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| From "The Last Sermon of Our Lord," by J. Tissot. Brooklyn Museum / Public Domain. |
John 14:15-21 for the Sixth Sunday of Easter
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."
Our obedience to Christ’s commandments is love that opens us to having him and the Holy Spirit within us as our two advocates in the presence of the Father.
Advocates: those who vocate, that is, who lend their voices to our cause.
The Son and the Spirit are within us, loving us by adding their voices to ours.
Thus, when a Christian obeys Christ’s commandments, the Son and the Spirit join the Christian in saying to the Father: Our Father who art in heaven.
The Father answers us with the same love he has for the Son and the Spirit.
Turn. Love. Repeat.
