We aren't orphans

VI Sunday of Easter “A”

Gospel: John 14:15-21

Sometimes I think that I am not a good Redemptorist because I don’t like to say good-bye. We are missionaries and so evey four or eight years we get a call telling us that we have to move on to a new mission assignment. I don’t like to go. I don’t like to move on. It was very hard for me last year when I was told that I had to leave Minneapolis and St. Alphonsus Parish a place I had grown to love. It wasn’t hard to come to California, but it was hard to say good-bye as I know it was for Fr. Steve and the other Redemptorists when they left here. Now that I am here in Whittier and I am growing to like it I always have in the back of my mind, that in 3 or 7 years I am going to get the call again. I am already dreading that call. I remember saying good-bye to my parents when I went to work as a missionary in Brazil. My mom and dad took me to the aiport in Miami. In Miami there is a huge escalator that you go up after they check your documents. I said good-bye to my parents. My dad gave me his blessing and my mom a kiss. She said, “Remember if you don’t come back, or if you can’t come back before we die, remember that we love you.” I came back before they died but I remember crying as I went up that escalator. So many tears fell, I was afraid that the escalator would rust in place. It is difficult to say good-bye. No one likes to say good-bye. Even at a party or visiting someone’s home it is hard for me to say good-bye. In Brazil there is an expression, when someone is leaving you say, “Ta cedo.” It’s early, it expresses a desire to prolong the good-byes.
We are in difficult moment in the world today with this pandemic. It is heart-rendering the stories of people who have died and their loves one weren’t able to be with them. That they had to say good-bye on the phone, or looking through a glass door. Burials now a days are also very hard. Only 10 people scattered six feet apart, covered in masks saying good-bye as their spouse, parent or loved one is lowered into the ground.
Today’s gospel is Jesus’ farewell discourse. He is saying good-bye to his disciples. It is in the context of the last supper, just after he washed their feet and before he was arrested and lead to his crucifixion. Jesus like us says good-bye with tears in his eyes.
I am not an orphan. Yes, my parents are both gone, but they died when I was in my 50’s. When we think of orphans we think of little kids who lost both their parents and now have to fend for themselves. We think of Charles Dicken’s England and Nicholas Nickelby and the kids running wild on the streets being taken advantage of and out of control. We think of the Orphan trains that sent kids out west. What does it mean to be an orphan? It means you don’t have a mom and dad, and because of that you have no one to take care of you, no one to protect you. No one to feed you and make sure you behave. No one to tuck you at night or make sure you go to school. But most especially they have no one to love them. That’s what it means to be an orphan. To be alone with no one and nothing.
In Jesus’ farewell discourse he promises us that he will not leave us orphans. He looks upon us with great love and says, “don’t worry. I may being gone, but you won’t be left alone.” I talk about how hard it is for me to say good-bye. How I hate to move on, but I’ll be honest with you. I am more sad for myself than for you. When I move on I know that people will be fine, I am the one who has to start over. But not Jesus. Jesus’ concern isn’t for himself, it is for us. Jesus isn’t worried about himself, he is worried about us. But he promises us that we shouldn’t be worried, he will take care of us.
When I was kid cell phones hadn’t been invented yet. So when my parents went away for the night, or for a vacation they would always leave  a note. The “jobs” that we were expected to do, and a number we could call in an emergency. Maybe it would be the number of the restaurant they were going to, or the hotel they were staying at. This farewell discourse of Jesus is the same kind of list. What it is that Jesus expects us to do while he was a gone, and a number we can call in an emergency. And much like the notes our parents left us, we know that if we behave we will get a gift. Jesus promises us a gift as well.
Jesus’ note to us tell what we have to do:

1.     We have to obey his commandments. If we love Jesus this will be obvious because love implies obedience.

2.     We have to continue his work. Jesus says that the world will no longer see him, but the community will because he lives in us. Jesus is telling us that we have the obligation to continue his work because this is the only way that his presence will be known.

If we do this, we will get a gift, and what is the gift? The Holy Spirit.

3.     The Holy Spirit will dwell in the community. This is important to remember especially in a time that we can’t get into our Churches. The Spirit doesn’t dwell in our buildings, it dwells in us. We are the temples of the Holy Spirit.

4.     This indwelling is a relationship of mutual love that includes obedience to Christ’s commandments.

Mutual love, that is what it is all about. Jesus ends his note telling us that the Spirit will dwell in us and then he says how… by our love. He ends this section four times repeating this word LOVE. Love is what binds us to him love is what makes room for the spirit. The father, son and Spirit are one because of love. We are one in the Spirit because of our love.

In his book The God of Jesus Christ  Pope Benedict XVI says, “the source of the holy Spirit is Jesus, the closer we grow to the Spirit the closer the Spirit will grow to us.” He goes on to say that a Spirit-filled Church is one that is alive and is doing the works of Jesus. We can tell how much the Spirit dwells in us by the love that we share with one another.