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If you love me, you will keep my commandments.
We remember that we love because he first loved us (see First John 4:19). The Holy Spirit himself pours the loves of God into our hearts, and so we read "hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us" (see Romans 5:5).
And I will ask the Father,
and he will give you another Advocate to be with you always,
It isn't as though we earn the Holy Spirit's presence by keeping the commandments. It is the Holy Spirit himself who makes it possible for us to do good works, and thus be filled more and more with the Spirit.
It remains for us to understand, that he who loves has the Holy Spirit, and by having Him, attains to having more of Him, and by having more of Him, to loving more.
Augustine (Tract. lxxiv. c. 1)We are reborn by water and the Spirit in baptism (see John 3:5). It is then that we receive the Spirit of adoption as sons by whom we cry "Abba, Father!" (see Romans 8:15). It is by means of the Spirit given in baptism that Jesus does not leave us orphans. We hear the Father calling us his beloved sons and daughters just as Jesus did at his own baptism. It is through the Spirit that he comes to us in a way that is invisible to the world. For the Spirit does not come alone.
On that day you will realize that I am in my Father
and you are in me and I in you.
The promise of Jesus is not only that the Spirit will be with us, around us, surprising us in external things. The promise is that he will be in us. By this very fact we are united also to the Father and to the Son. By this very fact we share in the Sonship of Jesus, loving the Father with him in the power of the Spirit. This presence is profound, but it is easy for the world to ignore.
The love of the world hath not invisible eyes wherewith to see that, which can only be seen invisibly.
Augustine (Tract. lxxiv. 4)The world can choose to be aware of invisible things. But often it prefers the modes of awareness to which it is accustomed. This prevents any challenge to the desires and priorities which it now considers important.
The Holy Spirit kindles in every one, in whom He dwells, the desire of things invisible.
Gregory (v. Mor.)Augustine tells that we "see the Holy Ghost then in us, in our consciences" (Tract. lxxiv. 5). Is it any wonder that the world wants to go on loving what it loves and doing what it does? This may seem understandable. To do otherwise would seem to be risking what it has for what is less certain. But this isn't quite correct. For the world refuses even to look, which carries no risk, lest it might be wrong. To convince the world it is worth it it helps if we first believe it is worth it ourselves.
Sanctify Christ as Lord in your hearts.
Always be ready to give an explanation
to anyone who asks you for a reason for your hope,
The Holy Spirit strengthens us to be able to bear witness to our faith. He is able to do so with a clear and clarion voice when we sanctify Christ as Lord in our hearts, when we prefer the one thing necessary, when set our minds on things above (see Colossians 3:2).
We can see from his role in living out the Christian faith why it is so vitally important that we open ourselves to the Holy Spirit in our own lives.
they sent them Peter and John,
who went down and prayed for them,
that they might receive the Holy Spirit,
for it had not yet fallen upon any of them;
Just as it was important for these early disciples in Samaria to receive the Holy Spirit, so too must we continue to rely on the Spirit and live from his power. With Timothy we must consciously fan into flame the gift we have been given (see Second Timothy 1:6).
This then, should be our program, as we prepare for Pentecost: welcoming the Spirit more and more in our lives day to day, moment to moment. He is the Comforter. When we are lonely he reminds us of our identity as sons and daughters in the Son. He guides us into all truth and he himself makes us witnesses of that truth. He helps us prepare to give witness by opening our minds as we study the hope of our call. He even gives us the words to use when we do not not what to pray (see Romans 8:26), or what to say when we must give testimony (see Luke 21:14). He is the prerequisite to genuine, self-forgetful love.
Blessed be God who refused me not
my prayer or his kindness!
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