“I have much more to tell you, but you cannot bear it now. But when he comes, the Spirit of truth, he will guide you to all truth. He will not speak on his own, but he will speak what he hears, and will declare to you the things that are coming.” (JN 16: 12-13)
Always protected by God’s presence, now we can expect that “the Spirit of truth, will guide us to all truth.” God is patient and knows that He has “much more to tell us, but we cannot bear it now,” so He comes at the right time “and will declare to us the things that are coming”—not a reference to new predictions about the future, but interpretations of what has already occurred or been said. We need to know what the Father expects from us—the Holy Spirit “will speak what he hears.”
“I will ask the Father and he will give you another Advocate to be with you always.”
“I am reminding you, brothers and sisters, of the Gospel I preached to you, which you indeed received and in which you also stand. Through it you are also being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you, unless you believed in vain.” (1 COR 15: 1-2)
Always and always the same message—“hold fast to the word.” How important God’s word should be to us, for our lives and for our salvation; all the Apostles preached the same. With Our Lord and His word, we are secure because we know where to go, how distinguish the truth from a lie, and what real life means, to say nothing about a very special grace to recognize in Our Lord the love of His Father.
“I am the way, the truth, and the life, says the Lord; Philip, whoever has seen me has seen the Father.” (Gospel Acclamation)
“After she and her household had been baptized, she offered us an invitation, ‘If you consider me a believer in the Lord, come and stay at my home,’ and she prevailed on us.” (ACTS 16: 15)
Our homes were always important to Jesus and His Apostles, as places where the first grace could come—“she and her household had been baptized.” Jesus was often a guest in different homes, and Paul follows His example, because our homes are the first place where we can practice our faith, our relationship with Our Lord and with each other.
“The Spirit of truth will testify to me, says the Lord, and you will also testify.” (Gospel Acclamation)
“Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give it to you. Do not let your hearts be troubled or afraid.” (JN 14: 27)
One of the most important gifts we received from Our Lord was peace—“peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you.” Peace is the gift of salvation, the sign of the bounty of the messianic blessing and a sign of His love for us. “Not letting our hearts be troubled or afraid” helps us to protect our relationship with Him and to be focused on Him, not on our daily life troubles.
“Whoever loves me will keep my word, says the Lord, and my Father will love him and we will come to him.” (Gospel Acclamation)
“They traveled through the Phrygian and Galatian territory because they had been prevented by the Holy Spirit from preaching the message in the province of Asia. When they came to Mysia, they tried to go on into Bithynia, but the Spirit of Jesus did not allow them, so they crossed through Mysia and came down to Troas.” (ACTS 16: 6-8)
The Holy Spirit and “the Spirit of Jesus” are always with His Church, because evangelization, spreading the Good News and bringing people closer to God was, is and always will be the mission of Jesus Christ. We are His body, the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church, who serves in the same mission, but only Jesus is the Savior and Redeemer, and whoever goes to Heaven goes through Him with the Church as mediator.
“If then you were raised with Christ, seek what is above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God.” (Gospel Acclamation)
“You are my friends if you do what I command you. I no longer call you slaves, because a slave does not know what his master is doing. I have called you friends, because I have told you everything I have heard from my Father.” (JN 15: 15)
We are chosen by Jesus and we are called His “friends.” His friends know everything about His Father, “because He has told us everything He has heard from His Father.” The most significant element of being friends with Jesus is His life offered for our lives: “No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.” The cost of our friendship goes far, far beyond our imagination, and His love and friendship bring us back to the Father. We are chosen to be His children.
“I call you my friends, says the Lord, for I have made known to you all that the Father has told me.” (Gospel Acclamation)
“As the Father loves me, so I also love you. Remain in my love. If you keep my commandments, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and remain in his love.” (JN 15: 9-10)
We can’t even imagine how much we are loved: “as the Father loves me, so I also love you.” We will have all of eternity to learn and explore God’s love for us. Our Lord asks us only to “remain in His love.” His commandments are so clear: “love one another as I have loved you.”
“My sheep know my voice, says the Lord; I know them, and they follow me.” (Gospel Acclamation)
“Remain in me, as I remain in you. Just as a branch cannot bear fruit on its own unless it remains on the vine, so neither can you unless you remain in me. I am the vine, you are the branches. Whoever remains in me and I in him will bear much fruit, because without me you can do nothing.” (JN 15: 4-5)
All our activity and “fruits we should bear” comes from our relationship with Our Lord. The more we are connected, the more we are in love with Him, and the more fruit He can produce. We are “branches,” not the vine, and not only do we remain in Him, but He also loves to remain in us, “because without Him we can do nothing.”
“Remain in me, as I remain in you, says the Lord; whoever remains in me will bear much fruit.” (Gospel Acclamation)
“Then they traveled through Pisidia and reached Pamphylia. After proclaiming the word at Perga they went down to Attalia. From there they sailed to Antioch, where they had been commended to the grace of God for the work they had now accomplished. “ (ACTS 14: 24-26)
Almost all his life, as the apostle of Jesus, Paul traveled, often accompanied by some of his coworkers. But Paul wasn’t a traveler, even traveling so much, but an apostle, “proclaiming the word,” always as he “had been commended to the grace of God,” focused on His will and spreading the Good News about God’s love for us and the hope we can have in Him.
“Christ had to suffer and to rise from the dead, and so enter into his glory.” (Gospel Acclamation)
“Beloved: Clothe yourselves with humility in your dealings with one another, for: God opposes the proud but bestows favor on the humble. So humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due time. Cast all your worries upon him because he cares for you.” (1P 5: 5-7)
We are really beloved children of God. He expects from us only to “clothe ourselves with humility,” which helps us to recognize the dignity of our brothers and us and trust “the mighty hand of God.” We are asked to “cast all our worries upon Him because He cares for us.”
“We proclaim Christ crucified; he is the power of God and the wisdom of God.” (Gospel Acclamation)
