6TH SUNDAY OF EASTER (YEAR A)

1st Reading                Acts 8:5-8, 14-17

Psalm                           66:1-3a, 4-5, 6-7a, 16 and 20 (R. 1)

R:// "Cry out with joy to God, all the earth"

2nd Reading             1 Peter 3:15-18

Gospel                         John 14:15-21

I WILL NOT LEAVE YOU ORPHANS

Friends, Peace and Goodness. Today is the 6th Sunday of Easter (Year A). We are getting closer to the end of the Season of Easter. The Season of Easter ends on Pentecost Sunday. With this in mind, we should be orienting and preparing ourselves towards knowledge about the Holy Spirit. The Gospel of today focuses on the Holy Spirit and we shall focus on the Holy Spirit under the designation, Paraclete. We should also remember that today is Mothers' Day. We wish and pray for them.

Today's Gospel passage is from John 14:15-21. It is a continuation from last Sunday's Gospel. Jesus is speaking to his disciples during his last days before his crucifixion. At this moment, his departure his causing tensions to rise and the feeling of neglect is setting in. Today, Jesus speaks about the promise of the Holy Spirit, particularly under the name Paraclete. Let us pick three things about this Paraclete to deepen our knowledge about the Holy Spirit and help our reflections on the Gospel passage. 

The first thing we should know is from the statement that Jesus will ask the Father to send the Advocate (vv. 15-16). The Greek word used by the author for Advocate in describing the Holy Spirit is PARACLETOS . It is made up of two words, thus 'Para' (beside) and 'kaleō' (to call). The Paraclete is one called to stand alongside a person. The work of a Paraclete is situated within a legal system. In Greco-Roman legal world, this was a person summoned to stand beside a defendant under court. In the court, it is the Paraclete who speaks on behalf of the defendant. He is a Presence with a legal standing, one positioned at your side. The Paraclete does not replace a lesser presence. He continues the same quality of presence in a permanent way. The first thing the Paraclete does is to stand beside us. That is the Holy Spirit. 

The second thing we should understand about the Holy Spirit, the Paraclete, is that He dwells with and will be in you (v. 17). Remember that the first thing the Holy Spirit does is to be beside us. More than that, the preposition moves from 'beside' to 'within' (en). There is a movement from proximity to habitation. Jesus, during his ministry, had been walking beside his disciples. With the Paraclete, there is a new kind of relationship, which is that the Spirit dwells within us. It reminds us of Ezekiel 36:27 and Jeremiah 31:33. 

The problem is that the world cannot receive the Paraclete because it has no interior space prepared by love and knowledge. The disciples can receive it because three years of life with Jesus have shaped that interior space. To have the Spirit within, we need to prepare a space for Him through love and knowledge. 

The third thing we should know about the Paraclete lies in Jesus' assertion that "I am in my Father and you in me and I in you" (v. 20). It looks like there is a concentric union. What sustains the bond is the Holy Spirit. This bond makes it possible for Jesus to state that he is not leaving the disciples as ORPHANS (v. 18).

Let us look at that word, ORPHANS (ὀρφανούς), closely. In the ancient world, Orphans were stripped of legal identity, inheritance and economic rights, and also protection. In short, they are on the verge of losing everything. These are the very things a Paraclete in court would secure for you. With the Paraclete as the binding force, they are sure that they will not lose anything and become orphans. 

Pax et Bonum