Reflections on Scripture Sixth Sunday of Easter Gospel C
Jesus said to his disciples: “Whoever
loves me will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to
him and make our dwelling with him.
·
There are four things Jesus is reminding us of: 1) He loves us first; 2) Love is responded to by doing what the
other has asked us to do; 3) As we act thus on the word of Jesus, we will experience the Father’s
love for us in response; 4) this is experienced by the indwelling presence of
God, which is a sharing in his own divine life.
·
Does our life at this point reflect this teaching of Jesus? If not, what
will we do to love him more by keeping his word?
Whoever does not love me does not keep
my words; yet the word you hear is not mine but that of the Father who sent me.
·
Jesus shows us the consequences of not acting on his word in love. It
amounts to rejecting him and the Father.
·
Thus his word needs to be taken seriously.
“I have told you this while I am with
you. The Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will
teach you everything and remind you of all that I told you.
·
This is the second time during the Last Supper that Jesus speaks about the
Holy Spirit to the Apostles.
·
Again, he calls the Holy Spirit an Advocate. Jesus is our first advocate in
the sense that he intercedes for us before the throne of the Father. Later on
in John the Holy Spirit is a teacher, a witness to Jesus, and a prosecutor of
the world.
Peace I leave with you; my peace I
give to you. Not as the world gives do I give it to you.
·
This peace is more than a greeting. It is a gift of salvation leading to
right relationship with God.
Do not let your hearts be troubled or
afraid. You heard me tell you, ‘I am going away and I will come back to you.’
If you loved me, you would rejoice that I am going to the Father; for the
Father is greater than I. And now I have told you this before it happens, so that when it happens you may believe.”
·
Later, he will explain that his going will be
for their benefit. First, he must go in order to send the Holy Spirit upon them.
Second, he goes to prepare a place for them.
·
His first going away is his death on the cross;
his return is the resurrection. The second going away is his Ascension; he will
return in his second coming.
·
When Jesus says that the Father is greater than
him, he is referring to his humanity not his divinity. Because he says in other
places that the Father and he were one.
·
Again, a key theme in John’s Gospel is the need
to believe in Jesus as the one sent by the Father as our Lord and Savior. To
believe him is to embrace his word as the truth which will lead to eternal
life.
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