“But I tell you the truth, it is better for you that I go. For if I do not go, the Advocate will not come to you. But if I go, I will send him to you.”  John 16:7

The hearts of the Apostles were conflicted.  They were filled with grief, but they were also trying to trust what Jesus said to them.  Jesus told them He was ascending to His Father and that it was better for them that He go.  Why?  Because if He goes, He will send the Holy Spirit to them.  

On a human level, it would have been quite hard for the Apostles to let go of their daily interactions with Jesus.  They certainly missed seeing Him with their eyes, touching Him and hearing Him.  But Jesus made it clear that even though He was leaving He would be with them always.  And He would also send the Holy Spirit upon them to lead them, give them courage, and teach them all truth.  They would now be His presence in the world by the power of the Holy Spirit.

We never had the privilege of seeing Jesus in the way the Apostles did.  But we do have the same privilege of Him being with us always.  And we have the same privilege of receiving the fullness of the Holy Spirit.  This is good.  It is very good.  But it is a good that we often miss.  We may have been confirmed, but we may also still fail to let the Holy Spirit in and transform our lives.  

In less than two weeks, we will celebrate the Solemnity of Pentecost.  This is the annual celebration of the fulfillment of this promise of Jesus.  On that day we commemorate the fact that the Holy Spirit has come and that we are now in the time of the Holy Spirit.  

Reflect, today, and over the next couple of weeks about the Holy Spirit.  Humbly admit to yourself if you need to let the Holy Spirit become more alive in your life.  Trust that Jesus wants you to receive Him in His fullness.  And be not afraid to let this union take place.

Holy Spirit, please come to me.  Help me to fan into flame Your presence in my life.  May I receive You who was promised by Jesus in Your fullness.  Holy Spirit, Divine Jesus, Merciful Father, I trust in You.

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“They will expel you from the synagogues; in fact, the hour is coming when everyone who kills you will think he is offering worship to God. They will do this because they have not known either the Father or me. I have told you this so that when their hour comes you may remember that I told you.”  John 16:2–4

Most likely, as the disciples listened to Jesus tell them they would be expelled from the synagogues and even killed, it went in one ear and out the other.  Sure, it may have disturbed them a bit, but they most likely moved on rather quickly not worrying too much about it.  But this is why Jesus said, “I have told you this so that when their hour comes you may remember that I told you.”  And you can be certain that when the disciples were persecuted by the scribes and Pharisees, they did remember these words of Jesus.  

It must have been a heavy cross for them to receive such persecution from their religious leaders.  Here, the people who were supposed to point them to God, were wreaking havoc in their lives.  They would have been tempted to despair and lose their faith.  But Jesus anticipated this heavy trial and, for that reason, warned them that it would come.  

But what’s interesting is what Jesus did not say.  He did not tell them they should fight back, start a riot, form a revolution, etc.  Rather, if you read the context to this statement, we see Jesus telling them that the Holy Spirit will take care of all things, will lead them and will enable them to testify to Jesus.  To testify to Jesus is to be His witness.  And to be a witness to Jesus is to be a martyr.  Thus, Jesus prepared His disciples for their heavy cross of persecution by the religious leaders by letting them know that they would be strengthened by the Holy Spirit to give witness and testimony to Him.  And once this began to take place, the disciples began to recall all that Jesus had told them.

You, too, must realize that being a Christian means persecution.  We see this persecution in our world today through various terrorist attacks upon Christians.  Some see it also, at times, within the “Domestic Church,” the family, when they experience ridicule and harsh treatment for trying to live out their faith.  And, sadly, it’s even found within the Church itself when we see fighting, anger, disagreement and judgment.  

The key is the Holy Spirit.  The Holy Spirit plays a significant role right now in our world.  That role is to strengthen us in our witness to Christ and to ignore any way the evil one would attack.  So if you feel the pressure of persecution in any way, realize that Jesus spoke these words not only for His first disciples, but also for you.

Reflect, today, upon any way that you experience persecution in your life.  Allow it to become an opportunity for hope and trust in the Lord through the outpouring of the Holy Spirit.  He will never leave your side if you trust in Him.

Lord, when I feel the weight of the world or persecution, give me peace of mind and heart.  Help strengthen me by the Holy Spirit that I may give joyful witness to You.  Jesus, I trust in You.

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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.”  John 14:23

Do you want our Lord to come to you and dwell within the depths of your soul?  Presumably the answer is an easy “Yes.”  The way to make this happen is to love God and keep His word.  When you do that, the Blessed Trinity will come and dwell within you.

It’s interesting that the love of God appears to be contingent upon our love of Him.  In other words, does God only love us when we love Him first?  Strictly speaking, God loves us with a perfect love regardless of whether we love Him or not.  But with that said, love takes on a whole new form when it is received and reciprocated.  Therefore, when we choose to love God we suddenly realize that our love of Him opens the door for Him to come and dwell within us, transforming us and making our heart His holy sanctuary.  What a glorious gift!

It’s also interesting to note that love of God means, in part, that we are obedient to Him.  But that’s the nature of God.  He is Love itself and, therefore, loving Him necessarily involves a complete submission of your will to His.  Perfect obedience to Him in all things is a powerful way of loving Him.  It’s a way of allowing Him to dwell within you and, in that act, to take over your will.  Only then can you love Him even more fully with your whole being.

Reflect, today, especially upon your desire to have the Most Holy Trinity come and dwell within your soul.  This should be the primary goal of our lives.  If God lives within us then all else in life will fall into place.  All things will work for the good and God will be glorified in and through us.  Make the choice to love Him through your obedience, this day, and your relationship of love will grow by leaps and bounds.

Most Holy Trinity, I do love You and desire to love You in a more perfect way this day.  Help me to submit to Your perfect will in all things.  Help me to embrace perfect obedience to You always.  In that act of love and submission, come and make Your dwelling within me.  Jesus, I trust in You.

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“Remember the word I spoke to you, ‘No slave is greater than his master.’ If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you.”  John 15:20

Do you want to be like Jesus?  If so, beware of what that means.  It’s easy to think that the closer we grow to Christ the more we will be loved and understood by the world.  We can think that everyone will see our holiness and admire it and all will be good and easy in life.

But all we have to do is look at the life of Christ to know this is not the case.  He was obviously perfect in every way.  As a result, He was treated with great malice and persecution.  It’s hard to fathom the dark truth that they actually killed Him.  In the dark of the night, He was arrested, given a mock trial, found guilty and sentenced to death.  His punishment was then carried out immediately.

Why did they do this to the Son of God?  Why would someone so perfect and merciful in every way be so cruelly treated?  

If we were there, as His first followers, we would have most likely been shocked, frightened, scandalized and confused.  We may have thought that Jesus messed up and lost hope in Him.  But His plan was perfect in every way and His plan did centrally involve Him enduring false accusations and malicious persecution.  And by freely accepting this abuse, He redeemed the world.

So back to the original question, “Do you want to be like Jesus?”  This is a tough question when we look at it in the light of what happened to Him.  “No slave is greater than his master.”  “If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you.”  These are tough sayings to accept and agree to.  

Persecution is something from which we should not run.  We should not despair if it happens and we should not hold our head low.  Why?  Because persecution is a clear sign that we are following in the footsteps of our Master.  We are more deeply united to Christ as a result of persecution than we could ever realize. 

The key is to know that God intends to use all maltreatment for good if we let Him.  And we let Him use it for good when we surrender it to Him and receive it freely, not begrudgingly.  Our response must be to “rejoice and be glad” that we have been found worthy to follow in the steps of our Divine Lord.

Ponder today any form of persecution or injustice you suffer for the sake of your faith and embrace of the Gospel.  The Lord wants to use that if you let Him.

My persecuted Lord, I do surrender to You all that weighs me down.  I give any suffering I receive for being Your follower.  May I not only imitate You in Your suffering, but also in Your willing embrace of it.  Jesus, I trust in You.

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“It was not you who chose me, but I who chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit that will remain.”  John 15:16

Children love to play games.  When a game is organized between two teams, kids will often line up and wait to be chosen.  Each child hopes to be chosen first.  It is affirming to be wanted for the team.  When a child is chosen last this can be difficult and hurtful.

This reveals the desire within each of us to belong and to be wanted.  The good news is that God does choose each one of us.  He wants us as a member of His family and He wants us to belong to Him.  This is essential to understand and, when it is understood, it is very affirming.

It is a good spiritual practice to regularly reflect upon the fact that God chose us even before we were born.  He knew us from all eternity and set His eyes upon us, longing to bring us into His fold.  We need to understand this, accept it and believe it.  We do belong.

God not only chooses us to belong to Him, He also chooses us for His mission.  He wants to use us to go and bear fruit for His Kingdom.  He wants to use us for a sacred purpose and a divine calling.  Being a member of His “team” means that our lives have purpose and meaning.  No matter how “unqualified” we may feel at times to make a difference, we must remember that God does not see us that way.  Rather, He sees the infinite potential within each of us and chooses to use that potential for the building up of His Kingdom.

Reflect, this day, on two short phrases:  “I have chosen you” and “Go and bear fruit.”  Accepting your call from God will change your life and will also change the lives of those whom you are called to serve.

My welcoming Lord, I know You have chosen me.  I accept Your call in my life.  I accept the fact that You have appointed me to fulfill Your mission in a unique and glorious way.  Help me to continually say “Yes” to Your call.  Jesus, I trust in You.

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“As the Father loves me, so I also love you.”  John 15:9

There are three beautiful insights we should take from this passage.  

First, the love of the Father for the Son is perfect in every way.  It is unconditional and all-consuming.  It’s total and selfless.  In receiving the Father’s love, Jesus receives all He needs.  

Second, the love Jesus receives from the Father cannot be contained.  It cannot be kept to Himself.  The love of the Father is such that it overflows from Jesus’ heart.  It is this overflowing love that pours forth from Jesus to us.  

Third, a key thing to ponder in this is that this overflowing love, now given to us, cannot be contained within us either.  It must overflow from our hearts to others.  Therefore, if we are to be true recipients of the love of the Father and the Son, we must in turn let that love pour forth onto others in an “unlimited” and “unconditional” way.

Think about it.  “Unlimited.”  “Unconditional.”  Is this truly possible?  Is it possible to be so radical and total in our love of others?  Yes, it’s possible only if the love we speak of originates in the heart of the Father, given to the Son, and then poured out upon us to distribute freely.  

Reflect, today, upon the fact that the love you are called to share with others originates in the Heart of the Father in Heaven.  The first and most important step in learning to love with the Father’s Heart is to let God love you.  This can be very hard to do.  It can be hard to let God love you, to receive that love, and to let it affect you deeply.  But if you can continually let God love you with His perfect love, you will start to see that this love automatically flows forth from you as if it were an overflowing river of grace and mercy.

Loving Father and Son, I do love You and know that I am loved by You.  Help me to be open to Your love. Help me to let that love sink in so that it may also overflow from my heart to others.  Jesus, I trust in You.

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“I am the true vine, and my Father is the vine grower. He takes away every branch in me that does not bear fruit, and everyone that does he prunes so that it bears more fruit.”  John 15:1–2

Are you willing to let yourself be pruned?  Pruning is necessary if a plant is to produce an abundance of good fruit or beautiful flowers.  If, for example, a grapevine is left to grow without pruning, it will produce many small grapes that are good for nothing.  But if care is taken to prune the vine, the maximum number of good grapes will be produced.

Jesus uses this image of pruning to teach us a similar lesson in bearing good fruit for His Kingdom.  He wants our lives to be fruitful and He wants to use us as powerful instruments of His grace in the world.  But unless we are willing to go through the purification of spiritual pruning from time to time, we will not be the instruments that God can use.  

Spiritual pruning takes the form of letting God eliminate the vices in our lives so that the virtues can be properly nourished.  This is especially done by letting Him humble us and strip away our pride.  This can hurt, but the pain associated with being humbled by God is a key to spiritual growth.  By growing in humility, we grow ever more reliant upon the source of our nourishment rather than relying upon ourselves, our own ideas and our own plans.  God is infinitely wiser than us and if we can continually turn to Him as our source, we will be far stronger and better prepared to let Him do great things through us.  But, again, this requires that we let Him prune us.

Being spiritually pruned means we actively let go of our own will and our own ideas.  It means we give up control over our lives and let the master grower take over.  It means we trust Him far more than we trust ourselves.  This requires a true death to ourselves and a true humility by which we acknowledge we are completely reliant upon God in the same way a branch is reliant upon the vine.  Without the vine, we shrivel and die.  Being firmly attached to the vine is the only way to life.

Pray this day that you will let the Lord prune away all that is not of Him in your life.  Trust in Him and His divine plan and know that this is the only path to bearing the good fruit God wants to bear through you.

Lord, I pray that You prune away all my pride and selfishness.  Purify me of my many sins so that I can turn to You in all things.  And as I learn to rely upon You, may You begin to bear an abundance of good fruit in my life.  Jesus, I trust in You.

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“Do not let your hearts be troubled or afraid.”  John 14:27

What a wonderful reminder that we all need to hear on a regular basis.  “Do not let your heart be troubled.”  And “Do not let your heart be afraid.”  How often do you follow that advice?

Interestingly, it’s actually more than advice.  It’s a command of love from our Lord.  He wants to be clear and wants us to know that a fearful and troubled heart is not of Him.  To be troubled and fearful is a great burden and weighs us down.  Jesus desperately wants us to be free of these burdens.  He wants us to be free so that we can experience the joy of life.  

So what is it that burdens you in life the most?  Is there something in your life that you obsess about, are angry about, can’t let go of or that tends to dominate your life?  Or perhaps your burden is more subtle.  Perhaps there is nothing that overwhelms you but, instead, is a constant burden in a small way, always there in the background.  These burdens can be quite difficult when they last from year to year.

The first step to freedom is to see the burden for what it is.  Identify it and seek to identify the underlying cause.  If the cause of your burden is your own sin, repent of it and seek Confession.  This is the best way to experience immediate freedom.  

If, however, your burden is the result of another’s actions or some situation in life that is out of your control, then you are in a unique position to surrender to our Lord, giving Him complete control of this situation.  Freedom is found in total surrender, trust and abandonment to His will.

Spend some time today reflecting upon that which burdens you the most in life.  What is it that weighs heavily upon you?  It is this, more than anything else, that Jesus wants to enter into and lift for you.  He wants you free so that you can experience the joy that He has to offer you in life.  

Lord of true joy, I want to be free.  I want to experience the joy You have in store for me.  When the burdens of life weigh me down, help me to turn to You in my need.  Jesus, I trust in You.

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“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.”  John 14:23

Children seem to get it.  They seem to understand that God dwells in their hearts.  Of course if you asked them how they know this they may look at you with a confused look and not know how to respond.  But, nonetheless, somehow they do understand that God dwells within them.

So what would you say if someone asked you, “How do you know that God comes and makes His dwelling within you?”  Perhaps you also may be at a loss for words to describe this incredible mystery of our faith.   Do you believe this to be true?  That God wants to make your heart and soul His dwelling place?  If so, how does this happen?

By the gift of faith we, like little children, just know that God wants to dwell within us.  We know that He wants to possess our souls, speak to us, strengthen us, lead us and guide us.  We know, by the gift of faith, that God is real and desires the deepest and most intimate relationship with us.  We just know.

The good news is that faith leads to understanding.  This means that the more we are attentive to the voice of God speaking within us, leading and guiding us, the more we begin to understand His indwelling presence.  As St. Augustine said, “Faith is to believe what you do not see. The reward of faith is to see what you believe.”  Faith in God’s indwelling presence leads us to the answer of the question above.  The answer is one that God and God alone can give to us.  We can share our faith with others, give witness to His presence in our lives, and give those around us the answer to that question through faith.  How do I know God dwells within me?  The answer: Because I see Him there, I speak to Him there, and He speaks to me.  

Reflect, today, upon the Lord living within you.  Let Him speak to you and, in that ever deepening conversation, allow His Indwelling Presence to grow and to become manifest to others.  God wants to not only dwell within you, He also wants to shine through you.

Most Blessed Trinity, come live in my heart.  Make my heart Your dwelling place.  Help me to see You there, to meet You there, to converse with You and to love You in my soul.  Jesus, I trust in You.

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When Judas had left them, Jesus said, “Now is the Son of Man glorified, and God is glorified in him.”  John 13:31

It is essential to know the end of the story.  Jesus knew the end when He spoke these words to the Apostles at the Last Supper right after Judas left to go and betray Him.  It’s important to put this situation within the context that Jesus understood it.  From a purely human point of view, one of Jesus’ closest friends was about to betray Him for money.  For most of us this would have been devastating and the cause for anger and hurt.  But because Jesus knew the end of the story, He was able to see Judas’ betrayal as the means to His glorification, not His defeat.  He turned His eyes toward Heaven and all that He would accomplish through His suffering rather than look at the immediate pain He would soon endure.  

This is a powerful lesson for us all.  First, it’s essential that we look at Jesus’ glorification through His betrayal, suffering and death.  But we must also strive to see the potential that our own sufferings have when united to the Savior of the World.

How do you react when another sins against you?  How would you have reacted to Judas betraying your love?  This is a very difficult question to face in honesty and it is even harder to live the response that Jesus lived.  The truth is that every time we are mistreated by another, we are given an opportunity to glorify God and further the Kingdom of Heaven by forgiving, uniting our suffering with Christ’s, and offering mercy.  This is much easier to speak about than to live.

Reflect, today, upon this scene of the Gospel.  Gaze upon Judas leaving the Last Supper and going out into the night to betray our Lord.  But look at it in the way Jesus saw it.  Look at it with the understanding that this was the means chosen by the Father to bring salvation to the world.  Reflect, also, upon every opportunity that you are given to do as Jesus did.  Try to be concrete and specific and see any and every suffering you endure as a glorious opportunity to dispense the mercy of God.  Though this may be difficult at first, it is this act of love that will give great glory to the Father in Heaven!

My dear Lord, You were betrayed by the kiss of one of Your closest friends.  But in Your perfect wisdom, You saw this betrayal as the perfect opportunity to glorify the Father through Your mercy and forgiveness.  Lord, I also have betrayed You countless times.  For that reason I am sorry.  But I thank You for loving me and forgiving me with Your Heart of perfect mercy.  Help me to receive that mercy and to offer it to others who have sinned against me.  Jesus, I trust in You.

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