John 14:15-21

Acts 8:5-8, 14-17

Psalm 66:1-3, 4-5, 6-7, 16, 20

1 Peter 3:15-18

John 14:15-21

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.”

Opening Prayer: Lord God, I love you with all my heart, soul, mind, and strength. Forgive me when I fail to love you as I should, and encourage me when I struggle to love my neighbor. Help me to see the face of your Son in everyone that I meet, especially the poor.

Encountering the Word of God

1. The Obedience of Love: In the Gospel, Jesus is giving his farewell address to his disciples at the Last Supper. He introduces an important teaching: “If you love me, you will keep my commandments” (John 14:15). Love and obedience go together. In Romans, Paul speaks about the obedience of faith. Here, John records Jesus words about the “obedience of love.” “The disciples’ personal love for Jesus leads them to obey his commandments, and his most basic commandment – to love – arises from the love he shows them: ‘As I have loved you, so you also should love one another’ (John 13:35)” (Martin and Wright, The Gospel of John, 248). Just as the Son loves the Father and obeys the Father’s will and good pleasure, so too must we, as disciples of Jesus, love Jesus and obey his will, which is the same as the Father’s will. “Through lives of love and obedience to Jesus, the disciples are conformed to the Father, and the divine love will shine forth radiantly through them” (Martin and Wright, The Gospel of John, 248). Jesus promises to send the Holy Spirit as an Advocate (paraclete). Jesus will return at the end of time. Until then, he intercedes for his disciples as their high priest and pours out his Spirit to guide the Church to all truth and to help them live according to the commandment of love and charity.

2. Philip the Evangelist: In the First Reading, we read about the evangelization efforts of Philip the Deacon. After the death of the deacon Stephen, Philip left Jerusalem and went north to a “city of Samaria” and proclaimed the Christ to the Samaritans there. There were signs, such as exorcisms of unclean spirits and healings, that accompanied Philip’s preaching. When the apostles in Jerusalem heard that the Samaritans were accepting the word of God, the Church sent Peter and John to them. Peter and John prayed for them to receive the Holy Spirit and then confirmed them. This story is one of the biblical foundations for the Sacrament of Confirmation and its reservation to the bishop. The Samaritans had been baptized in the name of Jesus, but not confirmed in the Spirit. Philip the deacon didn’t confirm them, but the apostles Peter and John did.

3. Always Be Ready to Witness to Christ: In the Second Reading, Peter invites Christians to “always be ready to give an explanation to anyone who asks you for a reason for your hope.” (1 Peter 3:16). We are not all called to preach in public like Paul or like Philip the deacon. But we are all called to proclaim and spread the Gospel of the Kingdom. “One of the ways we can do this is by living lives of hope. So many of our neighbors are living without hope in anything more than perhaps enjoying themselves on the next weekend. Peter calls us to live lives of such hope that people will ask us the reason for that hope” (Bergsma, The Word of the Lord: Year A, 168). Hope is a gift from God and an infused virtue, and not something we achieve by our own efforts alone. We need to ask for this gift and collaborate with God’s grace so that our hope may grow and flourish. Our heavenly destiny gives meaning to our short, earthly lives. “Hope is the theological virtue by which we desire and await from God eternal life as our happiness, placing our trust in Christ's promises and relying on the help of the grace of the Holy Spirit to merit it and to persevere to the end of our earthly life” (Compendium of the Catechism of the Catholic Church, n. 387).

Conversing with Christ: Lord Jesus, I promise to be your faithful witness in my family, at my workplace, and in my community. May your love and light shine through me in such a way that all people may come to know and love you and glorify the Father by their lives.

Living the Word of God: How have I lived the new Commandment of love this past week? Where did I fail? Where did I, with God’s grace, succeed? What are some upcoming encounters or events this week where I can live out Christ’s commandment? How can I give witness to my hope in Christ’s promise?