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Sixth Sunday of Easter
May 14, 2023


Acts 8:5-8, 14-17

Philip went down to the city of Samaria and proclaimed the Christ to them.
With one accord, the crowds paid attention to what was said by Philip
when they heard it and saw the signs he was doing.
For unclean spirits, crying out in a loud voice, came out of many possessed people,
and many paralyzed or crippled people were cured.
There was great joy in that city.

Now when the apostles in Jerusalem heard that Samaria had accepted the word of God,
they sent them Peter and John, who went down and prayed for them,
that they might receive the Holy Spirit, for it had not yet fallen upon any of them;
they had only been baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus.
Then they laid hands on them and they received the Holy Spirit.

From Ps 66

Let all the earth cry out to God with joy [or Alleluia].

Shout joyfully to God, all the earth,
sing praise to the glory of his name;
proclaim his glorious praise.
Say to God, "How tremendous are your deeds!"

"Let all on earth worship and sing praise to you,
sing praise to your name!"
Come and see the works of God,
his tremendous deeds among the children of Adam.

He has changed the sea into dry land;
through the river they passed on foot;
therefore let us rejoice in him.
He rules by his might forever.

Hear now, all you who fear God, while I declare
what he has done for me.
Blessed be God who refused me not
my prayer or his kindness!

1 Peter 3:15-18

Beloved:
Sanctify Christ as Lord in your hearts.
Always be ready to give an explanation
to anyone who asks you for a reason for your hope,
but do it with gentleness and reverence,
keeping your conscience clear,
so that, when you are maligned,
those who defame your good conduct in Christ
may themselves be put to shame.
For it is better to suffer for doing good,
if that be the will of God, than for doing evil.

For Christ also suffered for sins once,
the righteous for the sake of the unrighteous,
that he might lead you to God.
Put to death in the flesh,
he was brought to life in the Spirit.

Jn 14:15-21

Jesus said to his disciples:
"If you love me, you will keep my commandments.
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.
But you know him, because he remains with you,
and will be in you.
I will not leave you orphans; I will come to you.
In a little while the world will no longer see me,
but you will see me, because I live and you will live.
On that day you will realize that I am in my Father
and you are in me and I in you.
Whoever has my commandments and observes them
is the one who loves me.
And whoever loves me will be loved by my Father,
and I will love him and reveal myself to him."


The gospels, Mark, Matthew and Luke, tell us much about Jeshua (Jesus), the way he walked the hills of Galilee teaching, the crowds who gathered, the way they hung on his every word, the signs he gave of kindness and mercy, "in the Father's name", as he used to say. In cryptic sketches they tell us pretty well everything we need to know about Jesus of Nazareth.

John's gospel is different. The legend is he wrote it as an old man remembering, or if you prefer a more critical assessment, it was written around the turn of the first century when the communities were already becoming settled in their ways - not all good, as this gospel tells us. As I read it, I think of John himself, observing the encroachment of formal religion with its rituals and rules into the movement that Paul had insisted was free of the ties of the Law. John wanted people to know that to follow Jeshua is a simple a matter of knowing him and knowing his Father. The test of that is found in how we love our sisters and brothers, all children in the one family whatever clothes they wear, whatever the colour of their skin – or their faith.

In reading John's gospel we can share his experience of knowing Jeshua, not so much the way he knew him as a young man but as he had come to know and understand him with after those years of friendship, in the maturity of insight that develops over a lifetime.

Over and over John shares with us the Jeshua he knows, his thoughts, his feelings, especially how he experiences the Father and communion with the Divine. And how Jeshua is sharing all that with his disciples, those ready to learn from him. How he is still as active as back then at the start, in his Spirit.

Some of John's reflections, especially those put together in the long 'discourse' after the last meal they had together, are so intimate they would be embarrassing to read, but for the cryptic brevity of the prose. Or is it the abstract poetic style that hints at so much more than words can express?

John never tires of talking about the love Jeshua had for us, for this disciples, for everyone, and how he knew them and wanted them all to know the Father as he knew him.

“I will not leave you orphans,” he told them on that last evening together. “I will come to you. In a little while the world will no longer see me, but you will see me, because I live and you will live. On that day you will realize that I am in my Father and you are in me and I in you.”

I live in you and you in me - who among us has not wanted to say this to our closest friend, our life partner? But sometimes we may regret we didn't ever manage it, not adequately. I think our partners are probably better at it than us men. Sure, we know that's how it is and we try to express those feelings of closest love, but here is old John saying it plainly of his friend, Jeshua. He knew the experience.

“Whoever has my commandments and observes them is the one who loves me. And whoever loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and reveal myself to him."

"Whoever tries to understood my teachings and to follow them is the one who loves me." Yes, that's a paraphrase, but I always recoil at the word 'commandment', especially since Paul so strongly insisted that love is essentially a free gift. It cannot be commanded.We are reborn to a life of freedom, that is, to a life of love in which the motivation comes entirely from within ourselves, 'because we want to, for love's sake'.

"And whoever loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and reveal myself to him." We must not read this in the analytic way of an historian or literary critic. This is love talk, and anyone who does not know what it means has not been loved, nor had the breath-taking experience of returning that love.

There are too many such people, and we must reach out to touch them with our love so they become able to open themselves to Jeshua's love, to the Father's love. But we will touch them not first with teaching words but with gestures of friendship, respect and caring. Through the sharing of our experience of being loved the Spirit will reach across to warm the one we touch.

*****


These are just a few ideas as an introduction to a time of meditation. I would take John's words line by line, just tasting the flavour of them. That's enough.