We have been looking the last few weeks of the Easter season at what happened to the Apostles and followers of Jesus in the time immediately after the Resurrection of Jesus. When many of us think of the early church I think we picture it somehow as this idyllic happy commune-like community that shared things and got along and waited peacefully for Jesus to come back again.  But it really wasn’t like that at all.  There were sometimes bitter disagreements.  There was great fear because of the destruction of the Temple in the year 70 and the killing of so many Jews. God’s dwelling place on earth was gone. There were serious questions being asked about who Jesus was and no theology or writings had yet been written. There were  serious issues being brought up that needed solving. The people who had known Jesus and were solving some of those problems were dying off. Who would replace them? Many of the things that we take for granted about our faith, like the divinity of Christ or the Trinity were not developed or understood yet. In Africa young girls who consecrate themselves to God as nuns dress up as brides for a wedding and sing love songs to Jesus. A few years after such a religious ceremony, a young nun who had been having a rough time in her mission assignment comes back to the convent and asks the Mother Superior: “Mother, is it really true that we are spouses of Christ.” “Yes, it is true, my daughter,” replies the Mother Superior, “Why do you ask?” “Well,” stammered the young nun, “Since I was professed five years ago, I haven’t actually felt anything!”

 Our poor nun may not have felt anything, yet she remains on the right track in understanding the relationship between Jesus and his devotees in terms of an intimate love relationship. When Jesus speaks in today’s gospel of “those who love me” he is referring to his followers. For Jesus “those who love me” is another way of saying “my disciples” or “those who believe in me” or simply “Christians.” The relationship between the Christian and Christ is essentially a love relationship. That is why Jesus said in John 15:15 “I do not call you servants any longer ... I call you friends.” Yet many of us feel more comfortable serving Jesus as boss rather than relating to him as a friend. There is a limit to what a boss can demand from you. There is no such limit when it comes to friendship and intimacy.

One thing we know about love is that lovers want to be with each other. But Jesus is not physically present. We cannot physically see him or touch him. This is the dilemma we see in the problem of the young nun. How can you love an absent Jesus? This is what today’s gospel is all about. In the gospel Jesus prepares his disciples, those who love him, for his departure from this world and shows them how they can keep love and intimacy alive even in his physical absence.

 Those who love me will keep my word, and my Father will love them,
and we will come to them and make our home with them (John 14:23).

 If you love Jesus, (1) Keep his word. Follow his teachings. (2) This will activate God’s special love for you, and (3) Jesus and his Father will come and live permanently with you. In this way the vacuum left by the physical absence of Jesus will be filled spiritually by the divine presence which is as real or even more real than the physical presence. Our part in this whole process is to focus on keeping the word of Christ.

 But how do we be sure we know the implication and meaning of the word of Christ in the ever changing and ever more complex realities of modern life? How can we be sure what Jesus would do and how he would act in the present concrete situations of our daily lives? Again Jesus foresaw this difficulty and provided for it. “The Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you everything, and remind you of all that I have said to you” (John 14:26).

 If that is so, what do we make of the situation in the world today where a thousand Christians all “filled with the Holy Spirit” come up with a thousand different answers to the same question? Does the Holy Spirit contradict Himself? Here it is important to note that the “you” to whom these promises are made is plural, meaning, primarily, the community of believers, the church. Of course the Holy Spirit is with us individually, but the Holy Spirit is given primarily to the church and, through the church, to us as individuals when we become members of the church.

This is what we see in the 1^st reading where disagreements among Christians are resolved through dialogue and community discernment and not through each one consulting the Holy Spirit privately. In the end they come out with a resolution which begins “it has seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us.” (Acts 15:28). The word of Christ continues to live and resound in the word of the Holy Spirit speaking through the church. The days between the Ascension of Christ and Pentecost are special days of prayer for all Christians as they were for the first disciples of Jesus. This year let us pray especially for the gift of church unity, so that together we all can discern what the Spirit is saying to the church in the modern world and so bear united witness to the life-giving word of Christ.

 The first reading today looks at one of the big issues that came up in the early church that cased no end of conflict. The Jewish Christians who were living in Jerusalem were still following the Law of Moses, circumcision and dietary rules, but Paul in the churches outside Jerusalem was recommending that Gentiles not become circumcised or have to obey the purity laws. There was so much dissension in fact, that Paul and Barnabus came to Jerusalem to meet with the church leaders there and hash it all out.  We sometimes consider this to be the first church council, in fact.  That they were able to hash it out is a tribute to the spirit of co-operation that existed in the early church, however. Out of that meeting came a compromise, that the Gentiles did not have to be circumcised or follow purification laws except for abstaining from meat that had been sacrificed to idols, from blood, from strangled animals and from unlawful marriage. These things sound easy to us but would have actually been difficult for the Mediterranean Gentiles living in a Roman society where meat from sacrificial offerings was often on sale at markets, for example.  However, the one important thing I want you to notice from this meeting is that in that early meeting or council, the participants agreed but ascribed the decision not just to themselves but to the Holy Spirit. And it is this Spirit that I most want to talk to you about today.

 For many of the early Christians who were facing the death of the Apostles and of others who had known Jesus, there was concern how decisions could be made.  The concept of Holy Spirit was what was going to take its place.  Although it took time for development, and it wasn’t as clear as we think of it today – we, who have been taught since children about God being three persons – the concept of the Spirit was a growing one.  The spirit of God had been mentioned in the Old Testament many times, but the understanding of it was not in the same sense we have today of the Spirit being God. It was more the inspiration of God, the breathe of God that inspired people to do godly things.  That understanding is still there but begins to change, as it becomes God’s very presence in itself. It is the way that Christ can be present with us today where two or three are gathered. The theology was developing that would be asserted in later councils in later centuries.

 By the time the Gospel of John was written at the end of the 1st century, the idea of the Spirit as God had developed more clearly. In fact, the beautiful Gospel we have today is an early expression of a Trinity.  Jesus says that if we listen to his word the Father will love us and will dwell in us.  It is that dwelling in us which becomes the Spirit.  In fact, in the next paragraph, John calls it directly by the name of Spirit and gives it a job description – it is an Advocate.  We need to define some terms here to help us understand what is being meant here.  What exactly is an advocate?  This word has been translated in many different ways but nothing quite gives it the same meaning in English that it is in Greek. We used to translate it Paraclete, and sometimes ‘counselor’. I like to think of it as ‘mentor’.  Because I come from education, the term ‘mentor’ has many of the qualities that I think the original Greek word suggests. If the holy Spirit is a mentor, it is there for us, to help us to understand, to teach us, to role model for us, to advise and counsel us.  All of those things are, I believe, qualities of the Spirit. If this is true, then the idea of mentorship itself can bring someone peace. Imagine starting a new job and being assigned a mentor to help you learn the job, to introduce you to people, to make you comfortable.  How less stressful this could make your life.

 Is this then the peace that Jesus talks about?  The peace that is not of this world. This world’s peace involves absence from war. Jesus is talking about an inner peace, the peace of having God with you in your walk through life. Each Mass we recite those words before the Kiss of Peace that come from this reading of John.  Have they become almost too familiar to us.  A few weeks ago I commented that the common thread to every appearance of the Risen Christ was the words “Peace be with you”. At Mass we reference those words both at the Kiss of peace and after the Our Father. Jesus refers to it often in his words. Do we hear it? 

 Do we see the implications of it in our own lives? The Spirit is God’s gift to us.  It is our mentor and guide.  It can lead and direct us. It can give us strength when we need to be strong and peace when we are troubled. This is one of the earliest teachings of the Christian church and one most often told us.  We need to have faith in it and to incorporate it into our thinking and our daily lives. The fall of Jerusalem and the destruction of the temple in the year ad 70 by the Roman army was the September-eleven of the Jewish nation of the time, and more. For the Jews the city of Jerusalem, adorned by the resplendent temple, was not just one of the wonders of the world, it was the very house of the Almighty God. God Himself ordered the building of the temple, God himself dictated every detail of the structure and decoration of the temple. It was God’s one and only house in the whole wide world. The navel of the earth, the umbilical cord connecting creation to the creator was located in the temple in Jerusalem. And God swore an everlasting covenant to uphold His people (the Jews), his city (Jerusalem) and His house (the temple). The early Christians thought that the fall of Jerusalem would be the end of the world. The idea of having a people of God without the temple never crossed their minds until the temple actually fell and world did not end.

 As we approach the end of the of the Easter season, the church takes us to the last vision of John in Patmos, a vision concerning the last things. There we see God being true to His promises as he restores the holy city Jerusalem and its temple. This restoration, however, does not take place in the manner that the Jewish people of the time expected it. First, we see that in place of the material city that was built from the ground up, we now see a spiritual city coming down from above, “the holy city Jerusalem coming down out of heaven from God” (Revelation 21:10). Secondly, unlike the earthly Jerusalem with its irregular contours, the new city has a perfect square shape, four equal sides with three gates on each side. Finally, in place of the temple built with destructible brick and mortar, for the new city “its temple is the Lord God the Almighty and the Lamb” (verse 22).

 Seen against the background of Jewish expectations, John’s vision of the restoration of the holy city Jerusalem is saying two things. (1) God is always faithful to fulfill His word. When God says that His city is everlasting, God will see to it that His city is everlasting. Even when that city is utterly destroyed before our very eyes and all hope appears to be lost, God can always recreate the holy city out of nothing. This means that no matter how bad things may seem to be, in God there is always hope. What God has promised, God will fulfill by and by.(2) God does not always fulfill His word in the manner in which we expect it. We often expect God to fulfill His word to us in the material order, then God goes on and fulfills it in the spiritual order, and we fail to see it because we have our eyes trained only on the material horizon.

 The visions of John in Revelation are a preview into eternity. There we see that God is true to his covenant promise never to abandon His people, His city, and His house. But God’s people, God’s city, and God’s house are now understood in a spiritual and not a material sense.

 Many Jews at the time of Jesus failed to see the marvellous things God was doing in their midst because they were expecting God to act in one way and God was actually acting in another way. The problem was in their narrow expectations as to who could be the Messiah (must be a son of David!), where he could or could not come from (not from Galilee!), how the Messiah would appear (not through normal birth by a woman as a helpless baby!), and how he would liberate God’s people Israel (by defeating the Roman army of occupation). When God did it His own way and not their own way, they failed to get it. As Christians we fall into the same mistake when we allow ourselves to believe that God can use certain people and not other people, God can come into our lives in certain ways and not in other ways, God is in certain religious traditions and not in others.

 Do you notice that in the new Jerusalem, there is no temple, no priesthood, no rituals, no laws, no religion. There is only God who is everything to everyone. May we never cease to wonder at the incomprehensible mystery of God unfolding before our very eyes in our world today. In Africa young girls who consecrate themselves to God as nuns dress up as brides for a wedding and sing love songs to Jesus. A few years after such a religious ceremony, a young nun who had been having a rough time in her mission assignment comes back to the convent and asks the Mother Superior: “Mother, is it really true that we are spouses of Christ.” “Yes, it is true, my daughter,” replies the Mother Superior, “Why do you ask?” “Well,” stammered the young nun, “Since I was professed five years ago, I haven’t actually felt anything!”

 Our poor nun may not have felt anything, yet she remains on the right track in understanding the relationship between Jesus and his devotees in terms of an intimate love relationship. When Jesus speaks in today’s gospel of “those who love me” he is referring to his followers. For Jesus “those who love me” is another way of saying “my disciples” or “those who believe in me” or simply “Christians.” The relationship between the Christian and Christ is essentially a love relationship. That is why Jesus said in John 15:15 “I do not call you servants any longer ... I call you friends.” Yet many of us feel more comfortable serving Jesus as boss rather than relating to him as a friend. There is a limit to what a boss can demand from you. There is no such limit when it comes to friendship and intimacy.

 One thing we know about love is that lovers want to be with each other. But Jesus is not physically present. We cannot physically see him or touch him. This is the dilemma we see in the problem of the young nun. How can you love an absent Jesus? This is what today’s gospel is all about. In the gospel Jesus prepares his disciples, those who love him, for his departure from this world and shows them how they can keep love and intimacy alive even in his physical absence.

 Those who love me will keep my word, and my Father will love them,
and we will come to them and make our home with them (John 14:23).

 If you love Jesus, (1) Keep his word. Follow his teachings. (2) This will activate God’s special love for you, and (3) Jesus and his Father will come and live permanently with you. In this way the vacuum left by the physical absence of Jesus will be filled spiritually by the divine presence which is as real or even more real than the physical presence. Our part in this whole process is to focus on keeping the word of Christ.

 But how do we be sure we know the implication and meaning of the word of Christ in the ever changing and ever more complex realities of modern life? How can we be sure what Jesus would do and how he would act in the present concrete situations of our daily lives? Again Jesus foresaw this difficulty and provided for it. “The Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you everything, and remind you of all that I have said to you” (John 14:26).

 If that is so, what do we make of the situation in the world today where a thousand Christians all “filled with the Holy Spirit” come up with a thousand different answers to the same question? Does the Holy Spirit contradict Himself? Here it is important to note that the “you” to whom these promises are made is plural, meaning, primarily, the community of believers, the church. Of course the Holy Spirit is with us individually, but the Holy Spirit is given primarily to the church and, through the church, to us as individuals when we become members of the church.

 This is what we see in the 1^st reading where disagreements among Christians are resolved through dialogue and community discernment and not through each one consulting the Holy Spirit privately. In the end they come out with a resolution which begins “it has seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us.” (Acts 15:28). The word of Christ continues to live and resound in the word of the Holy Spirit speaking through the church. The days between the Ascension of Christ and Pentecost are special days of prayer for all Christians as they were for the first disciples of Jesus. This year let us pray especially for the gift of church unity, so that together we all can discern what the Spirit is saying to the church in the modern world and so bear united witness to the life-giving word of Christ.

 By Bishop Kasomo Daniel the Bishop of the Society of St.Peter and Paul.