May Jesus Christ be
praised and may his holy Mother pray for us.
I
will not leave you orphans.
These consoling words of the Lord Jesus, spoken to his disciples at the
Last Supper, promised the gift of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit of truth, whom the world
cannot accept, would be given to the followers of the Lord Jesus. The Holy Spirit would be given to us to
remain with us, and to remain within us, so that we could remain in the Lord
Jesus. I will not leave you orphans.
The promise of the Holy Spirit assured the disciples that their
relationship with the Lord Jesus would be changed not ended. He will not abandon us. He has promised us the gift of the Spirit.
The gift of the Spirit
is given in response to a prayer. The
Lord Jesus said that he will ask the Father, and the Father will give us
another Advocate to be with us always.
When Philip, one of the original seven deacons of the Church, proclaimed
the gospel and worked mighty deeds in Samaria, the people responded in
faith. Then, the apostles Peter and John
came from Jerusalem and through the prayers of these apostles, the gift of the Spirit
was given to those new believers. The
gift of the Spirit is not a gift that the community can give to itself. The gift of the Spirit is received in each
generation and by each community through the prayers of the one who shares in
the ministry of the apostles. The
Bishop, as a successor of the Apostles, and through his coworkers the priests,
makes present the gift of the Holy Spirit through the prayers of the
Sacraments. The gift of the Spirit is
given to us through our Holy Mother the Church and apostolic prayer.
The gift of the Spirit,
given in response to prayer, enables us to live in the love of the Lord Jesus
and to keep his commandments. The Lord
Jesus says to us in the gospel, “If you love me, you will keep my commandments.”
These words of the Lord, however, are
not a statement of love that is conditional.
The Lord Jesus did not say,
“Keep my commandments and then I will love you.” The love that God has for us comes before any
commandment that he has given to us. The
Lord Jesus offers us unconditional love and invites our response of love. The greatest commandment, the new commandment
that Jesus gave at the Last Supper, sums up all of the others. “Love one another as I have loved you.” Our lives in Christ Jesus are a loving
response to the love that Jesus Christ has shown to us. In the power of the Holy Spirit, we strive to
love as he loved. With the gift of the
Holy Spirit we are empowered to love patiently and kindly, without pride or
jealousy, and unselfishly, as St. Paul wrote to the Corinthians. The gift of the Spirit empowers us to live in
the love of the Lord Jesus.
And the gift of the
Spirit, given in response to prayer and empowering us to live in love, gives us
the defense for our hope. St. Peter
tells us, “Always be ready to give an explanation for anyone who asks you for a
reason for your hope.” It is not always
our faith that we must explain. It is
our hope. Faced with trials and
persecutions in every generation, faced with tragedy and loss, with disasters
natural and man-made, even so, we Christians are called to live as a people of
hope. And the reason for our hope is
that Jesus Christ has conquered sin, death, and the devil by the blood of his
holy cross. The victory has been won by
the Savior of the world. The only
begotten Son of the Father has reconciled us to the Father. Christ is our hope, and by the gift of the
Holy Spirit, we claim this hope as our own.
The gift of the Spirit gives us the defense for our hope.
As we are gathered
today as an apostolic community, we beg the Father through his Son to send the
Holy Spirit upon us. May the gift of the
Spirit empower us to live in the love of Christ. And let us rejoice for the hope that is in
us, that by the gift of the Spirit the Lord Jesus has kept his promise and has
not left us orphans. Amen.
Preached
at Our Lady of Lourdes Catholic Church, Monroe, NC
