6th Sunday of Easter Gospel Reflection
John 14:15-21 Reflection:
Jesus is no longer speaking to the crowds but directly to His disciples here in this 6th Sunday of Easter Gospel reading. We hear some truly consoling words from Jesus: we will receive another Advocate! Let’s analyze the word "Advocate." Its definition means “one called upon to plead." The Advocate Jesus refers to is God the Holy Spirit, the third Person of the Trinity. When called upon, the Holy Spirit strengthens us and pleads our causes. Last Sunday, we learned that Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life. If we are to remain in the truth—which is Jesus—we must call upon the Holy Spirit, who is the Spirit of truth, to bring us to a deeper relationship with Jesus, who in turn reveals the Father to us.
The Holy Spirit provides us with the love needed to obey Jesus’s commands truly. This is not something we can will on our own, but rather, we need to allow the love of the Trinity to flood our souls so deeply that all stones are removed from our hearts, and a new heart will be formed. Allow the Holy Spirit, who proceeds from the love shared between the Father and the Son, lead you into that Divine dance of love. Let us dance as David did when encountering the Ark of the Covenant, and dance as St. John the Baptist did when he was filled with the Holy Spirit while encountering the new Ark of the Covenant, the Blessed Virgin Mary. Remember, the Holy Spirit is not just something of the Trinity but a Person of the Trinity—someone to have a relationship with, just as you do with the Father and the Son, for all three are the one God!
Turn your gaze to Mary, the spouse of the Holy Spirit, who was so intimate with Him that the only-begotten Son of God became incarnate through her. As the spouse of the Holy Spirit, it is fitting to call her an Advocate as well, for just as spouses take each other's names in marriage, so does our Mother who pleads our causes to her most merciful Son for all eternity.
Reading this passage with a sacramental lens, we see that Jesus refers to the Eucharist when He says “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.” (Jn 14:18-19). We might not see Jesus standing in front of us in clothes, but we do see Jesus fully in the Eucharist. Jesus promised He would not leave us and that He would come to us. Now this also means He will return in glory to judge the living and the dead, but it also means that He comes to us every day in the Mass—when the bread and wine are changed forever into His Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity! Jesus is fully present—as if we saw him in clothes waiving at us in the Eucharist just as Scripture describes in Luke 24: “When he was at table with them, he took the bread, blessed it, broke it, and gave it to them. Their eyes were opened, and they recognized him; and He vanished out of their sight. They said to each other, “Did not our hearts burn within us while he talked to us on the road, while he opened to us the Scriptures?” (Lk 24:30-32).
When Jesus says “because I live and you will live,” it calls us back to the Bread of Life discourse in John 6, where Jesus told the crowd—even at the risk of losing followers—that “He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and I in him.” (Jn 6:56). We see Jesus because we believe that He comes to us daily in the Eucharist. When we receive His most precious Body and Blood, we abide in Him, and He in us! The next time you receive the greatest gift, say “Amen” with a true confidence that it is truly the Body and Blood of Christ that you are receiving. The more you love and receive the Eucharist, the more you will be made into Christ!
