Homilies Sunday Reflections

6th Sunday of Easter (Year A)

Loving Jesus! – Seeking Passionate Prayer in Spiritual Warfare

Theme: When a Christian life is led by the commandments of love, God comes to dwell in our lives.

Scripture Reading: Acts. 8:5-8, 14-17; Ps. 65:1-7. 16,20; 1 Pet. 3:15-18; Jn. 14: 15-21

Once a girl came to share her agony with me. She appeared completely shattered. It was concerning her high school board exams, for which she worked very hard preparing for it. She had a history  of securing a good percentage in the past. She was intelligent and she was confident that she would crack this exam as well.

It so happened that the questions which came in the exam were from outside the syllabus. She could not answer most of the questions. She saw around, there were many finding answers on their mobile phones. However, she was determined not to copy the answers from her mobile, and she did not do it. The final result was published, and she failed.

She had great trust in the Lord and she was hoping that she would secure at least passing marks but she failed. She was sincere and did not copy.  But she was angry with God for not being with her when she was so sincere. She was bitter because she felt that God had left her. It was a devastating experience in her life. She had never experienced failure in her life. She was a topper in her school days but now she failed. She followed the commandment of Jesus to be sincere, to be truthful to herself. She showed in the challenging situation that she loved Jesus more than this world. This is the lesson that today’s liturgy teaches today.

St. John tells us in today’s Gospel about the love relationship of a believer with Jesus. He gives us a dimension of a believer’s love with Jesus. The believer shows his love to Jesus when he keeps His commandments. There are two verses mentioned in today’s Gospel that talk about the commandment or word or words. They are all synonymous. Jesus says, “if you love me, you will keep my commandments.” (Jn. 14:15). He further says, “Anyone who receives my commandments and keeps them will be the one who loves me” (Jn. 14: 21). Jesus reminds us constantly in the Gospel of John to remain faithful to his teaching and word. He tells the Jews who believed in him, “If you live in my word, you will indeed be my disciples,” (Jn. 8:31). He further says in the same chapter, “If anyone keeps my word, he will never experience death,” (Jn. 8:51). Still, further, he says, “He who rejects me and does not receive my word, already has a judge: the very word I have spoken will condemn him on the last day,”(Jn. 12: 48). Lastly, Jesus makes his commandment clear: “A new commandment I give you, love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also must love one another.” (Jn. 13: 34). In today’s Gospel; we are reminded that to love Jesus is to keep His commandments; to keep Jesus’ commandments is to love him.  They are two sides of the same coin. The believer’s faithfulness shows that he/she belongs to Jesus.

Therefore, God comes to dwell in his/her life. This is the second dimension of a believer’s love relationship with Jesus. God comes to dwell with those who love him. Jesus promises that the Holy Trinity will indwell in the believer’s life. Firstly, He says, “My Father will give us another Advocate”. (vv. 16-17) Secondly, Jesus will return to us. And thirdly, He and the Father will come and indwell in us.

If we follow the commandments of Jesus, then God comes to dwell in our lives. This is what happened in the lives of the apostles. The first reading records infilling of the Holy Spirit on the Samaritans. Prior to this incident, Steven was stoned to death. The disciples of Jesus ran away from Jerusalem. Deacon Philip fled to Samaria for the fear of the Jews, because he knew that they were not in communion with the Jews. They were treated badly. There faced a lot of hostility for more than 700 hundred years. Samaria was a safe haven.  It allowed Deacon Philip to preach the Gospel. The Samaritans received the baptism. St. Peter and St. John laid their hands on them. These series of events show us that the hostility between the Samaritans and the Jews ended. Although St. Peter and St. John were Jews by their birth, yet they established a new identity in Christ, in which they followed a new commandment of Jesus i.e. love one another; they changed their lives.

The girl who failed in the exam was bitter about God not helping her despite of being faithful. Jesus revealed to me in the same week that the failure was needed in her life as a life experience to make her strong. She had tasted success and was ravishing the praises she received. But she also needed to experience failure in her life so that humility will have a place in her life.

I came to realize it after reading the news about a software engineer who killed himself and his entire family in the United States. The investigating agency revealed that the engineer was in depression because of the recession. He had lost his job. He was a topper in all his studies. He had never experienced failure. The recession hit him hard. He did not know how to handle it. He decided to kill himself and his entire family. He was from the South of India.

The believer’s love relationship with Jesus is dependent on his/her ability to keep the word or commandment of Jesus i.e. love one another. When we keep the commandments, the Triune God comes to indwell in our lives. Are we ready to keep the commandment of love?

St. Francis de Sales says, “You learn to speak by speaking. To study by studying. To run by running. To work by working. And just so: you learn to love God and man by loving. Begin as a mere apprentice and the very power of love will lead you to become a master of the art.”

Fr. Alex D’Mello