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Homily for the sixth Sunday
of Easter - Year A - Jn. 14:15-21
by
Canon Dr. Daniel Meynen
" If you love me, you will
keep my commandments. And I will pray the Father, and he will give you
another Paraclete, to be with you for ever, even the Spirit of truth,
whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows
him; you know him, for he dwells with you, and will be in you.
" I will not leave you
desolate; I will come to you. Yet a little while, and the world will
see me no more, but you will see me; because I live, you will live
also. In that day you will know that I am in my Father, and you in me,
and I in you.
" He who has my
commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves me; and he who loves me
will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and manifest myself to
him. "
Homily:
" If you love me, you will
keep my commandments. And I will pray the Father, and he will give you
another Paraclete, to be with you for ever, even the Spirit of truth,
whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows
him; you know him, for he dwells with you, and will be in you. "
These words of Jesus spoken
on the evening of Holy Thursday remind us of other words, pronounced by
Jesus in the synagogue of Capernaum: "He who eats my flesh and drinks
my blood abides in me, and I in him." (Jn. 6:56) And they were
immediately followed by these: "As the living Father sent me, and I
live because of the Father, so he who eats me will live because of me."
(Jn. 6:57)
On the evening of Holy
Thursday, Jesus instituted the sacrament of his Body and Blood: the
Eucharist. At the same time, he instructed his disciples concerning the
action of the Holy Spirit. For the two are linked: the Eucharist and
the Holy Spirit go together. Curiously, however, the sixth chapter of
Saint John, which contains the discourse of Jesus at Capernaum, does
not say a word about the Holy Spirit. In fact, this only appears to be
the case. Jesus provides the explanation for this at the discourse
after the Last Supper: indeed, he calls the Holy Spirit "another
Paraclete" (Jn. 14:16). For Jesus himself is the first Paraclete!
Let me be clear: there are
not two Holy Spirits. But there are two Paracletes, that is, two divine
Persons who exercise toward men a similar action, that of watching over
them and protecting them from the devil, from the world, and from each
other.
Jesus acted as a Paraclete
throughout his life on earth. The Holy Spirit came on the day of
Pentecost in order to remain forever with the Church and with all men
of good will, watching over each one as "another Paraclete". In order
that there might be no interruption in this action of the Paraclete
between the Ascension of Jesus and the descent of the Holy Spirit on
the day of Pentecost, we can even say that Mary, who watched over Jesus
during his life on earth, and who assists the Church since her birth on
Pentecost, exercised a wholly maternal role, similar to that of the
Paraclete, toward the Apostles during the ten days that separated the
Ascension from Pentecost: "All these with one accord devoted themselves
to prayer, together with the women and Mary the mother of Jesus." (Acts
1:14)
With the coming of the Holy
Spirit on the day of Pentecost, the Apostles and those who were
ordained priests began to celebrate the Eucharist, or the "breaking of
bread" (Acts 2:42). During Eucharistic communion, the Apostles, the
Christian faithful, and all of us who receive within us the Bread of
Life, are in communion with the Paraclete, the first Paraclete, who
watches over us and establishes us in his rest. Jesus-Eucharist comes
to dwell in us, we who dwell in him: "He who eats my flesh and drinks
my blood abides in me, and I in him." (Jn. 6:56)
After the sacrament of the
Eucharist is fully consumed, which may take about ten to fifteen
minutes, is Jesus no longer in us? Under the Eucharistic form, we must
say no. But, just as the Ascension is followed by Pentecost, in the
same way, after the first Paraclete, Jesus, comes the second, the Holy
Spirit, in the measure, of course, that the first Paraclete was
welcomed...
" He will give you another
Paraclete, to be with you for ever. "
The Holy Spirit, the other
Paraclete, dwells in us, through Eucharistic communion: he rests in us,
in the measure that we have rested in him, through faith, hope, and
charity. As we also need to rest, not in God, but in ourselves, or
rather, in our bed, each night, this presence of the Holy Spirit, this
resting in us of that "other Paraclete" ceases to be present to our
consciousness. For, as everyone knows, to sleep means to voluntarily
lose consciousness, necessarily.
But let us rest assured:
when we awake, the Holy Spirit is still there, in us, unless we have
offended him by some grave sin. However, this presence of the Paraclete
partly escapes us, and it is only through the new day's communion that
we will again, in a way, touch that presence! "Our Father, give us this
day our daily bread!"
May the Most Blessed Virgin
Mary be our Mediatrix before her Son, the first Paraclete, he who bears
the Holy Spirit, for the Glory of God the Father!
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