Today's Readings (Mass during the day)
(Audio)
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.
We love Jesus because he first loved us (see First John 4:19). His love gives us confidence that his plans for us are good, and that his commandments for us are actually in our own best interest, given for our sake, and are not burdensome (see First John 5:3).
We note that Jesus didn't say, 'If you love me, you do keep my commandments, already perfectly and completely'. Rather he said "you will". The disciples, no doubt, wanted to respond, and to show Jesus that they did love him. But they were only able to do this well and consistently after they had received the Advocate to empower them from within.
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.
When we love Jesus we do so by keeping his word, by clinging to it, and by making it the foundation of our lives. Our desire to keep it is itself a grace, and creates the space in our hearts in which the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, will come to make their dwelling with us. The more we desire to keep the commandments and cling to the word of Jesus the more God will give us the grace to make it possible. On the other hand, indifference to the word of Jesus is a sign that we don't love him. God won't take up residence in hearts in which he is not welcome. If we don't really want his commandments it means that we don't really want to live in his Kingdom. If this is true then we will find the proximity of the King himself as intrusive rather than liberating. We may be willing to dwell in the same world as him, as long as he is kept at a distance. But we may still want to keep our hearts to ourselves as our own rather than inviting him to reign in us as well as around us. Our hearts are meant to burn within us as a sign of our response to the word of Jesus. But this can only happen when the Holy Spirit himself is present helping us to internalize those words.
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.
The Holy Spirit makes the word of Jesus burn within our hearts, transforming us more and more into temples of his presence, and our lives into holy and acceptable offerings to God (see Romans 12:1). We need more than human teaching about the word of Jesus in order to keep it. We need the teaching of the Holy Spirit. It might seem that any preacher could adequately remind us of the things Jesus said. But they can only do so in a way that is living and effective if the Spirit is present helps him and those who hear him. The Spirit was the breath with which the word of Jesus was first spoken. His presence is still necessary for them to become living and effective in our lives.
We might think from what we have said so far that it would be adequate for individual believers to go off on their own, taught by the Spirit, needing nothing from others. But the gift of the Spirit and the home of the word of Jesus have always been found in the heart of his Church. It is precisely in his Church that we are meant to be most fully equipped and empowered to experience the love of Jesus and respond. It is the Church that makes the word of Jesus present and available for each subsequent generation of believers. It is the ongoing presence of Jesus fulfilling his promise to the Church through the Sacraments that allows us to be filled with the Spirit. Hence the Spirit doesn't leave believers as many separate parts but draws us into one Body. It is not a Body of many diverse opinions about Jesus but one which is united in truth by the Spirit of Truth. It is this objective reality that is offensive and intrusive for those who do not wish to keep the word of Jesus. But it is here where the promises of Jesus begin to be fulfilled, and which leads us toward their fullness of their fulfillment at the end of history. In the Church we experience the first pledge of our inheritance, that makes us "joint heirs with Christ", and makes our desire grow for the Day when we will share it completely, together with him, forever.
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