Today we celebrate the strong wish of God the Father and His Son Jesus; they want to be very close to us. (To see the words of today’s Gospel, click here.) We know they want to be with us because they give us so much.
Sometimes I think God the Father and His Son Jesus are a little crazy. Why? The Father and Jesus have a passionate desire, a very strong wish, to be close to us. They even want to be in us, to stay in us. We know this, how? Is there proof? There are two proofs to show they strongly want to be with us. Jesus and his Father give us two very important gifts.
In the gospel today, Jesus promises he will give us another person to help us, who? His Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit means the Breath of God. God the Father and Jesus breathe into us. This is God’s CPR. God the Father and Jesus the Son of God want their life-breath to be in us. They want to give us their heavenly life; they want their love to be in us. Their love is the Holy Spirit.
Why in us? Who are we? We are the people who forced Jesus to suffer and die on the cross. Force Jesus, how? Our sin! Our sin separated us from God; Jesus had to come here on earth and go against all the sin, against all the evil in the world. See what happened to him. Jesus let all the evil overcome him; he allowed all the evil to nail him to cross and force him to die in very great pain. Jesus allowed this to happen, why? So he could bring God his Father and us people together again. So now God the Father and Jesus the Son can be intimately close to us again.
We stand in front of God the Father and Jesus his Son, and we have to be honest and say, “We sinful human persons caused you so much pain and suffering, and you still want to be close to us. Wow! You really, passionately love us.”
God the Father and Jesus the Son of God want to be close to us; that is wonderful. Wonderful, why? Because we are weak, sinful human people. But there is something more amazing, what? They want to be in us, in you, in me. Wow! That is amazing! But how can we know this is true, how?
One wonderful way we know Jesus wants to be in us is his wonderful gift; what is it? His Body and Blood in Holy Communion. It means Jesus the Person is willing to come into you and into me. We eat the Holy Bread, the Body of Jesus, and we know Jesus Himself is in us. We drink from the cup, and we know the life-blood of Jesus Himself is in us. Wow! Jesus his full person comes into you, comes into me and rests close to your heart and close to my heart.
This happens, how? Do I have to become holy, a saint before Jesus comes into me? No. I know it happens because Jesus’ passionate love for you and for me means Jesus wants to be in you and in me today, everyday, always from now on. I know I am still weak; I still fail: I still sin. No matter. Jesus’s strong, passionate love is more powerful than my weakness, more powerful than your weakness.
We let Jesus into us and accept his passionate love for us, then we become better persons, more kind, more patient, more helpful to others, more loving to other persons, more like Jesus. We let Jesus and his passionate love come into us, then we become more and more like Jesus himself.
It is a hard world we live in now. Very many people are afraid, worried, suffering. We know we are weak; we can be depressed and feel overwhelmed. But we know Jesus is with us always; then we can be strong and have peace in ourselves and be strong for the people who depend on us and love the people who need us.
There is a story about a young boy at home, watching a lot of television, and he was very afraid; he saw many bad things. His mother took him in her arms and said to him, “Yes, there are many bad things happening. But look at all the good people who are helping–the doctors and nurses, the ambulance drivers, the firemen and police officers, the people still working to give us food every day. See all the people who help and then we do not have to be so afraid.” Maybe the mother felt afraid too, but she became strong to help her son. She was like Jesus; she thought more about helping her son; her own worries, she set aside. Jesus in her gave her strength. The Holy Spirit of Jesus in her helped her to love.
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