My Dear People, 

During these last days and before the Feast of the Ascension, we, liturgically, “re-live” the end of the forty-days the Apostles spent with Jesus as He prepared them for His departure. We have no record of Jesus’s teachings during this time, either in Acts or in the Gospels. So, the Church turns to Jesus’s discourse (by John) during the Last Supper, because Jesus speaks extensively about His imminent departure and the coming of the Holy Spirit. 

Jesus said to His disciples: “Whoever loves me will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our dwelling with him. Whoever does not love me does not keep my word; yet the word you hear is not mine but that of the Father who sent me.”

Here we see the convergence of love and obedience. Liberal Christianity, fond of forcing a wedge between these, asserts: 

“We used to follow the commands of a God of justice,”

 but now we are in a relationship with a God of love.” 

There is no disjunction between these realities. Commandments and obedience merge into love. God’s commands are given for our good, and to show us the path to love. Our obedience shows that we both love and trust Him. A lawless Christianity is not loving, no matter how exuberant the worship or how much emotion is expressed in the prayer. 

The Father and Son promise to “make our dwelling” with the one who “keeps my word.” This is a Temple theme, picking up the motifs of the Second reading. The one who keeps the word of Jesus becomes the “new Jerusalem,” the dwelling place of the ”Lord God almighty and the Lamb.”

“I have told you this while I am with you. The Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name will teach you everything and remind you of all that I told you.”

This passage is not a promise of infused, infallible knowledge for each individual believer. We must remember that these words were spoken to the Apostles as a group. This is a promise of the Spirit to the whole Church, as represented by her officers, the Apostles—and by extension, their successors. This promise of being “taught” and “reminded” of the truth told to them by Jesus is best expressed when they gather as a college to seek to understand and explain the faith better—which is what we saw happening in the First Reading. The Ecumenical Councils throughout history best manifest the truth of this promise of Jesus that the Holy Spirit would “reach” and “remind” his Church throughout time. 

Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you.

Not as the world gives do I give to you.

On the one hand, this verse is a word of consolation to the whole Church and to each individual believer. God will provide a supernatural peace that cannot be explained or justified on rational or observational grounds. Though all seem turned against us, and persecutions and tribulations abound, still we can experience a lasting peace unlike anything natural or of this temporal world.

On the other hand, this promise of peace follows directly from the promise of “teaching and reminding” the apostolic college in previous verse. The authoritative teaching of the Apostles and their successors assembled around Peter (that is, an ecumenical council) brings peace in the church by settling questions of dispute and establishing doctrine clearly. 

“Do not let your hearts be troubled or afraid! You heard me tell you: ‘I am going away, and I will come back to you.’ If you loved me, you would rejoice that I am going to the Father; for the Father is greater than I.  And now I have told you this before it happens, so that when it happens you believe me.”

In these last words, Jesus cares for the Apostles and provides pastoral comfort, “pastoring the pastors” so that they remain courageous and confident in their duties even when the apparent absence of Jesus Himself is realized. But, His words of comfort touch all Christians: we ought not be troubled or afraid because we have confidence in the return of the Lord. The tribulations we are experiencing are nothing or unexpected. He warned us ahead of time that they would take place so that we can maintain our faith during the time of testing . 

To summarize, in these Readings, the  Holy Mother Church  speaks to us about how to have peace. The path to peace includes (1) Faithfulness to the teachings of the apostolic college, rather than trusting in private judgment or rouge pastors.  (2) Obedience to the word of Jesus, so that the Father and Son may dwell in our hearts and give us their peace. (3) Trust in Jesus’s promise that He will return and bring us to live with the Father. 

[Passages from Reflection on the Sunday Mass Reading for year C,  by John Bergsma” ]

Yours in Christ,

Fr. Vincent Clemente