Today’s readings speak about the Holy Spirit. The Spirit of God. In baptism, all of us, we have received the Holy Spirit. And today, we have the opportunity to reflect and talk about the presence of the Holy Spirit in our lives. When we examine our faith, when we look at the history of salvation or the Church, we come to conclusion that the Holy Spirit is at work. The Holy Spirit is working through people and places. And the Holy Spirit is always with us. He is working. But the question we need to ourselves is this: Do you believe it? Do you believe that the Holy Spirit is in you?
To understand better today’s message we have to remember the context of the Last Supper. Context of farewell. To say good bye to someone or to your family, or to brothers and sisters, is very hard. I think everyone of us has experienced that. You feel like something is dying in you. Separation is hard. When you see your son taking the plane to go to overseas to study. When you see your daughter getting married. When your son is going to the seminary. Or when somebody is about to die. You feel sad and maybe depressed. It is human to feel that. That happens to me each time I have to leave my family and go back to my mission. It is not so hard for me because I have you, my family I see and meet every day. It is very hard for family members who see me once a year. I have to confess to you that I never tell my family the date I leave my country and come back to my mission. They suspect something but I don’t tell them. Because I don’t want to see them sad.
The same thing happened to the apostles at the Last Supper. The apostles were sad, concerned because Jesus was about to leave them. After three years being together, Jesus told them that His time was getting closer. Time to leave them. Time to suffer, time to be crucified. Time for tragedy. Last week, we read a part of the gospel where Jesus was consoling and comforting the apostles saying: Don’t let your hearts be troubled. Trust in me. In today’s gospel, Jesus continues to encourage the apostles and reminds them that even though they do not see Him, He will never abandon them because He will send them another Advocate, another protector, another defender, the Holy Spirit.
The Holy Spirit will be with them forever. The Holy Spirit, the Spirit of truth. This is Jesus’ promise to the apostles and to all of us. The promise of the Holy Spirit. He is with us forever. He is working in our lives. However the challenge we face today is that sometimes we do not believe that the Holy Spirit is working through the people we write off. The challenge we have today is the fact to not believe that the Spirit of God is at work in the people we consider sinners. This is the challenge we face, to believe that the Holy Spirit is working in the people we dismiss or people we try to ignore.
My brothers and sisters, be careful before you write off someone. Because today’s readings tells us that the Holy Spirit might be working in them and through them. That Spirit of the risen Christ continues to be present and active in the people and places where we might least expect it. Take for instance the Jewish people. They did not consider Jesus filled with the Holy Spirit. That Jesus was not conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit. That Jesus was not anointed by the Holy Spirit in baptism. That He shared the Spirit with his friends and followers. It was indeed so difficult for the Jewish to believe that the Spirit of God was working in such a person, Jesus.
Take another example: The Samaritans. In Jesus’ time, the Samaritans were despised by the Jewish people. The story of the Good Samaritan was incredible. The Jewish did not think that there was one single good Samaritan. So to think that a Samaritan moved and showed compassion where priests and Levites did not, that was incredible. Yet, in today’s first reading we learned about the Holy Spirit descending on the Samaritans. Philip preached the good news to them. And they received with great joy. And when Peter and John laid their hands on them, they received the Holy Spirit. Believe me, it was indeed difficult for the Jewish to imagine that the Spirit of God might be working in such people, the Samaritans. Yes, the Spirit continues to work through those on the margins. In the same way that he worked in the lives of Jesus, Samaritans, the Spirit continues to work in the people you least likely expect. The spirit of God continues to work in those, who like Jesus, suffer for doing good.
Where is the good news in all of this? When others judge us and write us off and dismiss us even for doing good, we are not alone. In today’s gospel, Jesus tells us that we have an Advocate, a protector, someone standing besides us, the Holy Spirit. That in the time of trials, we are not alone. We have on our side the Holy Spirit. The best protector. He is always with us. Not only when we face trials but also when we arrive in the age when we don’t have our parents or anyone in our lives – we feel like orphans. Where is the good news? Jesus tells us in the gospel that I will not leave you orphans. I will come to you through the Holy Spirit. The risen Christ continues to be present and active in our lives. Christ is in us and we are in Christ. Brothers and sisters be careful before you write someone off. The Spirit is working in them and be careful before you write yourself off too. The Holy Spirit is at work.
