The Gospel John 14:15-21
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.”
After the Gospel:
“Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long, and that it may go well with you,” our Fourth Commandment says.
On behalf of all our monks, Happy Mother’s Day! to all the Mothers with us on this special day when we pray for all our Mothers, living and deceased!
Brothers and sisters,
When Jesus spoke his words to the Twelve, they were in a peaceful, prayerful, comfortable Upper Room: their third Passover Supper together. Food and wine on the table, lamps casting soft glows in the stillness of the night. The disciples were safe next to Jesus.
A few hours later, the bottom fell out in the Garden of Olives, everything blurred as only the echoes remained: “In a little while the world will no longer see me … but I will not leave you orphans.”
It sank in with a cold numbness!
JESUS WAS GONE! They were alone! What would happen to them?
Imagine their shock, their fear, their emotional roller-coaster:
Jesus alive … then dead … then alive again … then leaving for good!
Think how quickly it ended: Jesus had been with them for just three years,
His public ministry consisted of three very short years …
teaching with words no man had every spoken before,
healing with signs and wonders no one had ever seen before.
Yet Jesus did so many things in those three years, that, as St John says, if every one of them were written down, not even the world itself could contain the books.
If only Jesus had lived longer … Say thirty more years!
How much more healing, teaching …. What a larger number of followers…
But with Him gone, who knows what would happen?
Were they strong enough to do anything by themselves?
They had clearly shown what they made of:
Peter, denying that he even knew Jesus … once, twice, three times…
Andrew, holding out 5 loaves and 2 fish and asking ‘What good are these among so many?” — he had so much yet to learn.
James and John, jockeying for places of honor, wanting to lord it over the others,
Matthew, forever tagged “the tax collector” with its shameful past …
Thomas, stubbornly saying: “I will not believe unless…”
In fact, why was John the only one at the foot of the Cross?
The others were already in hiding, staying far apart just to be safe…
Doubtless, with Jesus gone, their whole group would fall apart.
In fact, that was exactly the prediction a few weeks down the road, when the Jewish Council met, hoping to kill off the Apostles for preaching and healing in the name of Jesus.
Instead, the Bible says: A Pharisee named Gamaliel stood up with a wait-and-see plan.
He reminded the Council of two recent criminals:
Theudas and four hundred others had tried to start a rebellion, but when Theudas was killed, all the followers fled, and the movement came to nothing.
Then Judas the Galilean arose; when he was killed, all his followers fled, and his movement came to nothing.
So, Gamaliel reasoned, Jesus is now dead, let his followers alone. If this is a human movement, it will likewise fail, but if this movement be from God, you won’t be able to overthrow them, you’ll even find yourselves fighting against God!
Was Gamaliel prophesying??? “If this movement be from God…”
Because it’s definitely not the end, it is another beginning.
Jesus would now do as He promised, He’d fulfill the words they hadn’t previously understood:
“I will give you another Advocate to be with you always. He will remain with you, and will be in you.”
Jesus promised they would not be orphans. He was turning everything over to the Holy Spirit,
the Consoler, to remain with them, dwell with them and be in them for the rest of their lives;
The Spirit of Truth to guide them into all truth;
The Advocate to give them words and answers, as they were hauled before kings and magistrates;
The Comforter to strengthen and assist them in their sufferings and persecutions.
With the power of that Holy Spirit, as the world watched, their movement would not fall apart.
On the contrary!
They were changed from men all wrapped up in themselves and their inadequacies, cowering in fear for their lives,
to bold men, unafraid to go out and preach loudly about Jesus, the bigger the crowd, the better!
preach even when forbidden by the authorities not to preach.
Christ’s ministry would continue– they would keep it going into future years, the Holy Spirit reassuring them all the way: “Do not be afraid, I am with you always.”
Even when it came to the finish line, The Holy Spirit would be there as they went willingly to their deaths. And what finish lines they would be!
Matthew: martyrdom by the sword in Ethiopia;
Peter: crucified in Rome with his head downward;
James: beheaded at Jerusalem;
James the Less: thrown from the pinnacle of the temple and beaten to death in the street;
Philip: hanged against a pillar in Phrygia;
Bartholomew: flayed alive;
Andrew: bound to a cross, from which he would preach to his persecutors until he died;
Thomas: his body pierced;
Jude: shot to death with arrows;
Mathias: stoned, then immediately beheaded.
Brothers and sisters,
We’ve inherited their genes.
All their fears, their doubts, the failures, the “what if’s…, the “how can I’s…”
worst of all, the loneliness and desolation when Jesus is with us one moment,
then seems absent the next … it’s all been passed down to us.
But we’re also heirs to his best promise:
“I will not leave you orphans. I will send the Holy Spirit to be with you always.”
And don’t we need that Holy Spirit!
Because we’re also heirs to their same reward:
“In My Father’s House, there are many mansions,” Jesus says, and He wants us to be there!
He’s given us also The Holy Spirit to show us the way!