We are not alone – with the help of the Holy Spirit

 ‘You know him, because he abides with you, and he will be in you’ (John 14:17)

John 14:15-21 (Year A: Sixth Sunday of Easter 21^st May 2017)

We are drawing ever closer to that most wonderful of celebrations – Pentecost Sunday when once again, today, in our broken and wounded world the Holy Spirit comes among us in a special way just as She does day by day. Remembering the first major giving of the Holy Spirit to the disciples/apostles shortly after the death and resurrection of Jesus (three events inextricably joined together) we are open to a new outpouring of those special gifts of peace, joy and freedom. These are true marks of God’s Holy Spirit. That is, a breathing out of God from within us (the Hebrew word for spirit or breath is ruah which is feminine – in Irish Gaelic the word for breath is anáil which is also feminine).

Verse 14:18 reads:  ‘I will not leave you orphaned; I am coming to you.’ Widows and orphans occupy a privileged position in many passages of scripture. God’s heart is drawn to those who, for one reason or another, are left without support or family company. The writer of the letter of St James writes: ‘Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress.’

In verse 17 Jesus speaks of a friend who will live within us and with us. This is more than just a passing feeling, a pious thought or a wishful outcome. It is the real and living presence of a power that springs from a compassionate heart that is of God. How can I be open to this precious presence? The preceding lines of this passage provide a clue:

‘If you love me, keep my commands. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another advocate to help you and be with you for ever – the Spirit of truth’ (verse 16).

Keeping commandments is more than just complying with a list of don’ts. It means an active, continuing and authentic practice of compassion – revealed in practical actions.

If we seek light, insight and companionship then this is where it starts: compassion exercised in practical daily actions. Dorothy Day, a founder of the Catholic Workers Movement once wrote:

True love is delicate and kind, full of gentle perception and understanding, full of beauty and grace, full of joy unutterable.  There should be some flavour of this in all our love for others. We are all one. We are one flesh in the Mystical Body as man and woman are said to be one flesh in marriage. With such a love one would see all things new; we would begin to see people as they really are, as God sees them.