The Sixth Sunday in Easter, May 25, 2025

 John 14, 23–29

Jesus said to his disciples: “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, will teach you everything and remind you of all that I told you. Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give it to you. Do not let your hearts be troubled or afraid. You heard me tell you, ‘I am going away and I will come back to you.’ If you loved me, you would rejoice that I am going to the Father; for the Father is greater than I. And now I have told you this before it happens, so that when it happens you may believe.”

“Whoever loves me will keep my word.”  The Lord Jesus defines love for us as a submission to another that expresses itself in service.  Jesus shows it to the .Apostles during the Last Supper by washing their feet, and to the world by dying on the Cross.  When two persons love one another, as in marriage, there is a mutual submission, as St. Paul teaches: “Let women be subject to their husbands, as to the Lord . . .  Husbands, love your wives, as Christ also loved the church and delivered himself up for it” (Ephesians 5, 22 and 25).  Now, the primary relationship each human person has is with God.  Human marriage signifies it, for there is the highest possible level of mutual submission in it.  The Son of God took the form of a slave and became “obedient unto death, even to the death of the cross” (Philippians 2, 8) for our sake.  And, for our part, we make ourselves totally obedient to him, and this is why he tells us, “Whoever loves me will keep my word.”  We are to follow him unreservedly in his commandments, whatever it might cost us in this world.  Even so, we cannot hope to match what he has done for us: he purchased our freedom from sin with his Blood and makes us capable of union with him in heaven.  Nor are his commandments arbitrary.  They keep us safe from sin and the wiles of the devil so that we might be saved.

The Lord does not leave us to our own devices in following his commandments for he knows we could not carry them out if he did.  In order to assist us, he and his Father sends us the Holy Spirit, the Advocate, who provides us the inspirations, nudges, and graces we need in order to obey the divine will.  By heeding the guidance the Holy Spirit provides, we may experience the peace the Lord Jesus offers us — one that no one can take away.