles and problems of humanity.
The present time can be aptly described as the era of disobedience. Never in its history has the world become so flagrantly and stubbornly disobedient to God as it is today. Look at what is happening now. God explicitly forbids divorce. But as of now, all countries in the world have legalized divorce except the Philippines. That is why we see so much international pressure, political and financial, being applied to the three branches of our government to legalize divorce in our country.
God commanded: “Thou shall not kill.” But killing babies through abortion has been legalized in so many parts of the world. The Philippines is not yet among them. But with the RH Law being declared recently as constitutional, we expect some dangerous developments ahead. As Blessed Mother Teresa said, “If a mother can kill her own child, what is left but for us to kill each other?” So mankind finds itself in the so-called “slippery slope” that begins in contraception, leading to abortion and capital punishment and goes down to euthanasia or assisted suicide. If this downward slide – courtesy of the culture of death – cannot be stopped, the world will inevitably plunge itself towards destruction and annihilation.
The only way to reverse this downward trend is through obedience. Just as the disobedience of Adam and Eve that led to death was reversed by the perfect obedience of Jesus and Mary, so also we can bring in new hope for a better world through our humble and unconditional obedience to God.
But this is not easy. It is difficult to obey God’s commands, given the fallen nature that we have. But it is doubly difficult nowadays due to the hatred and opposition of this world. It has come to a point now when people think that to disobey God is perfectly normal and even commendable, while those who obey God and uphold His teachings are ostracized and branded as unnatural, out of touch with reality and killjoy. To pray in schools and public places and to display the cross and other religious symbols are now declared unconstitutional in some countries. Medical professionals who refuse to perform abortion and sterilization are in danger of losing their job. Doing the right thing is denounced and penalized, while violating divine and natural law is justified and even encouraged and legalized.
But this present environment, no matter how adverse and hostile, should not stop us from obeying God and doing right. St. Peter assures us in the second reading today: “It is better to suffer for doing good, if that be the will of God, than for doing evil.” Indeed, for faithful Christians, disobedience is never an option. Jesus said that we must show our love of God by our obedience: “Whoever has my commandments and observes them is the one who loves me.” As St. Ignatius of Loyola said, “It is not hard to obey when we love the one whom we obey.”
And most especially, obedience is our sure way to be united with God. According to St. Thomas Aquinas, “Obedience unites us so closely to God that in a way transforms us into Him, so that we have no other will but His.” To those that obey him, Jesus promised, “On that day, you will realize that I am in my Father and you are in me and I in you.” (Source: Fr. Mike Lagrimas, St. Michael the Archangel Parish, Amsterdam St., Capitol Park Homes, Matandang Balara, Quezon City 1119).
Reflection 5 – The Counselor will be with you for ever
What makes us both fully human and truly like God? Is it not unconditional love which is unselfish, undying, and wholly directed to the good of others? The love of God unites us in an unbreakable bond of fidelity, friendship, and community with others. Jesus loved his own until the very end of his passion and death on the cross (John 13:1).
The nature of love
From the very beginning of creation God said: it is not good that man should be alone (Genesis 2:18). We were created in love for love – to be a community of loving persons, just as the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are inseparably united in a community of unbreakable love.
John Henry Newman (1801-1890) said: We love because it is our nature to love, and it is our nature because God the Holy Spirit has made it our nature. Jesus speaks to his disciples of the inseparable bound of love between himself and the Father, and of their love for humankind. In Jesus we see the fulness of God’s love and how God’s love is directed to our well-being. In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might have life through him (1 John 4:9).
Knowing God’s love
How do we know that God truly loves each one of us? In the cross we see the proof of God’s love for each of us and the incredible price God was willing to pay to redeem us from slavery to sin, death, and Satan. Jesus gave up his life that we might have life – abundant, everlasting life with God – a life of love and unity with the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit forever.
Through the cross Jesus opened a new way of relationship for us as the adopted sons and daughters of God – his beloved children (Romans 8:14-17). Jesus calls his disciples to walk in his way of love through obedience to the will of the Father. True love is more than sentiment, emotion, or good intention. As important as these may be they are not the proof of sincere love. True love for God is expressed in obedience and obedience is expressed in love.
Jesus’ best gift for us
Jesus promised to give his followers the best of gifts, the Holy Spirit as their Counselor and Helper. How does the Holy Spirit help us as the counselor? Counselor is a legal term for one who defends someone against an adversary and who guides that person during the ordeal of trial. The Holy Spirit is our Advocate and Helper who guides and strengthens us and brings us safely through the challenges and adversities we must face in this life.
The Holy Spirit is also the Giver of life – the abundant life which comes from God and which sustains us forever. The Holy Spirit also guides us in the way of truth, wisdom, and goodness. We can never stop learning because the Spirit leads us more and more into the knowledge of God’s love, truth, and goodness. Jesus also promised his followers the gift of peace. Peace is more than the absence of conflict or trouble. Peace includes everything which makes for our highest good. Trust in God, faith in his promises, and obedience to his word lead us to peace and security in God’s presence. That is why a Christian need not fear or be troubled by anything. The love of Christ brings immeasurable joy and consolation even in the midst of our trials and suffering. Paul the Apostle states,
“Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?… For I am sure that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 8:35,38-39).
Ask the Holy Spirit to fill you with the knowledge of Christ’s immense love and with his gift of peace.
“O God, you are the unsearchable abyss of peace, the ineffable sea of love, the fountain of blessings and the bestower of affection, who sends peace to those who receive it. Open to us this day the sea of your love and water us with abundant streams from the riches of your grace and from the most sweet springs of your kindness. Make us children of quietness and heirs of peace; enkindle in us the fire of your love; sow in us your fear; strengthen our weakness by your power; bind us closely to you and to each other in our firm and indissoluble bond of unity.” (ancient prayer from Syrian Clementine liturgy) – Read the source: http://dailyscripture.servantsoftheword.org/readings/2020/may17.htm
Reflection 6 – I will not leave you orphans
Everyone Needs a Joe
Charles Dickens’ Great Expectations has many of the more memorable characters developed by that great author. My personal favorite is Joe Gargery, the blacksmith who, with his wife, takes in her orphaned younger brother, Pip, the central character of the novel. Joe lacks any kind of social polish, and has no formal education (he can’t read or write), but he exhibits patience, strength, and great kindness toward Pip, becoming more of a father-figure to Pip rather than the older brother-in-law that he was. Dickens introduces no 2-dimensional character here who is merely “nice,” but a person who relates to others with humility, simplicity, and joy. After Pip enters polite London society, he becomes embarrassed of Joe’s lack of refinement, and keeps Joe at a distance. While Joe suffers this reality in silence, he never stops being there for Pip. In a dramatic moment later in the novel, Pip awakes from a long bout of an illness to find Joe at his bedside, and that he had been taking care of Pip for months. No matter how poorly Pip treated him before, Joe would always come to Pip’s side. When Pip comes out of his hallucinations and recognizes his friend, he says in remorse: “Look angry at me, Joe. Strike me, Joe. Tell me of my ingratitude. Don’t be so good to me!” Joe could not contain his joy that Pip recognized him: “…you and me was ever friends. And when you’re well enough [we’ll go] out for a ride…” Pip would discover that the greatest truth that gave meaning to his life was not the financial backing he received from an anonymous patron, not the maneuvers to win over Estella to his affections, not the protocols for advancing in high society, but the truth of a person who never left his side, and never gave up on him.
Jesus promises us the “Paraclete,” or “Advocate.” The word “Paraclete” literally means “one called alongside” indicating one who accompanies another. This can refer to a counselor who intercedes for another in a lawsuit, a helper who encourages, or a companion who gives comfort. This paraclete, or advocate, is the Spirit of Truth, the Holy Spirit. Jesus is preparing his disciples for his ascension, his going to the Father. He doesn’t leave his followers a detailed plan. Instead, he promises us a person, the Holy Spirit, who will never leave our side. This is why he says “I will not leave you orphans.” The Spirit is with us to open us to the fullness of the truth of Jesus’ words, and the commandment he gives to “love one another as I have loved you.” (John 15:9)
In the Acts of the Apostles, the deacon Philip is led by the Spirit to proclaim Christ in Samaria, following the command of Jesus before his ascension: “you will be my witnesses … in Samaria.” Philip’s obedience is so powerful that he not only listens to the Spirit, he is so caught up in the Spirit that he is able to perform great signs among the people. Later in this chapter of the Acts, we can read that Philip would be so available to the Spirit that the Spirit could snatch Philip from one completed mission, and place him somewhere else where he would hit the ground running, and continue to proclaim Christ to others.
In the second reading from the first Letter of St. Peter, believers are encouraged to “give an explanation to anyone who asks you for a reason for your hope” (I Peter 3:16). The ministry of Philip in the early Church attests that the beginning of any explanation is not a set of statements or teaching, but, rather, the conviction of a relationship with Jesus Christ through the Holy Spirit. From this conviction, Philip could teach from the scriptures and witness by words and signs. The presence of the Spirit as the Paraclete/Advocate shows us that our response to Christ is not rooted in our own subjectivity or self-assertion. Our life in Christ is definitely personal, but not subjective. We are led into the truth of Jesus Christ so that we may be caught up in the life of eternal love that is the communion of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
A Dickensian orphan comes to know the truth about life and love through the constancy of a friend named Joe, who never left him, and who did not let himself be moved by feelings but by virtue. We find our hope in the truth that we are never alone. Jesus gives us the Paraclete who is at our side, and leads us to the fullness of truth, to the life where we are loved by the Father, and by Christ, who reveals himself to us, and reveals that “we were ever friends!” – Read the source: http://www.hprweb.com/2017/05/homilies-for-may-2017/
Reflection 7 – Called to be saints
Pope John Paul II beatified and canonized more people than his entire predecessor combined. So often, he spoke of the universal call to holiness and that holiness was not reserved for a select few individuals. It is a call and task of every person in every generation. The saints lived their lives on this earth. They had the same joys and sorrows that we experience. They lived in this world but never lost sight of the fact that they were but pilgrims in a passing world. Their joy was to do the will of God in all things. Even if they were persecuted or ridiculed, they trusted in God and remained faithful to him. They had reverence for Christ and were always prepared to make a defense for the hope that was within them (1 Pt 3:15-18). They showed their love of God by faithfully keeping his commandments.
God would not call us to be saints without giving us the grace we need in order to make it possible. Our life of holiness is a growing realization of God’s love for us. The very fact that God loves us is a constant source of joy.
Each of us faces difficulties and challenges in living the Christian life. We feel the increasing pressure in our society that often run contrary to our basic beliefs. There are pressures both from within and without. There is more competition in school and in the workplace. It has become difficult to succeed. The standards for success seem to be in constant flux of this every time we look at the news. We see crime and corruption. There are times when people are persecuted for believing in God and many dismiss the teachings of Christ and the Church as being irrelevant or impractical. Within our own lives, we struggle with temptation and sin. While we know what we are to do, we don’t always do it. It was no different for the saints who have gone before us. We must not get discouraged as we make our pilgrimage through life. While the Christian life is difficult, it is never impossible. Through prayer and the grace of the sacraments, the Lord gives us the strength that we need in living our Christian lives and in keeping his commandments. That is why we need to live our lives firmly focused on Jesus Christ; “He is the way, the truth and the life” (Jn 14:6). In looking at the history of the Church, great battles were fought, empires came and went, and yet the Church has survived in the midst of everything. The Church is founded not on any human power but on Jesus Christ who is the cornerstone. As Christ suffered so too we must suffer as follower of Christ. The Holy Spirit who consoled and strengthened the Lord is the same Spirit who was given to us in baptism and continues to guide the Church. The commandments purify our love for ourselves, for others and for God They help us to navigate the troubled waters of life. The laws of God are ones that free us to love God above all else.
In his homily to the conclave that would elect him as Pope Benedict XVI, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger said: “How many winds of doctrine we have known in recent decades, how many ideological currents, and how many ways of thinking. The small boat of thought of many Christians has often been tossed about by these waves thrown from one extreme to the other: from Marxism to liberalism, even to libertinism; from collectivism to radical individualism; from atheism to a vague religious mysticism; from agnosticism to syncretism, and so forth. Every day new sects are created and what St. Paul says about human trickery comes true, with cunning which tries to draw those into error. Having a clear faith, based on the Creed of the Church, is often labeled today as a fundamentalism. Whereas, relativism, which is letting oneself, is tossed and ‘swept along by every wind of teaching,’ looks like the only attitude acceptable to today’s standards. We are moving towards a dictatorship of relativism which does not recognize anything as certain and which has as its highest goal one’s own ego and one’s own desires. However, we have a different goal: the Son of God, true man. He is the measure of true humanism. Being an ‘adult’ means having a faith which does not follow the waves of today’s fashion or the latest novelties. A faith which is deeply rooted in friendship with Christ is adult and mature. It is this friendship which opens us up to all that is good and gives us the knowledge to judge true from false, and deceit from truth. We must become mature in this adult faith; we must guide the flock of Christ to this faith. It is this faith which creates unity and takes form in love. On this theme, St. Paul offers us some beautiful words – in contrast to the continual ups and downs of those we are like infants, tossed about by the waves; he says make truth in love, as the basic formula of Christian existence. In Christ, truth and love coincide.
The saints knew this reality and in order to be saints, we too must not allow ourselves to love focus on Jesus Christ. Let us pray for the grace to be like them, so that we may always have courage and joy in living out the Christian life (Source: Rev. Paul A. Burke, “Homilies” Homiletic & Pastoral Review, Vol. CVIII, No. 6. New Jersey: Ignatius Press, March 2008, pp. 39-41; Suggested reading: Catechism of the Catholic Church, 301,523,736,1829,1832).
Reflection 8 – The Advocate
After the dear old woman’s funeral, I hosted mourners at the parish hall for a funeral repast. I sat at table with some young adults, including the woman’s grandson, who had left the Catholic Church for an evangelical Christian community. As we ate, the young man grew challenged me, peppering me with Bible quotations purporting to disprove the Catholic faith. But I’d been a decent seminary student, knew the Bible well enough, and easily and calmly deflected his challenges.
As the meal ended, the man protested, “Sir, sir, one last question: What makes you priests think you have authority to hear confessions?” I replied succinctly, “Well, in John chapter 20, Jesus breathes on the gathered apostles and says, ‘Receive the Holy Spirit. Whose sins you forgive are forgiven; whose sins you retain are retained.’”
The man looked perplexed, but only momentarily. After a few seconds, he retorted, “Jesus would never say anything like that!”
The story amuses me, but it’s also sad. It’s not enough to know Jesus — er, think you know Jesus — apart from the gift of the Spirit. In today’s excerpt from the Book of Acts, the early Church had to rectify such a situation in Samaria, where new believers had been baptized in the name of Jesus, but not the Spirit. The apostles conferred on them the gift of the Spirit through the imposition of hands. This story is often cited by Christians trying to understand the importance of the gift of the Spirit beyond mere baptism or a limited knowledge of Jesus.
Truth is, you can’t know Jesus rightly apart from the Spirit. They are distinct divine Persons, but with the Father they are the one God and never separate from each other. People may know Jesus in some bare historical way, or in a dry biblical manner like the young man firing quotes at me like bullets. But the real Jesus never intended our shared life with him to stop at the limits of the Bible: “I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate to be with you always, the Spirit of truth.” Our shared life with Jesus continues in the Church because the Spirit has been given to her.
But who is this Spirit? If you rely solely on portrayals on screen or in social media, the Holy Spirit is some strange force that makes people jump up and down or clap their hands when they worship, and occasionally causes them to work a miracle of healing. But while the Bible loosely associates the gift of the Spirit with fervor or piety in worship, this is not the best way to understand the Spirit.
Consider instead Jesus’s words about the Spirit. Today Jesus calls him “Advocate.” In the original language, he could mean a defense attorney, someone to defend you in court. Perhaps Jesus anticipates Judgment Day, when Satan or other enemies accuse you before God’s throne, and the Holy Spirit will be your defense attorney, citing the mercy of Jesus in your favor.
But an advocate can also be someone who appeals for you — like a social security or welfare advocate who works the system to make sure you get your maximum benefits, or a health advocate who talks to the doctors, hospitals, insurance companies to make sure you get the medical care you need. Like a divine spokesman, the Holy Spirit prays for you constantly. Even when you pray badly, the Holy Spirit speaks unfailingly to the Father on your behalf.
Still further, an advocate can be someone who encourages — like the people on the sidelines at a marathon, who cheer on the runners, “You’re doing great,” or physical trainers in the gym, “Come on, you can do it, keep up the effort.” The Holy Spirit encourages you as a follower of Jesus: “You can know Jesus, you can be faithful to him, you can be like Jesus.”
I suspect the Lord Jesus meant all of the above. The Holy Spirit is your Advocate: your defense attorney on Judgment Day, praying to the Father that you receive from him all the favors you need, encouraging you and strengthening you to go the distance, persevering for your entire life in obedience and love.
So as Peter exhorts in his epistle, do not fear anyone who might defame you or malign you. Do not fear that you will be left abandoned as an orphan, Do not even fear your own failure, for Christ already suffered for your sins, and now lives in the Spirit. He promises you life in that same Spirit, and with the Spirit a shared life with Jesus himself and with his heavenly Father.
Instead, feel the strength of God, and do not settle for the minimum: Go for the maximum, shoot for the moon, hope for Heaven. In your strength, stand ready to help others, give them an account of the hope in you — not with arrogance or condescension or anxiety, for these are the marks of weakness, but with gentleness and compassion, as one who is confident in the Spirit. Stand ready to defend others, stand ready to help, stand ready to encourage, as the Spirit is promised to defend, help, and encourage you. – Read the source: https://www.hprweb.com/2020/05/homilies-for-may-2020/
Reflection 9 – Stand by me
[By Fr. Bausch – He has drawn material for this homily from Tim O’Connell’s little book, Tend Your Own Garden, Thomas More Press, 1999.]
On this day, most preachers make some reference to Mother’s Day even if it has nothing to do with our Christian tradition or liturgy. Still, going back to the origins of this holiday might give us some food for thought.
As you might know, the practice of celebrating Mother’s Day comes from Civil War times. Mrs. Anna Reeves Jarvis wanted to organize a special day for mothers who had sons fighting on opposing sides in the Civil War. And so Mother’s Day was meant to be comfort for a mother’s worse nightmare: the possibility that her sons, on a battlefield somewhere, might be killing each other. In 1907, Jarvis’s daughter began a movement to make Mother’s Day a national event. Finally, in 1915, President Woodrow Wilson proclaimed the second Sunday of May as Mother’s Day.
From there, the commercial interests took over. Today, Mother’s Day is awash in slick sentimentality, and very few remember its painful origin. But perhaps we can recapture some of the original meaning of this day if we return to the image of children at war. And I am not talking just about the horrible reality of children killing other children, but also the cultural wars, the ones most parents feel they are losing to the all-powerful media. The good news is that teachers and parents in general, and mothers in particular, have one advantage in these cultural wars: they have the first chance to make a lasting impression. In the words of today’s gospel, they are advocates, ones who “stand by” another as the “Spirit of truth.”
And they stand by not silently, but with words of direction and wisdom repeated over and over again. As one mother puts it:
On this Mother’s Day, reading John’s gospel, I am reminded of one of the main features of my mothering style. Like my own mother did, I talk to my children a lot! Since they were babies I have instinctively blanketed my three sons with songs, humming, whistling, and words. My mother’s theory (as she explained it) went something like this: “You never know when your children are listening or what they will hear. So I say everything several ways, over and over. Perhaps one of the times or ways I speak will get through.”
I view my monologues with my children as a big part of my role as transmitter of values, and both general and specific operating instructions for life. I dare say that my children are not in the dark about my views, feelings, opinions, and wishes for them about almost anything from proper table manners to proper sexual conduct.
There you are. Raising moral children, guiding them through the cultural wars, comes from instruction and teaching. And, as that mother said, it comes from saying the same things over and over again.
When I was about eight or nine, my friends and I found a high mound from a house excavation. Of course, we simply had to climb it to see who was going to be “king of the hill.” Once on top we surveyed our domain. That’s when some girls walked by. The nerve of them to enter our territory! So we hurled dirt bombs down on them.
Needless to say, within hours the entire story had found its way through the neighborhood telegraph system right back home to my mother. Her reaction was instantaneous: “Did you boys throw dirt at the girls?” After some hesitation, I admitted that we had. “Well, that’s not right. I will not have you doing that. You are marching down the street right now to apologize to the girls. And you are going to tell them that you won’t do it any more.”
Was this intervention really influential in my life? Well, I certainly still remember it! And I know I’m a little less inclined to throw dirt–in any sense–as a result of this childhood experience. Wise parents provide this sort of training all the time. They teach their children to act with virtue and thereby develop the ability to do so on a regular basis. Here are some examples of everyday advocacy:
I know you don’t feel like doing your homework right now. You’d rather go out and play. But I want you to stick to the work for another half hour. Then you can join your friends down the street.
I know you don’t like the sweater your grandmother sent you for Christmas. But she gave it to you out of love. So you will write her a thank-you note nonetheless.
I know you’ve received a last-minute invitation to go on this exciting weekend trip. But when you agreed to join the soccer team you made a commitment to your teammates. You don’t have to play soccer next year if you don’t want to. But for this year you made a commitment and you must fulfill it. So you cannot skip the game to go on the trip.
Would you say things like that to your children? If you don’t, what kind of message are you sending? It’s OK to break your commitments, your word, when something better comes along? Later on, when their marriage breaks up, you will wonder, where did they learn that? Parents don’t have to be perfect to teach by telling. They can say to their children, “I do the best I can. I don’t know everything. I’ve made my share of mistakes. You’ll make some, too. But I want to tell you what I’ve learned.”
At one time, parents used to try to have all the answers. But children resent and reject that approach. Now a lot of parents, unsure of themselves in a world of diversity and relativism, have lost their confidence and have gone to the other extreme: they don’t give any answers. As a result, kids suffer from a lack of guidance and grow up without any values to live by.
Parents can tell their children what they believe without playing God. They can guide and instruct, listen and advise. Says one mother: “I believe in telling kids what you think is important, what you think can help them in their lives. You have to catch them at the right time, and you can never be sure when that is. You may have to say it a lot before they start taking it in. But they will remember it. They will say, ‘My mother always used to tell me…’”
Here is how three people remember what their parents “used to say”:
My mother always said, “Dare to be different. If people are painting themselves yellow and jumping in the pond, feel perfectly free to paint yourself green and walk backwards. Never mind what the rest of the world is doing; you are your own person.” She also taught us that we were sacraments and our lives were a prayer.
When I was fifteen years old, I fell in a hole in the street and I broke my foot. We had a good case, and could have taken the town to the cleaners. My mother only wanted medical expenses covered, even though the lawyer thought she was nuts. Her philosophy was, “You only take what you earn.” In my own life, I’ve done as my mother did. Now I try to pass on this same value to my daughter.
My father always emphasized that to help a friend in need was one of the best things you could do in life. This had always been a rewarding experience for him. It has been an equally rewarding experience for me when I have helped friends in need.
The lead article in the May 10, 1999 issue of Newsweek magazine was titled: “How Well Do You Know Your Kids?” While the article showed that American adolescents are highly privileged, affluent, well educated, and media savvy, there is:
…another dimension to this picture, and it’s far more troubled. In survey after survey, many kids–even those on the honor roll–say they feel increasingly alone and alienated, unable to connect with their parents, teachers, and sometimes even classmates. They are desperate for guidance, and when they don’t get it at home or at school, they cling to cliques or immerse themselves in a universe outside their parents’ reach, a world defined by computer games, TV, and movies where brutality is so common it has become mundane.
The article goes on: “Half have lived through their parents’ divorce. Sixty-three percent are in households where both parents work outside the home and many look after younger siblings in the afternoon. Still others are home by themselves after school….”
University of Chicago sociologist Barbara Schneider has been studying 7,000 teenagers for five years, and has found they spend an average of three and a half hours alone every day. Author Patricia Hersch profiled eight teens who live in an affluent area of northern Virginia for her 1998 book, A Tribe Apart. She says, “Every kid I talked to at length eventually came around to saying without my asking that they wished they had more adults in their lives, especially their parents.” Kids are desperate for parents, for guidance, for an advocate, the Spirit of truth. They are often left to go into the world rudderless with no one to stand by them.
In the popular Generation X film, Reality Bites, the valedictorian, played by Winona Ryder, gives the commencement address at Houston’s Rice University. Her address, like most commencement speeches, is full of challenges. As she moves to the climax of her address, the crescendo builds until she finally says with great passion: “And the answer is….” Then she loses her place in her notes and stumbles. Again: “And the answer is…” but once more she cannot find her next card. Finally, much subdued, she simply says, “And the answer is, I don’t know.”
Our children don’t know because no one has told them. They are desperate for guidance. When it’s given, consistently and repeatedly, you get someone like Michael Jordan. His father, as you might recall, was murdered in the summer of 1993. Before that happened, Michael said this to columnist Bob Greene:
My heroes are and were my parents.…It wasn’t that the rest of the world would necessarily think they were heroic. But they were the adults I saw constantly, and I admired what I saw. If you are lucky, you grow up in a house where you can learn what kind of person you should be from your parents. And on that count, I was very lucky. It may have been the luckiest thing that ever happened to me.
To Michael Jordan, good parents meant as much to him as his incomparable basketball skill.
Does all this sound more like a lecture you might get at a PTA meeting, rather than a commentary on the gospel? Perhaps. But we have the words of Christ to put this homily in a context of faith: “If you love me, you will keep my commandments.” “My Father will give you another advocate, the Spirit of truth.” “I will not leave you orphaned.”
Mothers and fathers and teachers and significant adults, engaged out there in the cultural wars, tell your children to keep your commandments, your teaching, your advice which has been repeated over and over again. Tell them to hold onto the Spirit of truth. Then especially, tell them, show them, what they most want to hear: “I will not leave you orphaned.”
Remember, our children achingly want adults in their lives as they negotiate through the world, someone to teach them the way of righteousness. And there isn’t a better day to begin to do this than on Mother’s Day. Let us reach out in gratitude to our mothers, who were and are our advocates, those who with love stand by us.
Reflection 10 – How we see Jesus’ face now?
In the Gospel that we just listened to, Jesus told his disciples, “In a little while the world will no longer see me, but you will see me, because I live and you will live.” These words are fulfilled now in our assembly, in our hearing. We see Jesus´ face now. We can see him because he is alive, he is in our midst now. And seeing his face, we do not die, contrary to the fear of the people of old that seeing the face of God would mean death for them. On the contrary, seeing Jesus´s holy face we draw the life and energy which comes from him. This is a profound blessing granted to us, now. This gives us a foretaste of eternal life, where we hope to behold the face of God in eternal contemplation and adoration. Seeing Jesus, we live! Seeing Jesus, we live!
How could it be possible for us to see Jesus? As sinners, we do not have the merit nor the right to see his face. But we see him and we live! How could this happen? The answer comes from Jesus in the Gospel of today, “Whoever loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and reveal myself to him.” Strictly speaking, we do not see the face of Jesus. It is more accurate to say that he reveals his face to us. He shows his face, and so we see. This is pure grace. This is pure and total love on the part of Jesus. He manifests his face, his true self, for no other reason than for the love he has for us. Allow me to share with you three points useful for reflection.
First, when Jesus shows his face to us, he does not look at his own face. He looks at us. Even in our daily experience, when we show our face to other people, we look at them, not at ourselves. This is love: in showing my face I become someone who sees others, who hears others, who understands others, who feels for others. Showing one´s face means that I spend less time looking at my own face, my activities, my needs, my comfort or wellbeing, my interests and instead that I devote more time to looking at the face of others, of those who suffer. This is the love that the holy face of Jesus shows us. He is interested in us, he is for us, he looks at us more than he looks at himself. The devotees of the Holy Face must be like him. Is our gaze directed only at ourselves, our immediate group, those closest to us or are we learning from Jesus who penetrates the hearts of others with his loving gaze?
Second, the face of Jesus, a loving and other-centered face is also a face that speaks. Even when our lips do not utter “audible” words, our face can speak “visible” words. He said in the Gospel, “If you love me, you will keep my commandments.” His face is not only seen but heard. Jesus´ face is the human face of the Word of God, now heard and seen especially in his commandments. In our time, people look at rules as something negative. But the commandments of the Lord are not burdens to make our life more difficult, not tools to destroy our freedom, not mechanisms of condemnation of our weak and fragile persona. His commandments are paths to peace, liberty and forgiveness. In Jesus´ face we see the person who fulfilled the commandment to love God above all and one’s neighbor as oneself. His commandments are visible in him who told us, “Come to me…Take my yoke upon your shoulders and learn from me for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. My yoke, in face, is easy and my burden light” (Matthew 11:28-30). The devotees of the Holy Face are called to listen attentively to Jesus who is the visible word of peace, of freedom, of forgiveness and of love.
Finally, what we have seen and heard, we must share with others. In the first reading, Philip proclaimed in Samaria the Jesus that he had seen and heard. His preaching was accompanied by visible signs of healing and liberation. The face of Jesus was seen and heard in Philip´s testimony. In the second reading, Peter tells those who are undergoing trials and persecution to be ready to give an explanation to anyone who asks for a reason for the hope that is in them. The answer is simple: Jesus! He is our sure hope. His love for us and triumph over death is the reason why we have hope. But Peter reminds us to proclaim our hope with gentleness and respect, with a clear conscience and integrity of life, with readiness to suffer for doing good rather than for doing evil. In other words, we best proclaim Jesus if others see and hear Jesus in us.
We see the face of Jesus because He reveals His face to us, the face of the loving God. His is the face of God turned towards us and not centered on himself. His is the face of the One who fulfilled the commandment of love. As we see and hear His face may our faces be transformed into his holy face. Through the testimony of our faces, may the suffering people of the world know that Jesus sees them, listens to them, cares for them and loves them. Amen. – Read the source: https://zenit.org/articles/cardinal-tagle-explains-how-we-see-jesus-face-now/
Reflection 11 – Jesus is giving you the best partner ever
In this Sunday’s Gospel reading, Jesus tells us that the Holy Spirit is our “Advocate”. Some scholars translate the word to “Counselor”. In the original Greek, it means “called alongside”. It’s closely related to the verb “parakaleo” (“to call” or “summon”) from which we get “Paraclete” as a name for the Holy Spirit. It referred to a legal assistant, a courtroom advocate. Jesus is telling us that the Holy Spirit is our legal assistant when we’re falsely accused, misjudged, or wrongly condemned.
Notice that Jesus refers to our Advocate as the “Spirit of Truth”. No matter what other people think about us, no matter what wrong things they say about us, no matter what opinions they have of us, God always knows the truth. And the truth that sets us free from their bad attitudes is this: It’s only God’s opinion that really matters. And his opinion of us is better than we think it is!
We judge ourselves more harshly than we should, and this is why we worry so much about how others are judging us. If we honestly examine our consciences, seek reconciliation with God for our sins during the Penance Rite at Mass or in the Sacrament of Confession, and strive to improve, then Jesus says to us what he said to other sinners: “I do not condemn you; go and sin no more.”
Don’t you sometimes wish that Jesus would come physically to your rescue when you’re misjudged? He said that he will not leave us orphans — his Holy Spirit will always be with us when we need to be defended, telling us the truth about our goodness.
Even when we sin, the Spirit of Truth defends us to our heavenly Judge: “Look, this precious child really does want to be holy.” To us, the Spirit says, “Let me teach you how to grow in holiness and avoid this sin.” And to others, the Spirit says: “If you love me, love this good friend of mine.”
Questions for Personal Reflection:
How have you been unjustly accused and unfairly judged? Imagine what the Holy Spirit is saying to the Father about that. And to those who condemned you. What is he saying to you about you?
Questions for Group Faith Sharing:
Describe a time when God defended you. How did the Advocate manifest his help? Who learned more from it: you or your accusers? – Read the source: http://gnm.org/good-news-reflections/?useDrDate=2017-05-20
Reflection 12 – God is our dwelling and we are the dwelling of God
1) We are not orphans.
This Sunday the liturgy continues the reading of Chapter 14 of the Gospel of John. The theme is love, as it appears from the beginning (“if you love me“) (Jn 14,15) and the conclusion (“whoever loves me will be loved by my Father and I will love him and manifest myself to Him “)(Jn 14:21) of today’s Gospel. The disciples, terrified by the real possibility that the Master dies, are comforted by Jesus who opens their hearts calling them” friends “and not” servants “, giving them the Eucharist and opening a new way: that of the love given to the world through the Cross. His Cross is the concrete revelation of God who loves to the full gift of self, and a sign of his unlimited presence in the world. On the Cross Christ does not fail but brings to the full the manifestation of His immense love: “No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. You are my friends if you do what I command you” (Jn 15: 12-18).
Jesus teaches to his disciples that his donated Love is the strength that allows not to be locked into a limited past, but to be opened to a future perceived as the space of their loyalty to Him in a community and in the world. Only the disciple who accepts the reality of Jesus’ death can open up to a new relationship with the Crucified-Risen: the true “following” begins with Easter, an event that returns Jesus to the believer in a new way.
The Cross is not the end, but the beginning of a new path, and of a relationship with Jesus Christ that has become indestructible. With his death and resurrection He opens the “Way” leading to the “Truth” of the experience of God who the “Life” in full.
On the evening of the first Holy Thursday, the feared Apostles are consoled by Christ who, in addition to proclaiming His love, tells them “I will not leave you orphans.” That evening, Jesus seemed concerned not so much for himself as for his friends who would know the depth of their weakness, the great pain of abandonment, and would look for something to comfort them. Jesus himself would be consoled by the presence of an Angel during his agony in Gethsemane, at the time when the desire to escape the crucifixion will seem to have been born in him too. “Father, if possible, keep away from me this cup, but not mine, but thy will be done.” It is amazing how Jesus, who promised us the Consoler, wanted to be a ‘man of all time’: the man, every man, who knows the abyss of test and of solitude. But in the end the design of realizing the great design of Love for us triumphed.
Even today Jesus repeats to us: “I will not leave you orphans.” These words were, are and will always be a certainty for those who follow Him, yesterday, today and always. He said these words at the most difficult time of his earthly existence and, almost becoming a voice of our fear of being abandoned by everyone, to the point of crying from the cross: “My God, my God, why did you abandon me?” (Mt 26: 46). The Risen Christ tells us that the One who loves is the home of the beloved: he brings him into his heart as his life. We have always been in God, who loves us with eternal love. If we love him, he is in us as we are in him.
2) If you love me …
“If you love me you will keep my commands” (Jn 14:15). The words of this verse are repeated as a refrain in verses 21, 23 and 24. This is not an injunction (you must comply) but a revelation of goodness: “if “you love, you will enter a new world. Everything begins with the conjunction “if”, a word filled with delicacy and respect: if you love me. “If”: a starting point so humble, so free, so confident that it helps us to understand that to observe the commandments of Christ is not to obey to an external law, but to live like Him in love. Just as the first Apostles of Christ and of the Gospel were moved by the love lived as a law, we too, moved by the love of Christ, are moved to carry on the task of bringing to the world the love of God made flesh.
If we love Christ, He lives in our thoughts, actions and words and changes them. By doing so, we live his good, beautiful, and happy life. If we love Jesus and observe his commandment of love, we not only do not injure, betray, steal, escape and kill, but we help, receive and bless.
If it is true that today’s theme is love, as I said at the beginning of these reflections, it is equally true that the dominant ideas are two. The first is that the most appropriate criterion for verifying the reality of love for Christ is the obedience to his will, that is, the concrete observance of the commandments, which in Saint John are reduced to the commandment of fraternal love. The second one is that the practice of love is the place where Jesus reveals himself.
Love is so that, when we love someone, the person is in our heart and in our mind and becomes the rule of our life. We know what he or she thinks, what he or she does, and we do what he or she does because we too love what he or she does, In conclusion, love is not only a feeling, it concerns all our being:
- It is about knowing: we know a person if we love her, and “love is the way to know God” (Pope Francis);
- It touches the will: loving is wanting the good of the other person; really wanting her good;
- It inspires the actions: if it touches the intelligence and the will, it inspires the actions; it is acting like the other person.
Love is a communion in the deeper being, it is a union of intelligence, will, and action that makes us like Christ, the Son of God, with the same intelligence, with the same will, with the same actions.
3) “My” Commandments.
In addition to the conjunction “if”, I would like to draw attention to the possessive pronoun “mine”. Saying, “If you keep the commandments” he says “my” commandments. It is as if to say: the Commandments are mine not because prescribed by me, but because they manifest what I am and your future. They summarize me and my whole life. If you love me, you will live like me and with me”
If we love Christ observing his commandments, He lives in us and changes our thoughts, our actions, our words into thoughts, actions and words of good. Then we participate to his freedom, his peace and to the joy of his living in love.
The testimony that what I am proposing is true, comes from the life of the consecrated Virgins. They show discretely but firmly that a life devoted to practicing his words makes the following of Christ as disciples, effective (see Mt 7:24) It is the observance of his commandments which makes concrete the love for Him and attracts the love of the Father (see Jn 14:21). Therefore, there is no love without obedience (“you are my friends, if you do what I command you”) but without love obedience is servile. We are reminded of that by Saint Ambrose who, speaking to the consecrated Virgins, wrote: “With what ties is Christ held? … Not with the knots of ropes, but with the constraints of love and the affection of the soul” (De virginitate, 13.77). Finally, by taking to the letter the lesson of St. Paul “More than that, I even consider everything as a loss because of the supreme good of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have accepted the loss of all things and I consider them so much rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in him,” (Phil 3: 8-9), these consecrated women live love with” detachment “. The virginal love that they are called to witness to all the baptized, especially to the married couples, realizes the objective and actual good of self and of the others if it maintains an attitude of distance. Only in detachment there is true possession in God, because the hands, rather than clinging to each other, are united in prayer. These folded hands open the heart of God, who pours his merciful love over humanity.
Patristic Reading: Saint Augustine of Hippo (354 – 430)
Sermon 17
We have heard, brethren, while the Gospel was read, the Lord saying: “If ye love me, keep my commandments: and I will ask the Father, and He shall give you another Comforter [Paraclete], that He may abide with you forever; [even] the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth Him not, neither knoweth Him: but ye shall know Him; for He shall dwell with you, and shall be in you.”1 There are many points which might form the subject of inquiry in these few words of the Lord; but it were too much for us either to search into all that is here for the searching, or to find out all that we here search for. Nevertheless, as far as the Lord is pleased to grant us the power, and in proportion to our capacity and yours, attend to what we ought to say and you to hear, and receive, beloved, what we on our part are able to give, and apply to Him for that wherein we fail. It is the Spirit, the Comforter, that Christ has promised to His apostles; but let us notice the way inwhich He gave the promise. “If ye love me,” He says, “keep my commandments: and I will ask the Father, and He shall give you another Comforter, that He may abide with you forever: [even] the Spirit of truth.” We have here, at all events, the Holy Spirit in the Trinity, whom the catholic faith acknowledges to be consubstantial and co-eternal with Father and Son: He it is of whom the apostle says, “The love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit, who is given unto us.”2 How, then, doth the Lord say, “If ye love me, keep my commandments: and I will ask the Father, and He shall give you another Comforter;” when He saith so of the Holy Spirit, without [having] whom we can neither love God nor keep His commandments? How can we love so as to receive Him, without whom we cannot love at all? or how shall we keep the commandments so as to receive Him, without whom we have no power to keep them? Or can it be that the love wherewith we love Christ has a prior place within us, so that, by thus loving Christ and keeping His commandments, we become worthy of receiving the Holy Spirit, in order that the love, not of Christ, which had already preceded, but of God the Father, may be shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit, who is given unto us? Such a thought is altogether wrong. For he who believes that he loveth the Son, and loveth not the Father, certainly loveth not the Son, but some figment of his own imagination. And besides, this is the apostolic declaration, “No one saith, Lord Jesus,3 but in the Holy Spirit:4 and who is it that calleth Him Lord Jesus but he that loveth Him, if he so call Him in the way the apostle intended to be understood? For many call Him so with their lips, but deny Him in their hearts and works; just as He saith of such, “For they profess that they know God, but works they deny Him.”5 If it is by works He is denied, it is doubtless also by works that His name is truly invoked. “No one,” therefore, “saith, Lord Jesus,” in mind, in word, in deed, with the heart, the lips, the labor of the bands,-no one saith, Lord Jesus, but in the Holy Spirit; and no one calls Him so but he that loveth, And accordingly the apostles were already calling Him Lord Jesus: and if they called Him so, in no way that implied a feigned utterance, with the mouth confessing, in heart and works denying Him; if they called Him so in all. truthfulness of soul, there can be no doubt they loved. And how, then, did they love, but in the Holy Spirit? And yet they are i commanded to love Him and keep His commandments, previous and in order to their receiving the Holy Spirit: and yet, without having that Spirit, they certainly could not love Him and keep His commandments.
2. We are therefore to understand that he who loves has already the Holy Spirit, and by what he has becomes worthy of a fuller possession, that by having the more he may love the more. Already, therefore, had the disciples that Holy Spirit whom the Lord promised, for without Him they could not call Him Lord; but they had Him not as yet in the way promised by the Lord. Accordingly they both had, and had Him not, inasmuch as they had Him not as yet to the same extent as He was afterwards to be possessed. They had Him, therefore, in a more limited sense: He was yet to be given them in an ampler measure. They had Him in a hidden way, they were yet to receive Him in a way that was manifest; for this present possession had also a bearing on that fuller gift of the Holy Spirit, that they might come to a conscious knowledge of what they had. It is in speaking of this gift that the apostle says: “Now we have received, not the spirit of this world, but the spirit which is of God, that we may know the things that are freely given to us of God.”6 For that same manifest bestowal of the Holy Spirit the Lord made, not once, but on two separate occasions. For close on the back of His resurrection from the dead He breathed on them and said, “Receive ye the Holy Spirit.”7 And because He then gave [the Spirit], did He on that account fail in afterwards sending Him according to His promise? Or was it not the very same Spirit who was both then breathed upon them by Himself, and afterwards sent by Him from heaven?8 And so, why that same giving on His part which took place publicly, also took place twice, is another question: for it may be that this twofold bestowal of His in a public way took place because of the two Commandments of love, that is, to our neighbor and to God, in order that love might be impressively intimated as pertaining to the Holy Spirit, And if any other reason is to be sought for, we cannot at present allow our discourse to be improperly prolonged by such an inquiry: provided, however, it be admitted that, without the Holy Spirit, we can neither love Christ nor keep His commandments; while the less experience we have of His presence, the less also can we do so; and the fuller our experience, so much the greater our ability. Accordingly, the promise is no vain one, either to him who has not [the Holy Spirit], or to him who has. For it is made to him who has not, in order that he may have; and to him who has, that he may have moreabundantly. For were it not that He was possessed by some in smaller measure than byothers, St. Elisha would not have said to St. Elijah, “Let the spirit that is in thee be in a twofold measure in me.9
3. But when Jn the Baptist said, “For God giveth not the Spirit by measure,”10 he was speaking exclusively of the Son of God, who received not the Spirit by measure; for in Him dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead.11 And no more is it independently of the grace of the Holy Spirit that the Mediator between God and men is the man Christ Jesus:12 for with His own lips He tells us that the prophetical utterance had been fulfilled in Himself: “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me; because He hath anointed me, and hath sent me to preach the gospel to the poor.”13 For His being the Only-begotten, the equal of the Father, is not of grace, but of nature; but the assumption of human nature into the personal unity of the Only-begotten is not of nature, but of grace, as the Gospel acknowledges itself when it says, “And the child grew, and waxed strong, being filled with wisdom, and the grace of God was in Him.”14 But to others He is given by measure,-a measure ever enlarging until each has received his full complement up to the limits of his own perfection. As we are also reminded by the apostle, “Not to think of ourselves more highly than we ought to think, but to think soberly; according as God hath dealt to every man the measure of faith.”15 Nor is it the Spirit Himself that is divided, but the gifts bestowed by the Spirit: for there are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit.16
4. But when He says, “I will ask the Father, and He shall give you another Paraclete,” He intimates that He Himself is also a paraclete. For paraclete is in Latin called advocatus (advocate); and it is said of Christ, “We have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.”17 But He said that the world could not receive the Holy Spirit, in much the same sense as it is also said, “The minding of the flesh is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God; neither indeed can be;”18 just as if we were to say, Unrighteousness cannot be righteous. For in speaking in this passage of the world, He refers to those who love the world; and such a love is not of the Father.19 And thus the love of this world, which gives us enough to do to weaken and destroy its power within us, is in direct opposition to the love of God, which is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who is given unto us. “The world,” therefore, “cannot receive Him, cause it seeth Him not, neither knoweth Him.” For worldly love possesseth not those invisible eyes, whereby, save in an invisible way, the Holy Spirit cannot be seen.
5. But ye,” He adds, “shall know Him; for He shall dwell with you, and be in you.” He will be in them, that He may dwell with them; He will not dwell with them to the end that He may be in them: for the being anywhere is prior to the dwelling there. But to prevent us from imagining that His words, “He shall dwell with you,” were spoken in the same sense as that in which a guest usually dwells with a man in a visible way, He explained what “He shall dwell with you” meant, when He added the words, “He shall be in you.” He is seen, therefore, in an invisible way: nor can we have any knowledge of Him unless He be in us. For it is in a similar way that we come to see our conscience within us: for we see the face of another, but we cannot see our own; but it is our own conscience we see, not another’s. And yet conscience is never anywhere but within us: but the Holy Spirit can be also apart from us, since He is given that He may also be in us. But we cannot see and know Him in the only way in which He may be seen and known, unless He be in us.
________
1 Augustin has cognoscetis for the second “know,” and scit for that immediately preceding. The Greek text, however, has ginwvskw in both places, and in the present tense. He has also manebit et in vobis erit. The tense of menei, whether, present or future, depends simply on the place of the accent, mevnei, or menei`: while, as between the two readings ejsti;n and e]stai, the preponderance of Ms. authority seems in favor of the latter, although the presentgimwvskete in the principal clause would be more naturally followed by an equally proleptic present in those which follow.-Tr.
2 (Rm 5,5,
3 Or, “Jesus is Lord.” The weight of authority is clearly in favor of the reading followed by Augustin-levgei, Kuvrios jIhsou`”, giving the direct utterance of the speaker; and not the indirect accusative, Kuvrion jIhsou`n, followed by our English version.-Tr.
4 (1Co 12,3).
5 (Tt 1,16,
6 (1Co 2,12,
7 Chap. 20,22.
8 (Ac 2,4,
Read the source: https://zenit.org/articles/god-is-our-dwelling-and-we-are-the-dwelling-of-god/
Reflection 13 – To keep the commandments is to practice love
With the hope of understanding that the commandments of God are indications of love.
Foreground:
The risk that we can run in this time of pandemic is the one of being defined by what we do not love instead of by what we love: the risen Christ.
Spending the days with telecommuting or “killing the time” makes us run the risk of reacting either to things to do or to the boredom of not knowing how to occupy the long days that we are forced to spend at home. In both cases, the habit of the everyday, the ordinary and – often – the boring can stifle the happiness brought by the resurrection of Christ, which we are called to celebrate with particular intensity in this Easter time.
How can we ensure that our life, here and now, is the narration of the fidelity to the encounter with the risen Christ who vivifies our heart as the fire of spring enlivens the wheat sown in the earth?
I would like to propose two ways.
1- Asking for the grace to live the love to Christ diligently, attentively, and assiduously so that the “banal” daily life becomes heroic, that is, filled with the great love of Christ. This caring affection, this constant question is not only of the saints but also of us sinners. Moreover, the prayer of the repentant sinner gives peace to us and joy to God. A joy like the one of mothers when the newborn child smiles at them for the first time.
2- Observing the commandments of Christ as a loving response to His love, which shows us the way of truth. To love is to observe the “Word” (the commandments of Christ are the Word’s words of love) because love consists not so much in words or feelings but in facts and truth, and therefore in those facts and actions that correspond to the truth of the heart. Observing means “looking carefully to know”, but it also means “practicing”: it is a practice, that is that love becomes knowledge but also practice, it becomes “action”.
1) Freedom is to keep the commandments.
The Gospel teaches us that the essential is to love Christ and to guard his word to implement it. Even today’s Gospel passage focuses on love: “If you love me … whoever loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and reveal myself to him. “[1](Jn 14, 15.21). The love that Jesus asks for is expressed observing his commandments and is made possible by the love that God first offered us: “It was not we who loved God, but it was he who loved us and sent his Son as a victim of expiation for our sins “(1 Jn 4:10). In fact when we feel loved we are more easily driven to love. Love is the fulfillment of the vocation of each of us. It is the great gift that makes us truly and fully “human”. It is this love that humanity needs today more than ever “because only love is credible” (John Paul II).
How can we believe and practice love? Today’s Gospel offers us two suggestions.
The first is to obey the commandments of God recognizing them as the content and the language of love which “grasps” us tenderly.
Entering the Love of Christ means being seized by a dynamism for which the Law is not only observed as an obligation, but it is put into practice as a requirement of the heart. Those who taste the Love of Christ can only love and live on this Love, which is life. In fact, there is no real life except in true Love. A love that makes us exist as children and live as brothers and sisters.
“The essential is invisible to the eyes” (Antoine de Saint-Exupery , The Little Prince) is the secret that the fox hands over to the little Prince after the latter has tamed her and the indissoluble bond of true friendship was born between them. The long and difficult journey that Jesus has made with his disciples has led to a mutual “domestication”, such as the one narrated in the book of Saint-Exupéry. Jesus is linked to his disciples whom he calls friends, and they are linked to him and to each other (“love one another as I have loved you“). This bond faced the terrible ordeal of death and the mystery of the resurrection, but it did not break. From Jesus there is the promise that friendship would not fail: the gift of the Holy Spirit is just that. But, as the fox says to the little prince, “it is seen only with the heart”, and the commandments of God educate the heart so that it can see.
2) We are free because we are children “tied” to the Father by obedient love, and not orphans “untied” by Love.
One might object: “How can love be commanded? And how can love have commandments? Is it not love freedom? ” Yes, love is freedom, it is the freedom that adheres to truth and love happily and decisively. Love knows many obligations and many duties, but they are experienced as an expression of freedom and self-realization and not as a constraint. Love is not doing what I like, love is loving the other wanting the good of the other, love is serving, love is putting one’s life at stake, love is exactly the opposite of selfishness.
Love is not giving what you have, but what you are. Then you also want what others are, not their things. Love is not the gift of one’s things, but the gift of oneself. It is not for nothing that, in the Gospel, love is identified with obedience because obedience is the gift of self. If you love me, keep my commandments … Whoever observes my commandments, that is he who loves me, says Jesus at the Last Supper.
The love of Christ is the supreme law that makes me understand if the small or big action that I am doing is true or false and if it leads to life or death. Love for Jesus, his law of love and freedom is the source of every action, of every command. He loved us first and we “must” respond to this love to be like him and see him: “The love of God is the first that is commanded, the love of neighbor is the first, however, that must be practiced. .. By loving your neighbor, make your eye pure to see God “(Saint Augustine of Hippo, In Io. Ev. Tr., 17, 8).
Our mind and our heart can never be empty, they are filled with one thing or with another. Even during our daily activities, we must keep our gaze fixed on Jesus, who will see if our heart and our eyes have an angelic purity.
To those who ask how to make a continuous prayer, I suggest that you make short stops during the day to put things in order, to free yourself from bad thoughts and to feed yourself again with a verse from the Gospel, or a psalm or an episode of the life of the Lord. For this reason, the Church has established the Liturgy of the “Hours”. It takes little to get lost, to lose the center of gravity, to go out and get distracted. Here are the psalms at regular intervals, to find the center (Christ) and remember the “presence” that lives deep in our hearts. The heart is where we can recognize that Jesus has not abandoned us and that the bond established with his disciples has not been broken despite the passage of centuries and the many fragility and limitations of Christians from the beginning up to the present day.
This is what happens in monasteries where nothing must be placed before the divine Office because nothing must be placed before the reception of this divine “presence”. Custody of the heart and senses must be practiced. Wanting to look at everything, talk about everything, and snoop about everything fill our house with junk, if not of bad things. The Lord then cannot speak to us neither enter a conversation of love with us.
This is what happens in the life of the consecrated virgins in the world, who are called to live a monastic life within society. In this regard, the Catechism of the Catholic Church teaches: “Virgins who, committed to the holy plan of following Christ more closely, are consecrated to God by the diocesan bishop according to the approved liturgical rite, are betrothed mystically to Christ, the Son of God, and are dedicated to the service of the Church.” By this solemn rite (Consecratio virginum), the virgin is “constituted . . . a sacred person, a transcendent sign of the Church’s love for Christ, and an eschatological image of this heavenly Bride of Christ and of the life to come.” “As with other forms of consecrated life,” the order of virgins establishes the woman living in the world (or the nun) in prayer, penance, service of her brethren, and apostolic activity, according to the state of life and spiritual gifts given to her. Consecrated virgins can form themselves into associations to observe their commitment more faithfully. (CCC 923-924)
These consecrated women show, with their existence given entirely to God, the profound truth of this affirmation of Christ: “Whoever accepts my commandments and observes them, this is he who loves me. Whoever loves me will be loved by my Father and I too will love him and manifest myself to him “(Jn 14:21).
The consequence of love and obedience to Jesus is the gift of the Paraclete[2], sent by the Father at the prayerful request of the Son Jesus. We are not and will never be orphans, Jesus assures us in today’s Gospel. The love with which the Lord Jesus loves us translates into his constant prayer which obtains, instant by instant, the gift of the Paraclete. It is a name that designated the lawyer, the one who assists and helps in the process to defend against the accuser. And Satan[3] means exactly accuser. The Holy Spirit is called to us, even today, in this instant, and in every second of our life, to defend ourselves and to remind us and announce the Truth that we are children of God in the Son Jesus.
In the face of accusations of infidelity, hypocrisy, and inconstancy, in front of the contempt of ourselves to which the accuser pushes us, the Paraclete consoles us, fills us with the love of the Lord, fulfills in us every commandment, guards it and welcomes it by releasing within us the love for Christ. It is true: The Holy Spirit is the love with which we love the Lord, the same love that unites the Father and the Son and makes us intimate with their intimacy. In the Holy Spirit we are the home of God, and our whole life is transformed into a marvelous cathedral where every man can recognize the loving and merciful presence of God.
Patristic Reading: Saint Augustine of Hippo
Tractate 74 (John 14:15-17)
- We have heard, brethren, while the Gospelwas read, the Lord saying: If you loveme, keep my commandments: and I will ask the Father, and He shall give you another Comforter [Paraclete], that He may abide with you for ever; [even] the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it sees Him not, neither knows Him: but you shall know Him; for He shall dwell with you, and shall be in you. There are many points which might form the subject of inquiry in these few words of the Lord; but it were too much for us either to search into all that is here for the searching, or to find out all that we here search for. Nevertheless, as far as the Lord is pleased to grant us the power, and in proportion to our capacity and yours, attend to what we ought to say and you to hear, and receive, beloved, what we on our part are able to give, and apply to Him for that wherein we fail. It is the Spirit, the Comforter, that Christ has promised to His apostles; but let us notice the way in which He gave the promise. If you love me, He says, keep my commandments: and I will ask the Father, and He shall give you another Comforter, that He may abide with you for ever: [even] the Spirit of truth. We have here, at all events, the Holy Spirit in the Trinity, whom the catholic faith acknowledges to be consubstantial and co-eternal with Father and Son: He it is of whom the apostle says, The love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit, who is given unto us. Romans 5:5 How, then, does the Lord say, If you love me, keep my commandments: and I will ask the Father, and He shall give you another Comforter; when He says so of the Holy Spirit, without [having] whom we can neither love God nor keep His commandments? How can we love so as to receive Him, without whom we cannot love at all? Or how shall we keep the commandments so as to receive Him, without whom we have no power to keep them? Or can it be that the love wherewith we love Christ has a prior place within us, so that, by thus loving Christ and keeping His commandments, we become worthy of receiving the Holy Spirit, in order that the love, not of Christ, which had already preceded, but of God the Father, may be shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit, who is given unto us? Such a thought is altogether wrong. For he who believes that he loves the Son, and loves not the Father, certainly loves not the Son, but some figment of his own imagination. And besides, this is the apostolic declaration, No one says, Lord Jesus, but in the Holy Spirit: 1 Corinthians 12:3 and who is it that calls Him Lord Jesus but he that loves Him, if he so call Him in the way the apostle intended to be understood? For many call Him so with their lips, but deny Him in their hearts and works; just as He says of such, For they profess that they know God, but in works they deny Him. Titus 1:16 If it is by works He is denied, it is doubtless also by works that His name is truly invoked. No one, therefore, says, Lord Jesus, in mind, in word, in deed, with the heart, the lips, the labor of the hands — no one says, Lord Jesus, but in the Holy Spirit; and no one calls Him so but he that loves. And accordingly the apostles were already calling Him Lord Jesus: and if they called Him so, in no way that implied a feigned utterance, with the mouth confessing, in heart and works denying Him; if they called Him so in all truthfulness of soul, there can be no doubt they loved. And how, then, did they love, but in the Holy Spirit? And yet they are commanded to love Him and keep His commandments, previous and in order to their receiving the Holy Spirit: and yet, without having that Spirit, they certainly could not love Him and keep His commandments.
- We are therefore to understand that he who loves has already the Holy Spirit, and by what he has becomes worthy of a fuller possession, that by having the more he may lovethe more. Already, therefore, had the disciplesthat Holy Spirit whom the Lord promised, for without Him they could not call Him Lord; but they had Him not as yet in the way promised by the Lord. Accordingly they both had, and had Him not, inasmuch as they had Him not as yet to the same extent as He was afterwards to be possessed. They had Him, therefore, in a more limited sense: He was yet to be given them in an ampler measure. They had Him in a hidden way, they were yet to receive Him in a way that was manifest; for this present possession had also a bearing on that fuller gift of the Holy Spirit, that they might come to a conscious knowledge of what they had. It is in speaking of this gift that the apostle says: Now we have received, not the spirit of this world, but the spirit which is of God, that we may know the things that are freely given to us of God. 1 Corinthians 2:12 For that same manifest bestowal of the Holy Spirit the Lord made, not once, but on two separate occasions. For close on the back of His resurrection from the dead He breathed on them and said, Receive the Holy Spirit. And because He then gave [the Spirit], did He on that account fail in afterwards sending Him according to His promise? Or was it not the very same Spirit who was both then breathed upon them by Himself, and afterwards sent by Him from heaven? Acts 2:4 And so, why that same giving on His part which took place publicly, also took place twice, is another question: for it may be that this twofold bestowal of His in a public way took place because of the two Commandments of love, that is, to our neighbor and to God, in order that love might be impressively intimated as pertaining to the Holy Spirit. And if any other reason is to be sought for, we cannot at present allow our discourse to be improperly prolonged by such an inquiry: provided, however, it be admitted that, without the Holy Spirit, we can neither love Christ nor keep His commandments; while the less experience we have of His presence, the less also can we do so; and the fuller our experience, so much the greater our ability. Accordingly, the promise is no vain one, either to him who has not [the Holy Spirit], or to him who has. For it is made to him who has not, in order that he may have; and to him who has, that he may have more abundantly. For were it not that He was possessed by some in smaller measure than by others, St. Elisha would not have said to St. Elijah, Let the spirit that is in you be in a twofold measure in me. 2 Kings 2:9
- But when John the Baptist said, For God gives not the Spirit by measure, he was speaking exclusively of the Son of God, who received not the Spirit by measure; for in Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead. Colossians 2:9And no more is it independently of the graceof the Holy Spirit that the Mediator between God and men is the man Christ Jesus: 1 Timothy 2:5 for with His own lips He tells us that the prophetical utterance had been fulfilled in Himself: The Spirit of the Lord is upon me; because He has anointed me, and has sent me to preach the gospel to the poor. Luke 4:18-21 For His being the Only-begotten, the equal of the Father, is not of grace, but of nature; but the assumption of human nature into the personal unity of the Only-begotten is not of nature, but of grace, as the Gospel acknowledges itself when it says, And the child grew, and waxed strong, being filled with wisdom, and the grace of God was in Him. Luke 2:40 But to others He is given by measure — a measure ever enlarging until each has received his full complement up to the limits of his own perfection. As we are also reminded by the apostle, Not to think of ourselves more highly than we ought to think, but to think soberly; according as God has dealt to every man the measure of faith. Romans 12:3 Nor is it the Spirit Himself that is divided, but the gifts bestowed by the Spirit: for there are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit. 1 Corinthians 12:4
- But when He says, I will ask the Father, and He shall give you another Paraclete, He intimates that He Himself is also a paraclete. For paraclete is in Latin called advocatus(advocate); and it is said of Christ, We have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christthe righteous. 1 John 2:1 But He said that the world could not receive the Holy Spirit, in much the same sense as it is also said, The minding of the flesh is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God; neither indeed can be; just as if we were to say, Unrighteousness cannot be righteous. For in speaking in this passage of the world, He refers to those who love the world; and such a love is not of the Father. 1 John 2:16 And thus the love of this world, which gives us enough to do to weaken and destroy its power within us, is in direct opposition to the love of God, which is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who is given unto us. The world, therefore, cannot receive Him, cause it sees Him not, neither knows Him. For worldly love possesses not those invisible eyes, whereby, save in an invisible way, the Holy Spirit cannot be seen.
- But you, He adds, shall knowHim; for He shall dwell with you, and be in you. He will be in them, that He may dwell with them; He will not dwell with them to the end that He may be in them: for the being anywhere is prior to the dwelling there. But to prevent us from imagining that His words, He shall dwell with you, were spoken in the same sense as that in which a usually dwells with a man in a visible way, He explained what He shall dwell with you meant, when He added the words, He shall be in you. He is seen, therefore, in an invisible way: nor can we have any knowledge of Him unless He be in us. For it is in a similar way that we come to see our conscience within us: for we see the face of another, but we cannot see our own; but it is our own conscience we see, not another’s. And yet conscience is never anywhere but within us: but the Holy Spirit can be also apart from us, since He is given that He may also be in us. But we cannot see and know Him in the only way in which He may be seen and known, unless He be in us.
________
[1] Let me point out that this indication of v 15 is taken up again at vv. 21 and 26, albeit in a different form.
2] Paraclete derives from the Greek παράκλητος (paraclētus) that is called near, invoked next to. The Paraclete or Advocate is the one who is close, who is on my side, takes my defense, intercedes for me, the Comforter that is one of the appellatives of the Holy Spirit.
[3] Satan: in Hebrew: שָׂטָן, Satàn; in Greek: Σατᾶν o Σατανᾶς; Satàn o Satanâs; in Latin: Satănas. The meaning in Hebrew would be “prosecutor”, “opponent”, “one who opposes”, “contradictor”.
Read the source: https://zenit.org/articles/archbishop-follo-to-keep-the-commandments-is-to-practice-love/
Please follow Romeo Hontiveros at Twitter click this link: https://twitter.com/Trumpeta
Reflection 14 – St. Paschal Baylon (1540-1592 A.D.)
In Paschal’s lifetime the Spanish empire in the New World was at the height of its power, though France and England were soon to reduce its influence. The 16th century has been called the Golden Age of the Church in Spain, for it gave birth to Ignatius of Loyola, Francis Xavier, Teresa of Avila, John of the Cross, Peter of Alcantara, Francis Solano and Salvator of Horta.
Paschal’s Spanish parents were poor and pious. Between the ages of seven and 24 he worked as a shepherd and began a life of mortification. He was able to pray on the job and was especially attentive to the church bell which rang at the Elevation during Mass. Paschal had a very honest streak in him. He once offered to pay owners of crops for any damage his animals caused!
In 1564, Paschal joined the Friars Minor and gave himself wholeheartedly to a life of penance. Though he was urged to study for the priesthood, he chose to be a brother. At various times he served as porter, cook, gardener and official beggar.
Paschal was careful to observe the vow of poverty. He would never waste any food or anything given for the use of the friars. When he was porter and took care of the poor coming to the door, he developed a reputation for great generosity. The friars sometimes tried to moderate his liberality!
Paschal spent his spare moments praying before the Blessed Sacrament. In time many people sought his wise counsel. People flocked to his tomb immediately after his burial; miracles were reported promptly. Paschal was canonized in 1690 and was named patron of eucharistic congresses and societies in 1897.
Comment:
Prayer before the Blessed Sacrament occupied much of St. Francis’ energy. Most of his letters were to promote devotion to the Eucharist. Paschal shared that concern. An hour in prayer before our Lord in the Eucharist could teach all of us a great deal. Some holy and busy Catholics today find that their work is enriched by those minutes regularly spent in prayer and meditation.
Quote:
“Meditate well on this: Seek God above all things. It is right for you to seek God before and above everything else, because the majesty of God wishes you to receive what you ask for. This will also make you more ready to serve God and will enable you to love him more perfectly” (St. Paschal).
Patron Saint of:
Shepherds
Read the source: http://www.americancatholic.org/features/saints/saint.aspx?id=1386
SAINT OF THE DAY
Catholic saints are holy people and human people who lived extraordinary lives. Each saint the Church honors responded to God’s invitation to use his or her unique gifts. God calls each one of us to be a saint. Click here to receive Saint of the Day in your email.
 |
This article needs additional citations for verification. (October 2015) (Learn how and when to remove this template message) |
| SAINT PASCHAL BAYLON | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| “SERAPH OF THE EUCHARIST” | |
| BORN | 1540 Torrehermosa, Aragon |
| DIED | 17 May 1592 |
| VENERATED IN | Roman Catholicism |
| BEATIFIED | 1618 by Paul V |
| CANONIZED | October 16, 1690 by Alexander VIII |
| MAJOR SHRINE | Royal Chapel in Vila-real |
| FEAST | May 17 |
| ATTRIBUTES | Monstrance, Franciscan habit |
| PATRONAGE | Patron of Eucharistic congresses and Eucharistic associations, Obando, Bulacan |
Saint Paschal Baylon (also Pascal or Pascual, 16 May 1540 – 17 May 1592) was a Spanish friar and is a saint in theRoman Catholic Church. He is the patron saint of Eucharistic congresses and Eucharistic associations.
Contents
[hide]
Life[edit]
He was born at Torrehermosa, in the Kingdom of Aragon, on 16 May 1540, on the Feast of Pentecost, called in Spain “the Pasch (or “Passover”) of the Holy Ghost”, hence the name Paschal. His parents, Martin Baylon and Elizabeth Jubera, were poor peasants. He spent his youth as a shepherd. He would carry a book with him and beg passersby to teach him the alphabet and to read, and as he toiled in the fields he would read religious books.
In around 1564, he joined the Reformed Franciscan Order (Alcantarine Reform) as a lay brother. He chose to live in poor monasteriesbecause, he said, “I was born poor and am resolved to die in poverty and penance.” He lived a life of poverty and prayer, even praying while working, for the rest of his life.
He was a mystic and contemplative, and he had frequent ecstatic visions. He would spend the night before the altar in prayer many nights. At the same time, he sought to downplay any glory that might come from this piety. He died on 17 May, which is his current feast day, in 1592.
Veneration[edit]
Sepulchre of Paschal Baylon, Vila-real.
His tomb in the Royal Chapel in Vila-real in the old province of Valencia, where he died, immediately became an object of pilgrimage. Beatified by Paul V in 1618, he was canonized by Alexander VIII on 16 October 1690. The saint is usually depicted in adoration before a vision of the Eucharist.
Forty years before he was canonized, an indigenous Guatemalanclaimed to have had a vision of a sainted Paschal Baylon, appearing as a robed skeleton. This event became the basis of the heterodoxtradition of San Pascualito.[1]
Paschal Baylon was enlisted in the Church’s struggle against Modernism, part of which was through increasing devotion towards theSacrament of the Eucharist; Pope Leo XIII[2] proclaimed Saint Paschal Baylon, the “seraph of the Eucharist”, patron of eucharistic congresses, and all contemporary and future eucharistic associations. Christian art usually depicts him wearing the Franciscan habit and bearing a monstrance, signifying his devotion to the Holy Eucharist.
During the Red Terror at the time of the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939), his grave was desecrated and his relics burned by anticlericalleftists.[3]
Patronage[edit]
- St Paschal Library,[4] Box Hill, Victoria, Australia
See also[edit]
Notes[edit]
- Jump up^ Feldman, Lawrence H. (1999). The War Against Epidemics in Colonial Guatemala, 1519-1821. C&M Online Media, Inc. pp. 23–27. ISBN 1-886420-60-2.
- Jump up^ in the Apostolic Brief Providentissimus Deus, November 28, 1897
- Jump up^ Butler, Alban, David Hugh Farmer and Paul Burns Butler’s Lives of the Saints p. 93 (1997 Continuum International Publishing Group) ISBN 0-86012-254-9