🙏 SUNDAY INSIGHTS - THE SIXTH SUNDAY OF EASTER 🙏

First Reading - Acts 8:5-8,14-17 

Second Reading - 1 Peter 3:15-18

Gospel - John 14:15-21

Once a tribesman who lived in a forest found the egg of an eagle, took it home and hatched it along with other chicken eggs. The eaglet started growing along with other chickens in the farm. It started eating bugs, pecking and hopping here and there like the other chicks. But it never learnt to fly like an eagle. One day as it was scratching the ground for food it saw an eagle majestically flying high in the sky. The eaglet started looking at it and admiring its grandeur when other chicks came to the eaglet and said, “Look, that one is the eagle, the king of birds. You and I are chickens and we cannot fly like that eagle. Leave him and alone and come let us go search for our food.” The poor eaglet from then on thought it was a chicken and lived like a chicken and never learnt to fly. — A Christian who does not allow the Holy Spirit living within him or her to be active is like the eaglet in the story who did not realize who it is and what it is capable of. Today’s readings invite us to experience for ourselves the power and guidance of the Holy Spirit living within us for facing the problems of life, not for avoiding them.

The first reading describes the success of Philip, one of the first Seven Deacons, among the despised Samaritans and explains how the converted Samaritans received their first anointing of the Holy Spirit through the imposition of hands by the apostles Peter and John. The expression of the experience when one receives the Spirit is also described by the responsorial psalm which was also the experience of the Samaritans in the first reading. According to today’s Responsorial Psalm (Ps 66), the Spirit, Who continues to do “the works of God, His tremendous deeds among the children of Adam,” causes believers in every age and place to experience personally the same marvelous acts of Divine liberation. 

The second reading explains how the Holy Spirit makes possible God-fearing lives in the midst of opposition and persecution. Peter warns that God-fearing Christians shouldn’t be surprised by angry outbursts of resentment and militant confrontation from those around them. He clearly encourages the persecuted Christians to keep to the moral high ground no matter how much they’re mistreated.If we are willing to suffer for Christ and with Christ, God will see us through and will vindicate us. Meanwhile, we have the consolation of the Holy Spirit Who lives in our hearts and Who raised Christ from death. However, those who refuse to die and rise with Jesus actually prevent the Spirit from working in and through them. Peter also advises the newly baptized in the Church that Jesus must be so much a part of their lives that His dying and rising come through even in the way they respond to questions about their Faith: “Sanctify Christ as Lord in your hearts…. Always be ready to give an explanation to anyone who asks you for a reason for your hope but do it with gentleness and reverence."

In the gospel, Jesus’ promise to his disciples of the abiding presence of the Holy Spirit (John 14:15-21), is part of the long “Farewell Discourse” near the end of John’s Gospel. Jesus made this farewell to his disciples at their Last Supper, just prior to his arrest, crucifixion, death, and Resurrection. This long discourse is a unique summary of the mystery of the Incarnation and the role of the Holy Spirit. God’s promise of the Holy Spirit should not have been a mystery to the followers of Jesus who knew the Holy Scriptures. The origin of this promise can be traced to the Old Testament books of Jeremiah and Ezekiel. In the days of the prophets, God had promised to make a new Covenant with His people. He had promised to put His law within His people, writing it on their hearts, that He might be their God and they might be His people [Jer 31:33]. He had also promised to put a new spirit within His people, to remove their heart of stone and to give them a heart of flesh. And finally, God had promised to put His Spirit within His people to enable them to follow His statutes and be careful to observe His ordinances [Ez 36:27]. Paul tells us that this promise has been fulfilled: “Do you not know that you are God’s Temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in you?” [1 Cor 3:16].

Dear friends, we need to be open to the Holy Spirit, our Paraclete. 1) The purpose of the indwelling Holy Spirit is to help us grow towards maturity and wholeness. We all have faults that prevent our growth: blocks of sin and imperfection, blocks due to childhood conflicts, blocks due to deeply ingrained personality traits and habits, blocks caused by addictions, and blocks resulting from bad choices we have made. We all have these blocks within us and they keep us from becoming what God wants us to be. They prevent us from growing into maturity and wholeness. God, the Holy Spirit, helps us to see the truth about ourselves, to discern the blocks that inhibit our growth and to allow Him to transform us. 2) Like the Good counselor He is, the Spirit enables us to become stronger. The Holy Spirit comes to our aid and gives us the strength to make difficult and painful decisions. 3) The Holy Spirit actually lives in us, and we hear the voice of the Spirit, counseling and guiding us in the way of truth. Let us open our minds and hearts to hear Him and to obey His promptings.