Monday in the Fifth Week of Easter, April 29, 2024

John 14, 21-26

Jesus said to his disciples: “Whoever has my commandments and observes them is the one who loves me. Whoever loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and reveal myself to him.” Judas, not the Iscariot, said to him, “Master, then what happened that you will reveal yourself to us and not to the world?” Jesus answered and said to him, “Whoever loves me will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our dwelling with him. Whoever does not love me does not keep my words; yet the word you hear is not mine but that of the Father who sent me.  I have told you this while I am with you. The Advocate, the Holy Spirit whom the Father will send in my name he will teach you everything and remind you of all that I told you.”

The Lord Jesus is speaking to his Apostles at the Last Supper, speaking openly to those who have been made ready to hear — if not to fully understand — the full truth of his Divine Sonship, of his intimacy with the Father, and of how they, the Apostles, may attain eternal life and share in his into,act with the Father.

“Whoever has my commandments and observes them is the one who loves me.”  The Greek word translated as “has” which means both “to possess” and “to consider”.  A person who has the Lord’s commandments understands them and is committed to carrying them out.  They belong to him as a gift he has gratefully received.  The commandments of Jesus mark the recipient as a member of his Body and a partaker of the New Covenant in his Blood just as surely as circumcision physically marked a person as a child of Abraham and a sharer in the Old Covenant.  And while circumcision is a sign normally kept hidden, carrying out the commandments of Christ is a sign that is quite prominent.  They show a person not only as acting in a distinct way, but as being inwardly a distinctly different kind of person — a Christian.  And obedience to the Lord’s commandments is an act of love of him.  This reminds us that love is not so much an emotion as an action.

“Whoever loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and reveal myself to him.”  This is the essence of the spiritual life. Love of Christ through the carrying out of his commandments prepares a person for Christ to reveal himself to him, so that the person experiences the love Christ has for him so that he can say with St. Paul, “To live is Christ and to die is gain” (Philippians 1:21).

“Master, then what happened that you will reveal yourself to us and not to the world?”  St. Jude asks a very good question.  “Whoever loves me will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our dwelling with him.”  The Lord does not seem to answer St. Jude’s question.  What Jesus is telling him is that there are not enough years in a human lifetime for him to do this, but that through the Apostles and their successors the world will know him so that the Lord will come to anyone who  loves him and will make him his dwelling.

“Whoever does not love me does not keep my words; yet the word you hear is not mine but that of the Father who sent me.”  Many will say that they love the Lord Jesus, but if they do not obey his commandments, they show that they do not.  They are liars.

“I have told you this while I am with you. The Advocate, the Holy Spirit whom the Father will send in my name he will teach you everything and remind you of all that I told you.”  Jesus promises that the Holy Spirit will be as real a presence in their lives and in the lives of those who love him as he himself has been in the time before he ascends into heaven.

The Lord tells all of this to the Apostles just hours away from his arrest in the Garden of Gethsemane.  They will have these words to console them on Good Friday and Holy Saturday, for in them the Lord speaks not only of the present but of the future.  They will cling to these words at that time and one day soon the Holy Spirit would teach them everything and remind them of everything the Lord had told them.  This has all been passed on to us so that we may ponder, and wonder, and love.

The twentieth article in our continuing series on the Holy Mass: The Doxology and the Amen

The Eucharistic Prayer is concluded with the priest chanting or reciting a prayer called the Doxology, a word that comes from the Greek word for (glory).  This prayer is the culmination of the consecration of the bread and wine, making them the Body and Blood of the Son of God.  It is a outburst of praise, as though all of creation must cry out at the wondrous news of this miracle and of the infinite love manifested by it.  As the Lord said to the Pharisees with respect to his followers rejoicing in his entrance of Jerusalem: “I say to you that if these shall hold their peace, the very stones will cry out!” (Luke 19, 40).  The prayer is as follows: “Through him and with him and in him, O God Almighty Father, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, all glory and honor is yours forever and ever.”  At the same time as the priest says this, he holds the chalice and the Host about chest high.  This elevation is not made for the benefit of the congregation but is part of the praise offered to God, for it is through his Son, and with his Son and in his Son, present in the priest’s hands, that all glory is given to him.  The elevation acts as a sort of emphasis:  “Through this, your Son, in my hands”.  The prayer should be chanted or spoken so that the words are clear and distinct.  Though brief, it is full of the most profound theology and so ripping through it, as is often done, deprives the congregation of even the most basic understanding of what it means.

The Amen spoken in response by the congregation concludes the Eucharistic Prayer.  It seems that priests often join in the Amen, especially if it is sung or chanted, but this is the people’s prayer.  The priest offers the praise of the Doxology and the people affirm it on their part with the Amen.  Sometimes the Amen is called “the Great Amen”, but this is not correct.  “The Great Amen” is a nickname for a musical setting for the Amen also called the Dresden Amen, since it was composed for use in the royal chapel in that city in the 1800’s.  

Next: The Our Father