Jerusalem-Notre Dame, 13rd May 2007

 

Dear Christians,
I would like to focus your attention to three problems, we can discern in today’s gospel. 

1. The first is a problem of love.
Jesus says: “If anyone loves me he will keep my word”.
We understand it very well. If we love somebody we keep his words, imagines, we remember, we want to be closer. That’s the law of love.
To keep Jesus’ word means to keep Jesus, to take care of him, to stay in a good relationship with him. And if we have problems with it, it’s not a matter of our weakness or malice. It’s first of all a matter of love. To keep Jesus word without love is impossible, to keep Jesus word without love is pure masochism.
So the question is not: Do you keep Jesus commandments?
The question is: Do you love Jesus?

2. The second problem is the Holy Spirit.
Jesus says: “the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you everything and remind you of all I have said to you.”
About the practical importance of the Holy Spirit we could hear in the first reading. The leaders of the young church wrote: “It has been decided by the Holy Spirit and by ourselves”. The Holy Spirit was and is necessary to understand Jesus will, He is our teacher. And if we don’t take lessons in the Holy Spirit, we cannot remember what Jesus said, we cannot be disciples, we cannot love, because the Holy Spirit is the love of the Father and the Son of God. So we have to ask in this special Easter Time:
Come Holy Spirit, and fill the hearts of your faithful, and kindle in them the fire of Your Divine Love. Send forth Your Spirit and they shall be created, and You shall renew the face of the earth. 

3. The third problem is a peace.
Jesus says: “Peace I bequeath to you, my own peace I give you, a peace the world cannot give, this is my gift to you.”
According to these words the world can give a peace. Jesus doesn’t say: the world doesn’t give a peace, but the world gives a different kind of peace. The world cannot give the peace of Jesus.
Very often we look for peace in the world, we hope to receive peace from the world and in the world. But only in a peace of Jesus we can say “Do not let your hearts be troubled or afraid.” If we battle for a peace in the world we should battle more and more for Jesus’ peace.
Let us be honest with ourselves: what kind of peace we are looking for? 

Dear Christians,
May Merciful God send us in this week Love, the Holy Spirit and Peace.
Pray for it.
Amen.