Sunday Reflections
6th Sunday of Easter year A
I am never alone
✠ A reading from the holy Gospel according to John 15:15-21
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.”
1. A story was told of a priest and a policeman. The priest driving his old Voswagon was stopped by a policeman for a check. The policeman asked him for his papers, spare tyre, jack etc. To the policeman’s surprise everything was perfect. He then asked the priest: “why are driving alone on this lonely road?” The priest responded: “I am not alone. The Holy Trinity is with me, my patron saint is with me, my guardian angel is with me and even the Blessed Virgin Mary is with me.” The policeman asked him: “Are all these people in this small car?” The priest affirmed it. The policeman then said: “I charge for overload.” This priest understood the promise of Christ not to leave his people without support. Today being the last Sunday before the Ascension of Christ into heaven, the readings assure us that God will never leave us alone. He will forever be present with us through the Holy Spirit who will continue the work of Christ in the world through his disciples. The first reading (Act 8:5-8,14-17) shows the apostles carrying out the sacrament of confirmation, the calling down of the Holy Spirit, on new believers. It is meant to emphasize the importance of receiving the Holy Spirit in the life the believers.
2. In the gospel, Jesus explicitly emphasised the need for receiving the Holy Spirit when he told the disciples that he will send them ANOTHER Advocate. He deliberately said ANOTHER, to imply that he himself is an advocate and that all that he did for the disciples would be replicated by the new advocate. This Advocate is called the Holy Spirit, the comforter, one who teaches, one who like a father and mother will accompany the disciples so that they will not feel like orphans.
3. How would they get this abiding presence of God? Jesus said that knowing and keeping the commandments obliges him to ask the Father to send the Holy Spirit to those who know and keep the commandments . The first thing is knowledge, the inseparable second thing is action, living according to the knowledge of the tenets of the commandments. Keeping the commandments also gives one right to be inhabited by Christ and to be loved by the Father. One cannot be inhabited by Christ and loved by the Father without being filled with the Holy Spirit, for the Trinity is an inseparable divine reality.
4. When Jesus says in today’s gospel: “whoever loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and reveal myself to him.” he is urging his disciples to strive and remain connected to the Trinity, so that they will retain the abiding presence of God in their lives. In the history of God’s people, there have been people who lost the abiding presence of the Spirit of God by wilfully disobeying the commandments of God. A case in mind is Saul. The Spirit of God left him when he disobeyed God: “Now the Spirit of the Lord had departed from Saul, and an evil spirit from the Lord tormented him.”(1Sam 16:14). Another case was Solomon who was blessed with divine wisdom, one of the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit. He preferred the pleasures of the flesh and gave his body over to multiple sexual partners which led him to idolatry. The Spirit of God left him and the kingdom of David collapsed because of his sin. With this we know that one can actually lose the Holy Spirit in his life.
5. Besides Saul and Solomon, we have other examples of falling from grace to grass because of losing the Spirit of God through sin. But one who loses the Spirit could once again be connected to him. From today till pentecost Sunday, much emphasis will be laid by the liturgical readings on the Holy Spirit. We shall enter the phase of preparation for the coming of the Holy Spirit which involves prayers to the Holy Spirit. Everyone must take advantage of this time to invite the Holy Spirit into his/her life. Just as Jesus said, the Holy Spirit is a real helper. He intervenes whenever he is consciously called upon to help. Those who are close to him always experience his friendly interventions in unexpected manners. A lady once woke me up to this reality by recounting to me how she invoked the Holy Spirit in the midst of an oral examination, where having studied so well and full of confidence, she was confronted with a question for which she had no single idea. She remembered what she was taught during her confirmation class, that the Holy Spirit is the source of all knowledge. She then invoked the Holy Spirit, even though she never believed in him for such aid. To her greatest surprise, she gave an excellent response that was appreciated by the members of the panel.
6. Jesus is faithful to his promises. He has promised not to leave you like an orphan. He has fulfilled his promise. He has sent the Holy Spirit. You can never be alone but you must be conscious of this fact for you to live it out. Know whom you are and live as you should. You are never alone!
@Vitalis Anaehobi , 10/05/26
