OMELIE / Omelie EN

26 mag 2019

26/05/2019 – 6th Sunday of Easter - C 

26/05/2019 – 6^th Sunday of Easter - C 

Reading 1 ACTS 15,1-2.22-29 * Psalm 65 * Reading 2 REV 21,10-14.22-23 * Gospel JN 14,23-29

Jesus spends some time in the room of the last supper with His own people and speaks confidentially to them. He talks about things He has never talked about when He was surrounded by the crowd. Jesus' words are not secrets, but these can be told only those who love Him, who love Him seriously. To love Jesus or not to love Him: this is what differentiates a true disciple from a fake disciple. But how can we love Jesus? When can I say that I really love Him? How can I distinguish between true love and the love that is only a hidden type of selfishness, seen as love only in the intentions of whoever feels it?

“Whoever loves me will keep my word… Whoever does not love me does not keep my words”. Love for Jesus is not a feeling, it is not something you need to feel. No true love is like this, not even the one between spouses, not even the one of a mother towards her children. Love, for Jesus too, is an action, it is something you do: Jesus knows I love Him when I listen to Him and I treasure His words. I love Him when I think His words are precious to me and I learn them by heart in order for them to guide my whole life. If His words become concrete works, if they guide my choices, if they take the place of my thoughts, I love Him. I think Jesus’ word is precious because it is not the word of a man, it is a word He had heard in the silence of the Father’s heart! We cannot understand completely what Jesus is saying, indeed because His word is divine. His word would remain forever mysterious and obscure if the Holy Spirit would not come in us, the gift of God that Jesus reveals to us. The Father, in the name of Jesus, so thanks to Him and keeping Him in mind, is sending us the Advocate, that is our teacher and our advisor. He will make us remember and understand those words of the Lord’s that every day are useful for our journey, those that can guide our steps and have to make our love concrete.

Since we are going to be assisted by this extraordinary Advocate, who is also our defendant, ready in every moment and in every need, we will not be afraid: “Do not let your hearts be troubled or afraid”, Jesus urges us, who is going to come back in order for our joy to grow; this already, right now, must be great, because He, our Master and Lord, is welcomed by the Father!

The apostles have taken Jesus’ words seriously. When they find themselves in need to take important decisions for all the believers of those days, carrying consequences also for today’s ones, they are not afraid: they knew that the Holy Spirit would assist them. They were sure that the Spirit Advocate was with them and it was suggesting them the Lord’s thoughts, and it was giving to their decisions the value of God’s Word! “It is the decision of the Holy Spirit and of us not to place on you any burden beyond these necessities…”. Their decision was taking into account the difficulties encountered by the Jews, but also by the pagans who were reaching the faith in Jesus. They decided, and their decision had the same value as the Scripture for all the believers. The Church continues to live in Jesus’ promises, which have always the same validity; nowadays too those who have some apostolic minister pray and take decisions, and their decisions are obeyed by all Christians.

The Pope and the bishops, always paying attention to the always growing needs of the believers, keep their eyes open, listen and take decisions. They do this for the good of the whole Church, which needs a final word, the only word coming from God's spirit, in order to keep united, to be the strong and beautiful city ready to welcome men coming from any people and every nation.

The passage from the Revelations describes this holy city coming from above and glowing with God’s glory! It is a city with tall walls, an enclosed city then, but with many doors, up to twelve even, like the twelve tribes of Israel. The city it is not an open field, but a well-defined space in which you need to enter in order to be able to enjoy its safety and its beauty: whoever does not enter is out. You can access this city from every direction. The foundations carry the names of the twelve apostles: the latter are its security, its strength, its past and its future! God and the lamb are its temple, while the apostles are its foundation. These twelve men, chosen by Jesus, are always important. The task assigned to them is fundamental, coming from the Lord's will. What they have decided is what He Himself wanted! And they have also decided that their successors would have continued their ministry!

We love Jesus by loving the servants He left us. Our love for Jesus is guided by the apostles and by those who carry on with their ministry today for us. In this way we will also be united, we will make the church beautiful, which is always the place where God the Father can welcome men as children to love and to save them, to wash them in Jesus’ blood and feed them His body. “Whoever loves me will keep my word”: now we know where we can receive His Word! We know what we can do to love Him!