The texts from the Roman Catholic Lectionary today invite contemplation of how we maintain hope during difficulties with the help of the Holy Spirit.
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| The Spirit of Hope |
The reading from the Book of Acts tells of Philip in Samaria and the reception of the Holy Spirit.
* [8:16] Here and in Acts 10:44–48 and Acts 19:1–6, Luke distinguishes between baptism in the name of the Lord Jesus and the reception of the Spirit. In each case, the Spirit is conferred through members of the Twelve (Peter and John) or their representative (Paul). This may be Luke’s way of describing the role of the church in the bestowal of the Spirit. Elsewhere in Acts, baptism and the Spirit are more closely related (Acts 1:5; 11:16).1
Psalm 66 offers praise for God’s goodness to Israel.
* [Psalm 66] In the first part (Ps 66:1–12), the community praises God for powerful acts for Israel, both in the past (the exodus from Egypt and the entry into the land [Ps 66:6]) and in the present (deliverance from a recent but unspecified calamity [Ps 66:8–12]). In the second part (Ps 66:13–20), an individual from the rescued community fulfills a vow to offer a sacrifice of thanksgiving. As often in thanksgivings, the rescued person steps forward to teach the community what God has done (Ps 66:16–20).2
The reading from the First Letter of Peter contrasts Christian suffering and the hope that is in us.
* [3:13–22] This exposition, centering on 1 Pt 3:17, runs as follows: by his suffering and death Christ the righteous one saved the unrighteous (1 Pt 3:18); by his resurrection he received new life in the spirit, which he communicates to believers through the baptismal bath that cleanses their consciences from sin. As Noah’s family was saved through water, so Christians are saved through the waters of baptism (1 Pt 3:19–22). Hence they need not share the fear of sinners; they should rather rejoice in suffering because of their hope in Christ. Thus their innocence disappoints their accusers (1 Pt 3:13–16; cf. Mt 10:28; Rom 8:35–39).3
In the Gospel of John, Jesus declares the Promise of the Holy Spirit.
* [14:17] The Spirit of truth: this term is also used at Qumran, where it is a moral force put into a person by God, as opposed to the spirit of perversity. It is more personal in John; it will teach the realities of the new order (Jn 14:26), and testify to the truth (Jn 14:6). While it has been customary to use masculine personal pronouns in English for the Advocate, the Greek word for “spirit” is neuter, and the Greek text and manuscript variants fluctuate between masculine and neuter pronouns.4
Eileen Burke-Sullivan comments on “Always be ready to give an explanation for your hope” says Saint Peter in the second reading from the first letter attributed to his preaching and teaching. Be prepared to testify about your hope. Can you do that today? I ask myself this question almost daily. Can I give an explanation for my hope? Do I have any hope to explain? In the suffering of the multitude of the sick, the bewilderment of those who may not attend Church, the fear of those put out of work, the anger of those who feel that they have lost control over their own lives, in the confusion of students from graduate school to first grade trying to understand how to learn in a new environment, and in the anxiety of university administrators who can’t even imagine where the money needed to continue their good work will come from . . . in the middle of all this, I am to be ready to give a reason for my HOPE? I think maybe I need a bit of conversation with St. Peter on this lovely Sunday in May.
Eileen, don’t you see that the HOPE that I am talking about in that letter is grounded in the experience of encountering Jesus face-to-face? When you look into His eyes then you cannot lose hope. There you see His love tenderly dawning on you. I witness to you that Jesus’ gaze penetrates your soul and tells you that YOU are HIS HOPE, just as HE is YOUR HOPE. When you know how that implacable love is counting on you to give a reason for your hope, . . . well, you become hope itself. And that gaze remains in the Person of the Holy Spirit, the Advocate in your heart.
You have every reason for your HOPE. You are a tree planted close to the spring that wells up from the deepest water course of all – God’s BEING. You are alive and a companion in the life and work of Jesus – always have a reason for your HOPE that God’s life, God’s way, God’s truth wins, both here and now and forever. You do have to be willing to engage the challenge to be both a sign and a voice (in gentleness and reverence, remember) of the victory. Hope is really a verb – as love is – you ACT HOPE.5
Don Schwager quotes “There is no love without the Holy Spirit,” by Augustine of Hippo, 354-430 A.D.
"How, then, did the apostles love, but in the Holy Spirit? And yet they are commanded to love him and keep his commandments before they have received him and, in fact, in order to receive him. And yet, without having that Spirit, they certainly could not love him and keep his commandments. We are therefore to understand that he who loves already has the Holy Spirit, and by what he has he becomes worthy of a fuller possession, that by having more he may love more. The disciples, therefore, already had that Holy Spirit whom the Lord promised, for without him they could not call him Lord. But they had him not as yet in the way promised by the Lord... He was yet to be given them in an ampler measure [at Pentecost]." (excerpt from TRACTATES ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 74.1–2)6
The Word Among Us Meditation on John 14:15-21 comments Jesus has given us the Spirit so that we can stand up against the lies of the evil one. He has given us the best defense attorney in history. Someone who will assure us that we have been forgiven. Someone who will remind us of God’s love for us. Someone who sees our sins and failings but who also sees the true desires of our hearts and never gives up on us.
Always remember the Holy Spirit, your defender, especially when you start thinking that you’re no good or that God has given up on you. Remember him when you begin to doubt the goodness of God’s plans for you and your loved ones.
Every day of your life, be sure that you spend time listening for the Holy Spirit. Let him convince you over and over again that you belong to Christ and that no one can snatch you out of his hands.
“Spirit of truth, help me to withstand every temptation and every accusation.”7
Friar Jude Winkler explains the history of the “half-Jews” of Samaria who are taught by Philip. All the meaning of the Greek word for Advocate apply to the Holy Spirit, the love between the Father and the Son. Friar Jude reminds us that the commandments are guidelines to the Love we want to live.
Fr. Richard Rohr, OFM, introduces Father Joshtrom Isaac Kureethadam, a theologian who has studied and written extensively about Laudato Si′. He urges us to heed the warnings of both science and our conscience. Today, our common planetary home is falling into ruin. We are on the brink of an unprecedented global challenge regarding the sustainability of our common home, which places a question mark on the very future of human civilization.
In the second chapter of the Gospel of John, there is a verse that the disciples attribute to Jesus as he drives out money lenders and sellers of sheep and cattle from the temple of Jerusalem: “Zeal for your house will consume me” [John 2:17). Prior to that verse Jesus tells those who are despoiling the holy place: “Stop making my Father’s house a marketplace!” [John 2:16]. . . .
Today, we could, and probably we should, understand this house as our common planetary home. It is this common home which is being despoiled and desecrated today. Significantly, our common home is also God’s own house, permeated by the Spirit of God from the dawn of creation, where the Son of God pitched his tent in the supreme event of the incarnation. It is in this common home that God co-dwells with humanity and of which we have been entrusted with stewardship, as we read in the book of Genesis [2:15]. The contemporary ecological crisis, in fact, lays bare precisely our incapacity to perceive the physical world as impregnated with divine presence. We have swapped the lofty vision of the physical world as God’s own abode, sanctified by the incarnation of the Son of God, with the one-dimensional mechanistic outlook of modernity. Accordingly, the physical world gets reduced to a mere storehouse of resources for human consumption, just real estate for market speculation. . . . Through pollution of the planet’s land, air, and waters, we have degraded our common home that is also God’s own home. We have turned this sacred abode into a marketplace.8
Our hope, guided by the Holy Spirit, is shared gently with people concerned and fearful about the trials facing our common home, the earth.
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