At that time, Jesus said to his disciples:
“If you love me, you will keep my commandments. And I will ask the Father to give you another Paraclete, who is always with you, the Spirit of truth. The world cannot receive it, because. he neither sees nor knows him; you, on the other hand, know him, because he dwells with you and is in you. I will not leave you orphans, I will return to you. Soon the world will not see me, but you will see me and live, because I continue to live. Then you will know that I am in my Father, and you in me and I in you. He who accepts my commandments and keeps them, that he loves me; and whoever loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will also love him and manifest myself to him».
Lord’s word
Let’s reflect together
1.- We are advancing in this time of Easter. And, in addition to this sixth Easter Sunday, we begin the month of May traditionally dedicated to Saint Mary the Virgin.
Many things have happened since that second Sunday in which Pope John Paul II, as if he were another Saint Thomas, touched the same side of Christ with his finger. Many rivers of ink have already flowed over the figure of Benedict XVI.
2.- How good is the gospel of this Sunday! If you love me, you will keep my commandments! It is not a question of conservatism or progressivism. The Gospel is there to propose it without giving in to the attempt to “decaffeinate” according to and how it suits that relativism that Pope Benedict XVI spoke of hours before being elected. Loving God implies keeping in our memory, in our church, the steps, advice and facts that Jesus has left in his path for us. To succumb to this evangelizing effort, forgetting its most demanding funds (even if certain wise men confront us) would be to betray the first and last mission of the Church: to make the message of Jesus fully known.
3. – We need the Holy Spirit to, in addition to keeping the indications of Jesus, prevent them from remaining dusty on the shelf of our convenience, ecclesial optics or in the feeling of orphanhood that we can have in difficult times for faith. We do the Holy Spirit a disservice if, instead of opening ourselves to his presence, we take steps back in our firm conviction that He goes ahead inspiring us and opening paths for faith. We do the Holy Spirit a disservice if, instead of placing our trust in Him, we allow ourselves to be carried away by a defeatism that invades everything and that becomes a cancer that paralyzes us pastorally and affectively.
Dynamism and creativity, although they are important in our pastoral action, are not the panacea or the magic button for understanding and accepting the message, the life or the presence of Jesus Christ. Any show, with much less means, can be more competitive and more attractive than any liturgical celebration that tries to reach the heart of the believer. Opening ourselves to the next coming of the Holy Spirit, at Pentecost, can be a source of inexhaustible freshness for our church, parish, communities, etc.
3. – Loving God, not as some try to impose on us, but as Jesus commands, requires a certain degree of coherence, seriousness, respect for the Word and holy fear of God, commitment and making our lives holy, what He made holy through Jesus.
On a certain occasion two lovers were separated for a long time. Before leaving, the beloved asked his beloved: “if you really love me, keep this jewel until my return.” Years passed and, without warning, the beloved appeared on the horizon. His hope and her confidence in her beloved vanished, when he approached her and found that he had parted with that jewel to live better.
I believe that this anecdote perfectly illustrates the situation that – without being alarmist – occurs in the lives of many Christians. For a long time, for various reasons that are irrelevant now, they have allowed the jewel of faith (with God’s commandments included) to be obscured or sold (not precisely to live more, better, or with more or more dignity).
How will you react when “our beloved” Jesus Christ returns?
May the Holy Spirit help us to recover the brightness of faith and, in this way, we can (rather than dazzle) indicate the path that leads to Him.
And I show you, like every Sunday, a prayer. This is today’s:
TEACH ME, LORD, TO KEEP
Your commandments, so that others do not impose their ideas on me
Your precepts, so that no one changes the meaning of things
Your words, so that others totally empty do not confuse me
Your works, so that I am not seduced by those who speak and do nothing
Your advice, so that he knows how to distinguish the right path from the wrong one
Your look, so that I count to ten, before abandoning the path of faith
Your Eucharist, so that he feels how the power of the Holy Spirit descends
Your Law, so that I know how to differentiate it from those other capricious and false laws
Your hope, so that the difficulties that my desire to make you known can no longer affect me.
Your church, so that when you return, you will find it keeping with respect, life and veneration the great jewel of your commandments. Amen.