In the name of
the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.
“If
you love me, you will keep my commandments.”
In today’s Gospel, Jesus talks about
the connection between loving him and keeping his commandments.
The commandments are a thermometer
of our relationship with Christ. It is not possible to love Jesus without
considering the commandments but, indeed, we all fail to keep them. However,
Jesus’ love gives us the strength and ability to be faithful to the law of God.
When we break a commandment, it
means that something is not working in our relationship with Christ. When we do
not love God above all things and others as ourselves, there is a distance
between Jesus and us. It is time to go to confession.
Interestingly, Jesus does not ask us
whether we have been keeping his commandments. He only asks us if we love him.
That is what he did with Peter. After Jesus was denied three times by Peter, he
asked three times: “Peter do you love me?”
Without love, the commandments are
mere laws that judge our frailties. In a particular way, the people of our times
are rebelling against such judgment. For example, our church has a stained glass
window. If we look at it from the outside, we cannot see anything. It is just a
window with a silhouette. However, when we enter the church, we see the
magnificent figure of Christ the King. To see from the inside is to see with
love. From the outside, we only see the negative dimension of the law, the
prohibitions imposed on us.
In today’s Gospel, Jesus says that
he is going to send us his Spirit so that we may love him and obey his
commandments: “I will ask the Father and he will give you the Spirit of Truth.”
It is the Holy Spirit who enables us to pass from the outside to the inside. The
Holy Spirit enables us to do what Saint Peter says in the second reading:
“Sanctify Christ as Lord in your hearts.”
In order to keep the commandments,
we must continually seek the face of the Lord. Although Peter was a sinner, he
never stopped seeking Jesus’ face. After Peter denied Jesus for the third time,
he immediately wept bitter tears of repentance.
To seek Jesus’ face is to seek our
own happiness. How can we be pure? How can we keep the commandments? How can we
treat each other not as objects but as persons? The answer is found in Psalm
119: “How can a young man keep his way pure? By keeping your words. With all my
heart I seek you, do not let me stray from your commandments.” If we do not seek
the face of the Lord in the faces of those we love, we end up treating each
other incorrectly, failing to respect each other’s dignity and greatness.
We are almost at the end of the
Easter season. The feast of Pentecost is approaching. Next Sunday, we shall
celebrate the feast of the Ascension. Let us start asking for the gift of the
Holy Spirit.|
Come Holy Spirit, come. Bring us
your divine gifts. Light the fire of your love in our hearts. Give us the grace
to love Jesus and keep his commandments.
In the name of
the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.