“The Holy Spirit that the Father will send you in my name will teach you all things and remind you of all my words” Jn 14, 26
We are already celebrating the Sixth Sunday of Easter, and Jesus begins to prepare
his disciples for his departure. He already revealed God’s plan, his mercy and his grace.
He already appeared resurrected to his disciples, manifesting his victory over evil. Their
mission is ending. Now it is his disciples who must carry forward the
evangelical message, making the reality of salvation and
renewed life.
But, how is it possible that these disciples, so fearful, fragile and
inconstant can carry on the work of Jesus? How can Jesus trust
them, if he knows all their limitations? The answer is simple: Jesus is trusting
not in their strength, but yes, in the docility that they must have to the strength of God: the
Holy Spirit.
After these three years of coexistence, after all that they
lived together and, mainly, after recognizing that the Jesus who was
killed by evil, envy, selfishness, the desire for power…, God had
risen, then they had already learned the difficult lesson: to serve God
just give up. For God it is important to us that we have all the values,
all the qualities, or that we are gifted, for Him the important thing is that
we know how to let it act.
Maybe this is a very difficult thing for us. since the beginning of the world
we seek to be independent and self-sufficient. We want to build ourselves
our happiness. We think we are the smartest of all, and we think that
only by making our own choices can we fulfill ourselves. That’s why it’s
really very difficult to let oneself be led by God. Let Him take the helm
our lives, requires a lot of maturity and also requires being very masters of ourselves
themselves. Jesus, has the hope that now the apostles are ready to live this
new phase of their lives. That is why he announces to them the gift of the Holy Spirit.
Our big problem is that in general we do not want to know the will of
God. We are not convinced of his love for us, and therefore we have
afraid of the things he might want from our lives. In general we do
our plans according to our wishes sometimes very petty, and then we pray and
We pray that God take them over, bless them and make everything run smoothly. But this still
it’s not christianity!!! Even if we pray a lot, if our prayers are for
convince God to do what we want, we are no more than pagans
disguised as Christians.
To be a Christian is to be born again, that is, to receive again the breath of life: the
Holy Spirit. Let him teach us all things. Let him remind us of
every moment, and in every situation the words of Jesus, which will undoubtedly be light for
our steps. But it is very important to keep in mind that this is not only useful
for the consecrated, the priests…. it’s for everyone. For all the baptized, in the
family, at work, in recreation…
May the Lord give us the grace to be as convinced of his love as
the apostles were after the passion, death and resurrection of Christ, so that
like them we can open ourselves without resistance or fear to the action of the Holy Spirit.
We too will be living stones of the Church of Christ.
The Lord bless you and keep you,
The Lord make his face shine on you and have mercy on you.
The Lord turn his loving gaze and give you PEACE.
Bro. Mariosvaldo Florentino, Capuchin.
