The spiritual life of the Christian is based on his/her special relationship with the Trinity. The Last Supper discourses that John records highlights this special relationship. It is a love-relationship. Those baptized into Christ are enabled for this relationship. Paul writes that the love of God has been poured into the heart of the baptized in the Holy Spirit. It is the same Spirit, says Paul who cries out ABBA from within the heart and helps the Christian pray to God even when he does not know how to. John proclaims the same reality in a different way. Read the article and use the following as your guide for reflection.
1. In Christ and in the Holy Spirit, the Christian has two Advocates: one standing at the right hand of the Father (1 Jn. 2:1-2), and the other staying at the side of Christians in this world (14:26).
Reflect. The Holy Spirit is "Consoler" and "Advocate" of the disciple, for that is what "Parakletos" means: one who consoles, and one who stands at one's side as a defender. And the Spirit remains with the disciple who loves the Lord, keeping his commands.
- How do you relate with the Spirit that was given to you at your baptism?
- How significant is your relationship with the Holy Spirit in your spiritual life?
2. The Christian is lovable in the eyes of the Father because He sees in the Christian who "keeps" the words of the Lord , His own Son (14:23). In John, that word is the command to a love that is like that of the Lord, unselfish, generous, not self-seeking, life-giving. "Love God above all ... Love your neighbor as yourself" -- this is how the Synoptics present it. "Love one another as I have loved you, " says Jesus during the Last Supper (cf. 13:34; 15:12.17)
Reflect. Pope Benedict XVI wrote this about Christian love...
Love of neighbor ... consists in the very fact that in God and with God, I love even the person whom I do not like or even know. This can only take place on the basis of an intimate encounter with God, an encounter which has become a communion of will, even affecting my feelings. Then I learn to look on this other person not simply with my eyes and my feelings, but from the perspective of Jesus Christ. His friend is my friend. (Deus caritas est, 18)
In other words, when a Christian loves, it is (or should be) with a heart that has been itself transformed by the love of God. "In this is love," writes John in his first letter, "not that we have loved God, but that God has loved us first." Jesus' command is for Christians to love each other in the way that He did.
- What do you think is the way that Jesus DOES NOT love?
- We hear the phrase "I love you" said by different people in different ways and with different meanings. When a Christian says "I love you" what should he/she mean?
3. The Christian was baptized into a relationship between the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. The key to Christian spirituality is "relationship". John describes it in the manner of an "indwelling" The Son and the Father dwelling in those in whom the Spirit also dwells; disciples dwelling in the Son who Himself is in the Father and in whom the Father is. In other words, the Christian is immersed in God, like fish in the sea.
Reflect Some sects pretending to be Christian think of the Trinity as a problem to be explained (away). For the Christian that we see described in the pages of John's Gospel, the Trinity is the ground of his/her very existence. The Father created him, the Son redeemed him, the Holy Spirit sanctifies him. And in this Trinity, he "lives, moves and has his being" (cf. Acts 17:28).
- When we say "In the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit", we are bringing to our conscious awareness this aspect of our lives. What other ways do you know that help in making us get a fix on the mystery desrcribed above, amidst the many distractions to which we are constantly exposed?
