I WILL NOT LEAVE YOUR ORPHANS

VI SUNDAY OF EASTER: Jn 14:15-21

In this Sunday’s gospel, Jesus stresses three important points in our relationship with him:

Love is in keeping the commandments

And he repeats it again saying: “Whoever has my commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves me.” (Jn 14:21).

There is no true love without commitment, and that is shown by the readiness to keep the commandments that protect and uphold love.

Nowadays, many people equals love with lust and pleasure and thinks of love as a boundless freedom. However, they are in search of love where true love cannot be found. The commandments - God’s commandments - are oppressive only for those who are guided by selfishness and who look for nothing else in life but their own self-satisfaction. In true love, the attention of our hearts and our minds is directed towards the ones we love, giving us the courage and the strength to work and suffer for them.

And God’s commandments are about defending and protecting the honour and dignity of the other. There are plenty of human laws that are oppressive, but not God’s command, and certainly not Jesus’ new commandment of love: “that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another” (Jn 13:34).

Speaking about love, St. Paul wrote to the Romans that “love is the fulfilment of the law”:

“Owe no one anything, except to love one another; for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law. The commandments, “You shall not commit adultery; You shall not murder; You shall not steal; You shall not covet”; and any other commandment, are summed up in this word, “Love your neighbor as yourself.” Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore, love is the fulfilling of the law” (Ro 13:8-12)

I will not leave you orphans

And Jesus stresses a second point: “I will not leave you orphans. I will come to you.” (Jn 14:18)

Left alone in this world, many times we may feel lost and abandoned, but in such moments we must remember that we are not alone. Jesus is always by our side as a companion in our journey. He comes to us with his Spirit, the Holy Spirit, who is the Spirit of truth. He comes to us as our Helper and Advocate. He dwells in us, guiding and strengthening us from within. The Holy Spirit is Jesus special gift to us, enabling us to live as children of God, and to be in this old world seeds and witnesses of the new world to come.

Being one with Jesus, we are one with the Father

With the Holy Spirit in us, we will come to understand Jesus’ words: “you will know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you” (Jn 14:20). We will come to understand this deep communion with God, which is possible in Jesus Christ. 

Being one with Jesus, we are really children of God and become divine, not by our own power or achievement but by God’s grace and love who has decided to elevate us and to share with us his holiness and divinity.

“And he who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and manifest myself to him” (Jn 14:21).