Commentary on the Gospel of
May 20 – John 14: 21 – 26 - The Amazing promises!
We begin to recall the amazing promises of our Lord Jesus Christ beginning from today’s Gospel passage till the end of Chapter 16 and eventually conclude with His priestly prayer for us all in chapter 17. And the first of those promises mentioned here are captured in the words: love, dwell and teach.
Our Lord tells us that the one who loves Him will be loved by His heavenly Father! Dear friends, does this not sound exceptionally amazing? To be loved by the heavenly Father!! We recall that Jesus had revealed to us in the “our Father” he taught us that we are His Father’s children. And so our response as grateful children is to return love for love. The Lord Jesus takes us through the school teaching that to love God, we seek out the Father’s will and go about doing it. Secondly, He promises us that with His Father they will make their dwelling place in the lover of Jesus! My God, what a privilege to have God dwell in oneself! Many who had this honor and rightly discerned it never looked backwards in their acts of gratitude expressed in whole-hearted self-dedication to God. St. Josephine Bakitha comes to my mind as an example: from the moment she crossed the threshold of slavery to an embrace of God’s love!
And God’s abiding presence ever remained her strength!! Furthermore our Lord reiterates the promise that His Father will send the Holy Spirit who will teach us all things! And that is the reason why we ought not be afraid at the face of threats! Ours is just to remain attached to Jesus and his Spirit which enwraps us inspires us with His wisdom and courage at moments of success and or failure, weakness and or strength, bravery and or helplessness! Ours is the call to remain faithful. O Lord, grant us your grace to persevere in your abiding presence till we enjoy it in full with you in heaven forever, amen.
