6 Sunday Easter, Year A
On Mother’s Day, we give thanks for mothers, grandmothers, and all those who have cared for us with patience, sacrifice, and love. Jesus promises in the Gospel that he will not leave his disciples orphaned, but will send the Holy Spirit, the Advocate, to remain with them and strengthen them. The faithful love of mothers helps us glimpse the deeper mystery of the Holy Spirit, who nurtures, guides, supports, and gives us life.
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This past week, we had a little bit of excitement here in the church during our weekday Masses. I think it was Wednesday. I was celebrating Mass, and I began to notice that everyone was looking up at the rafters. Some young people in the church were even starting to take out their phones to take pictures, because we had a bird flying around the church, high up along the rafters.
We waited until the end of Mass. The bird stayed up there for a while, and eventually we were able to open the doors at the back and chase it out. It seemed to like going into the choir loft, but finally we got it outside.
Then the next day, I came to celebrate Mass again, and this time there were two birds in the church. One was flying along the rafters, but the other was a little more aggressive and came quite close to me. I wondered what I had done to offend it. It even started resting on these trees here in the sanctuary. Then, at a certain moment, I saw that it had landed right on the top of the tabernacle.
When I went and looked more closely, I noticed something I do not think I had ever really noticed before. On the top of the tabernacle, there is an image of the Holy Spirit. So there was this bird, perhaps a little more aggressive than the Holy Spirit, standing right beside the image of the Holy Spirit.
It was a good reminder of the season we are in now in the Church. We are celebrating the resurrection of Jesus. Soon we will celebrate the Ascension. And we are preparing for Pentecost, when we celebrate again and recognize the gift of the Holy Spirit, who comes to dwell within us.
Jesus speaks about this gift of the Holy Spirit in the Gospel today. The Gospel is taken from Saint John’s Gospel, from a section that some people call Jesus’ last will and testament.
You know how, in movies, someone is about to die, and they call together the people closest to them? They are on their deathbed, and when that happens in a movie, we know the person is about to say something important. We know we should pay attention.
Jesus is doing something similar in the Gospel today. He has gathered his closest followers after the Last Supper. In this section of John’s Gospel, Jesus does three important things.
First, Jesus gives consolation to his followers. He knows he is about to be arrested and put to death. He wants to encourage them, strengthen them, and give them hope for what lies ahead.
Second, Jesus reminds them of his most important teaching. Close to today’s Gospel, Jesus says, “Love one another as I have loved you.” He tells them to keep his commandments. And in John’s Gospel, this central commandment is the commandment of love: to love others with the sacrificial love with which Christ has loved us.
Third, Jesus appoints a successor. Jesus says that he is going back to the Father, but he will not leave his disciples orphaned. He will send the Holy Spirit to be with them.
This is the role of the Holy Spirit, the third person of the Trinity, in our lives. The Holy Spirit is sometimes the person of the Trinity whom we ignore or do not speak about very much. Yet the Holy Spirit is the presence of God in our hearts and in our lives. When Jesus ascends to the Father, the Holy Spirit is God’s presence dwelling in our hearts, keeping us together as a community, and assisting us to continue the mission of Jesus.
In the Gospel today, Jesus gives us some helpful ways to understand who the Holy Spirit is. He gives us language and images to help us wrap our minds around this mystery.
Jesus calls the Holy Spirit the Advocate.
That is a word we sometimes use today for a lawyer, or for someone who defends another person in court. As many of you know, courtroom television shows have always been popular. Law & Order was popular some time ago. More recently, there was Suits. But I grew up often watching reruns of Matlock.
I do not know if anyone remembers that show. What was so interesting about Matlock was that he was this elderly gentleman of a lawyer. He had a caring, grandfatherly quality. He could be a bit curmudgeonly at times, but he was always looking for what was right. When he found someone in need, he stood by that person. He advocated for them. He helped them until justice was done.
This image of the Holy Spirit as Advocate is a particularly helpful way to understand the Spirit. Jesus speaks about his followers going out into the world, where they will encounter difficulties and struggles as they carry out his mission.
We, too, as we journey through life, are in need. We encounter trials. We encounter opposition. We encounter the ordinary challenges of daily life. And the Holy Spirit is our Advocate: the one who is with us in the courtroom, so to speak; the one who speaks on our behalf; the one who strengthens us and assists us, especially in times of need.
Jesus also uses the image of not being orphaned. The Holy Spirit is with us so that we are not left alone when Jesus returns to the Father.
Jesus came, especially in John’s Gospel, to make us sons and daughters of God. He came to make us brothers and sisters of Jesus, members of the same family, with God as our Father, who gives us his very life. When Jesus leaves, he does not leave us orphaned. The Holy Spirit is God’s presence in our lives.
It is providential that we hear this reading as we celebrate Mother’s Day. On this weekend, we congratulate, celebrate, and give thanks to God for the gift of our mothers, our grandmothers, and all those who have cared for us in our lives.
One way we can consider the mystery of the Holy Spirit is by thinking about our own mothers. So I invite each of us to take a moment, perhaps in silence, to picture our own mother. Or perhaps it is a grandmother, or another person in our life who cared for us in a motherly way.
Think about the way mothers care for us. Think about the sacrifices they make, the way they remain close to us, the way they give of themselves in order to give us life. Think about how, whatever happens in our lives, our mothers are there to help us and support us.
Perhaps our mothers are still with us. Perhaps they have already passed away. On this Mother’s Day, we pray for all our mothers, especially those who have died, and we give thanks to God for the gift of our mothers in our lives.
When Jesus describes the Holy Spirit as the one who does not leave us orphaned, I think we can understand this in a deeper way by considering the love of our mothers. Mothers care for us. They nurture us. They remain with us. They sacrifice for us. In an even greater way, the Holy Spirit is with us in our lives, to guide us, support us, strengthen us, and give us life.
This weekend, then, as we prepare our hearts for the coming of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, we remind ourselves that the Holy Spirit is this great gift of God in our lives. The Holy Spirit is our Advocate. The Holy Spirit is the one who does not leave us orphaned.
People often describe the Holy Spirit as the forgotten person of the Trinity. The Spirit can be hard to describe, but the Spirit is so important and so vital in our lives. As we continue the celebration of Easter and approach Pentecost, we pray that we may receive a renewed grace of the Holy Spirit, a renewed understanding and appreciation of the Holy Spirit, who is God present among us.
