Reflection for the 6th Sunday of Easter, 2025

Acts 15:1-2, 22-29; Psalm 67; Revelation 21:10-14, 22-23; John 14:23-29

The Advocate will teach you everything

Are you attending any graduations this Spring? The words graduation and commencement indicate important milestones on the path of a person’s academic maturity. At this exciting time the family and community celebrate joyfully together with the successful scholar.

Very important are the significant teachers or mentors who have guided a student’s development while heading towards graduation. We may even hear that personal relationships have been the keys to achieving long-sought goals.

In the process of our spiritual maturity, the most important kind of growth, the Three Persons of the Blessed Trinity are our driving force and our mentors, as well as our goal. A hard-working student may not clearly recognize all those helping while involved deeply in study. Similarly, we do not always recognize the movement of the Spirit even as we desire and work toward union with God.

The Mass readings this week point to the flow and movement of our lives as we unite better with our Divine Teachers, the three Persons of the Blessed Trinity. It is difficult to identify stages in this wonderful process, but Jesus provides inspiring guidelines in the Gospel today.

So what do we need to do? “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. So we have to do the will of the Other; we do have to choose that. Then, the God of glory will not just visit us. He will come to stay and live with us.

There is more! Jesus said that our greatest friend, the Holy Spirit, will also move toward us because the Father will send Him in Jesus’ name. Students benefit from having individual tutors, who will review important concepts with them. The Holy Spirit will “tutor” us as we grow in the spiritual life! “The Holy Spirit…will teach you everything and remind you of all that I have said to you.”

Worry is useless, but it can afflict even the best students at times. Jesus also sent the prescription with the antidote for worry: “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you.” His peace is not a loan; it is a gift. He told us how we need to do our part, too: “Do not let your hearts be troubled or afraid.” This is a decision to let God take care of us. Let’s make that decision, over and over.

The final movement in this Gospel is the mysterious prediction of Jesus’ return to the Father: “I am going away and I will come back to you.” This is reassuring but challenging. What do we do until He returns to us? We have to get ready. The Holy Spirit will help us.

…We will come to him and make our dwelling with him.