Gospel Reflection May 10 – Deacon Godfrey
Sunday, May 10
Sixth Sunday of Easter
John 14: 15-21
Gospel:
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.”
Gospel Reflection:
I will not leave desolate.
When you love someone you want to be close to them. And they, too, want to be close to you. No one wants to be lonely. This is why saying bye to the ones we love sometimes is a big challenge. We testify to this, airports and bus stations see this everyday. The disciples of Jesus are going through a similar thing. Jesus is telling them that he will be going back to the Father. They feel sad, desolate, abandoned, and they fear being alone, they fear being without Him. We can imagine this feeling, not only by the experience of saying bye to those we love at the airports or bus stations, but also have gone through it during our trials, sickness, death of our loved ones, our jobs threatened or economic problems. When our options seem to be bad, sadness and loneliness are inevitable.
Though we cannot underestimate these physical desolations and loneliness, the deepest ones are the spiritual. When we are at a distance from our most loved one, the one who loves us unconditionally, JESUS Christ. When we are at distance from Jesus, even the physical challenges are heavier. However, one thing we must never forget is that we have a promise: “I will not leave you desolate.” Jesus promised his disciples. He will send the Holy Spirit to be with them and dwell within them. Jesus is promising the same to us. Regardless of our situations, hardships of every kind, if we keep our love for Jesus, keep his commandments, remove sin from our lives, and allow the Holy Spirit to dwell within us, we shall never be desolate.
Deacon Godfrey