Keep My Commandments

                           6th Sunday of Easter

                           

Ascension Window
Assumption church
Fairfield CT

Today, as we celebrate the Sixth Sunday of Easter, we are turning a corner. Instead of looking back to the Resurrection, the readings are looking ahead to the departure of Jesus that we will celebrate this coming week on Ascension Thursday; and then the coming of the Holy Spirit in just two weeks on Pentecost Sunday.

The first reading relates the success of Philip in the conversion of many in the land of Samaria. Remember that Jesus had claimed that his disciples would be able to perform the same signs and miracles that he had done if they would preach in his Name. The crowds in Samaria listened and believed Philip because they “heard and saw the signs that he was doing.”

Philip was one of the new deacons who were appointed to assist the Apostles in their work. Philip’s success seemed to confirm the words of Jesus that his word would spread from Judea to Samaria and then to the ends of the world. On hearing the good news the apostles in Jerusalem send Peter and John to investigate, pray, and confirm the new converts in their faith. In the account we witness one of the early instances of the sacrament of Confirmation. Peter and John “laid hands on them and they received the Holy Spirit.”

At this time of the year successors of the first Apostles continue to administer the sacrament of Confirmation to young men and women all over the world. Most of the newly confirmed will be in their early teens, that often difficult period of transition between childhood and adulthood. It may be difficult for them to think that anything real has happened at Confirmation. After all, the Holy Spirit is the Spirit of God and not a creature of flesh and blood. The Spirit is not accessible by our senses of sight, hearing, touch, taste or smell.

How can they and we discover the Spirit in our lives? Maybe the answer can be found in today’s gospel reading. At the Last Supper Jesus said to his disciples, “If you love me, you will keep my commandments.” In the next sentence he says that He will ask the Father to give them an Advocate, the Spirit of truth. In other words, the coming of the Spirit is linked with keeping the commandments.

Most of us are familiar with the Ten Commandments that were given to the Hebrew people at the time of Moses. They included commands like honor thy father and mother; do not kill; do not commit adultery; do not steal; and do not bear false witness. Jesus was certainly aware of these commandments but he insisted that one commandment was above them all. His command was simply to love one another. In another part of John’s gospel Jesus also commanded us to love one another in the same way that He loved us. In other words, He was urging us to seek a selfless and self-giving love.

I don’t think teenagers or anyone else today would object to this command. We all want to love and to be loved. We all need love, and someone to love. However, we all know that it is easy to turn our backs on love. It has always been easy to just think of ourselves, talk about ourselves, and do for ourselves. 

Love or charity puts the other commandments in a new light. It has often been said that charity begins at home but it might be better to say that it should begin at home. How often do we fail to honor our father and mother?  How often do we show anger and bitterness toward our brothers and sisters? How often do we take from them what is theirs? How often do we deceive the ones we should love the most?

We like to think that it is natural for us to love but we all need help. Where can we find it? 

In today’s gospel Jesus promised that he would not leave us alone.

“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.”

It is true that the Spirit will often come to us in ways we do not see or understand. It will most often come to us from those we love the most and who often love us the most. Even children eventually come to realize that the commands or rules imposed on them by parents come from love.

In today’s second reading St. Peter advises us to be prepared to defend our faith.

"Always be ready to give an explanation

To anyone who asks you for a reason for your hope…"

Our reason for hope is that God is Love and that He has commanded us to love one another as He loved us. If some say there is no God, we say that God is love. If some say, we cannot believe in a God who allows such pain and suffering in the world, we say that during his time on earth Jesus worked to heal pain and suffering wherever he found it, and commanded us to follow his example out of love. At his Ascension He told us that the work of love was up to us but that His Spirit would always be there to assist us on the journey of love.

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Reading 1.Acts 8: 5-8, 14-17

Reading II. 1 Peter 3: 15-18

Gospel. John 14: 15-21 (keep my commandments).

Receive the Holy Spirit

                                    Pentecost

                                    

Pentecoast
Stained Glass Window
Assumption Church
Fairfield CT*

In today's first reading from the Acts of the Apostles St. Luke gives us the well known account of the extraordinary appearance of the Holy Spirit to the Apostles in the upper room. The Apostles had gathered together for the Jewish feast of Pentecost, a feast which commemorated the giving of the law to Moses on Mount Sinai. 

Next week we will celebrate the feast of the Holy Trinity but today's feast is about the Third Person of the Trinity, the Holy Spirit. Let's start out by clearing up a few misconceptions that some of us may have about the Holy Spirit. First of all, the Spirit is not a bird. I know that the traditional image of a dove given us by Christian artists is probably ingrained in all of us. It is hard to portray a purely spiritual being in art for a spirit has no body to paint or sculpt. In one gospel passage the movement of the Holy Spirit is likened to the fluttering flight of a dove and so I guess the early artists used the dove as a kind of artistic shorthand.

Speaking about images I have to confess that as a child I thought that the "tongues as of fire" that rested on the Apostles at Pentecost were actually human tongues on fire. It took me years before I realized that the "tongues" were actually similar to the darting flames that we would see in our own fireplaces. Also back then it was more common to refer to the Holy Spirit as the Holy Ghost, which only conjured up images from Abbott and Costello movies.

But in today's readings we see that although we cannot see or feel or hear the Spirit of God, It dwells in us and works through us. St. Luke says of the Apostles that "they were all filled with the Holy Spirit."

So who or what is the Holy Spirit? First, let's think about the word spirit. In my bedroom there is a picture of me as an infant. Next to it is a picture of me as a young man taken a short while after my wedding day. Next to that I can look into the mirror and behold a senior citizen. Which of these three pictures is me? I guess that even though I look different they all are me. In other words my "spirit" is in all of them. My spirit is the real me. Another word for spirit is "soul," a word that is somewhat out of fashion today.

So when Jesus, on the evening of that Easter Sunday when he rose from the dead, breathed on the Apostles, and said, "Receive the Holy Spirit," He was giving them His own self or spirit. He also makes it clear that He is sending them to continue the work that His Father had sent Him to do. "As the Father has sent Me, so I send you." His Spirit will give them the strength and courage to continue the work.

Fifty days later He comes to them again in the roaring wind and in tongues of fire.

If we can't see or feel or hear the Spirit, how do we know that He dwells in us? As Christians we have to learn to read the signs. Just as the shipwrecked Robinson Crusoe knew that there were other men on his lonely island when he beheld their footprints, we will know the Spirit by His signs. St. Paul says in the letter to the Corinthians,

            There are different kinds of spiritual gifts but the same Lord;

            there are different workings but the same God

            who produces all of them in everyone.

Then, talking to us as well as to the Corinthians, Paul says that to "each individual the manifestation of the Spirit is given for some benefit." In other words we all have a role to play in bringing the Spirit of God to each other.

What are the signs that the Spirit dwells in us? In years past we used to speak of the fruits of the Holy Spirit. If you pick a fruit from a tree and it tastes and smells and feels like an apple, then you can conclude that it's an apple tree. The same goes for a peach or pear tree. In his letter to the Galatians, St. Paul lists the fruits or signs of the Spirit as charity, joy, peace, patience, benignity, goodness, longanimity, mildness, faith, modesty, continency, chastity." Some of these words might sound strange to us today but we surely get the general idea. Who would not want to receive the Holy Spirit? Would we want to be uncharitable, miserable, quarrelsome, impatient, malicious, bad, mean-spirited, offensive, unfaithful, immodest, wasteful, or promiscuous?

We don't need miraculous, mystical, or ghostly experiences to encounter the Spirit today. After all, we have all received the Spirit at Confirmation. Right after Pentecost the Apostles saw that it was necessary not only to preach the Word but also to lay their hands on all the baptized in order that the Spirit might dwell in them.  Generation after generation have continued this practice. Every confirmation is a kind of Pentecost.

Even though the Apostles had walked with the Lord and had seen His Risen Body, they still needed to receive His Spirit before they could leave the upper room and go out and face the world. St. Paul says the same for us.

            For those who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God.

            For you did not receive a spirit of slavery to fall back into fear,

            but you received a Spirit of adoption,

            through whom we cry, "Abba, Father”!

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*Image by Melissa DeStefano

Reading 1.  Acts 2: 1-11

Reading II. 1 Corinthians 12: 3b-7, 12-13

Gospel. John 20: 19-23. (Recive the Holy Spirit).