I will not leave you orphans; I will come to you

 

 "I will not leave you orphans; I will come to you.  

 

"A little while longer and the world will see Me no more, but you will see Me.  Because I live, you will live also.  At that day you will know that I am in My Father, and you in Me, and I in you.   He who has My commandments and keeps them, it is he who loves Me.  And he who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and manifest Myself to him."  Judas (not Iscariot) said to Him, "Lord, how is it that You will manifest Yourself to us, and not to the world?"  Jesus answered and said to him, "If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our home with him.  He who does not love Me does not keep My words; and the word which you hear is not Mine but the Father's who sent Me. 

 

 "These things I have spoken to you while being present with you.  But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all things that I said to you.  Peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you.  Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.  

 

"You have heard Me say to you, 'I am going away and coming back to you.'  If you loved Me, you would rejoice because I said, 'I am going to the Father,' for My Father is greater than I.  And now I have told you before it comes, that when it does come to pass, you may believe.  I will no longer talk much with you, for the ruler of this world is coming, and he has nothing in Me.  But that the world may know that I love the Father, and as the Father gave Me commandment, so I do.  Arise, let us go from here."

 

- John 14:18-31 

 

This week the lectionary gives us Christ's Farewell Discourse to the disciples at the Last Supper.  Yesterday we read that Jesus taught, "Let not your heart be troubled; you believe in God, believe also in Me.  In My Father's house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you.  I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also.  And where I go you know, and the way you know."  Thomas said to Him, "Lord, we do not know where You are going, and how can we know the way?"  Jesus said to him, "I am the way, the truth, and the life.  No one comes to the Father except through Me.  If you had known Me, you would have known My Father also; and from now on you know Him and have seen Him."  Philip said to Him, "Lord, show us the Father, and it is sufficient for us."  Jesus said to him, "Have I been with you so long, and yet you have not known Me, Philip?  He who has seen Me has seen the Father; so how can you say, 'Show us the Father'?  Do you not believe that I am in the Father, and the Father in Me?  The words that I speak to you I do not speak on My own authority; but the Father who dwells in Me does the works.  Believe Me that I am in the Father and the Father in Me, or else believe Me for the sake of the works themselves. Most assuredly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do he will do also; and greater works than these he will do, because I go to My Father.  And whatever you ask in My name, that I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son.   If you ask anything in My name, I will do it. If you love Me, keep My commandments.  And I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may abide with you forever -- the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him; but you know Him, for He dwells with you and will be in you."

 

  "I will not leave you orphans; I will come to you."  Here is Christ's assurance of His continued presence to His disciples, especially in the presence of the Spirit of truth, which He has just assured them is the Helper who will be sent from the Father.

 

 "A little while longer and the world will see Me no more, but you will see Me.  Because I live, you will live also."  My study Bible explains that the brief separation of Jesus from the disciples at His death will lead to a deeper mystical union after the Resurrection and to the gift of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost.  

 

"Because I live, you will live also.  At that day you will know that I am in My Father, and you in Me, and I in you.   He who has My commandments and keeps them, it is he who loves Me.  And he who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and manifest Myself to him."  Judas (not Iscariot) said to Him, "Lord, how is it that You will manifest Yourself to us, and not to the world?"  Jesus answered and said to him, "If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our home with him.  He who does not love Me does not keep My words; and the word which you hear is not Mine but the Father's who sent Me."  That day is a reference to Pentecost (Acts 2).  My study Bible cites St. John Chrysostom, who comments that it is "the power of the Holy Spirit that taught them all things." 

 

  "These things I have spoken to you while being present with you.  But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all things that I said to you."  Once again, we review that the Helper is the Holy Spirit.  The word Helper is translated from the Greek Παρακλητος/Paracletos, often rendered Paraclete.  This title literally means "One who comes to one's side when called" indicating someone assisting in defense at trial.  The title can also mean "Comforter," "Counselor," and "Advocate."  My study Bible comments that we have confidence in the apostle's doctrine (Acts 2:42) because the Holy Spirit is their Teacher.  He brings to remembrance not only Christ's words, but also their meaning.  It adds that we have confidence in the Church because the Holy Spirit is our Instructor as well from Pentecost until today, leading us into all truth (John 16:13).  St. Irenaeus is quoted, who comments, "Where the Church is, there is the Holy Spirit and the fullness of grace."

 

"Peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you.  Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid."   Peace was the customary Jewish word of both greeting and farewell, my study Bible comments.  It says that perfect peace is brought by Christ, who reconciles humanity to God (Ephesians 2:14).  Peace is also part of the traditional greeting of Christians to one another (Romans 1:7; 1 Corinthians 1:3).  The greeting "Peace be to all" is offered many times during the liturgical services of the Church.  

 

 "You have heard Me say to you, 'I am going away and coming back to you.'  If you loved Me, you would rejoice because I said, 'I am going to the Father,' for My Father is greater than I."  My study Bible explains that when Jesus says, "My Father is greater than I" it does not mean that the Father is greater in nature or in essence, for the Father and the Son share one divine nature.  Neither does this indicate that the Son is created, for the Son is begotten from all eternity ("In the beginning was the Word" - John 1:1).  Instead, Jesus is indicating that the Father, as the Fountainhead of the Trinity, is the eternal cause of the Son.  

 

 "And now I have told you before it comes, that when it does come to pass, you may believe."  Before it comes is a reference to Christ's Passion.  This Farewell Discourse at the Last Supper takes place just prior to Christ's betrayal and arrest.  My study Bible comments that telling these events beforehand strengthened the faith of the disciples.  

 

"I will no longer talk much with you, for the ruler of this world is coming, and he has nothing in Me.  But that the world may know that I love the Father, and as the Father gave Me commandment, so I do."  The ruler of this world is the devil; my study Bible explains that the devil dominates the realm of those who do not love Christ or keep His commandments.  Moreover, my study Bible adds Jesus says that the devil "has nothing in Me" because there can be no compromise between Christ or His followers and the devil.  Christ became Man, but He was never stained with sin.  

 

"Arise, let us go from here."  My study Bible says that Christ takes His disciples to another room or location to complete His discourse in order to gain their undivided attention.  In the commentary of St. John Chrysostom, it is suggested that their current location was susceptible to intrusions, and the disciples were likely to be distracted from fear.  Therefore we may conclude that Christ is taking them to a more private place in order to further instruct them and continue His discourse.

 

 Today's passage begins with this statement by Jesus to His disciples:    "I will not leave you orphans; I will come to you."  He is going away, and He is reassuring them that they will not be left alone.  He will return to them.  This statement is profound in all of its implications of the reality that is to come, and in what it teaches us about transitions and changes in life, and God's terms for the transformation of life in God's spiritual purview.   What this means is that the substance of Christ's teachings to them about what is to come -- after what will transpire at His Passion, death, and Resurrection -- exists within these words.  "I will not leave you orphans" tells us once again, in yet another form, of the relationship between Christ and those who are His disciples.  It is that of a family.  In this case, Christ speaks of Himself as Father to all of them, and by extension to all of His disciples, to those faithful who will come into the world, up until the present day, and into the future for as long as the Church exists, and until His final return at the Second Coming.  "Orphans" speak to us of those who are fatherless, without protection, grieving, comfortless, vulnerable, and abandoned.  It conjures for us, as it is meant to in Christ's compassion, the greatest fears of human beings, for He indeed understands the hearts and minds of His followers found in these His disciples, and all those to come.  Christ speaks of abandonment and the pain of loss in this world that we know.  But the comfort comes in that He says He will not leave them this way, and adds with commitment, "I will come to you."  The whole of His discourse, as we have read until now, is all about the ways in which He will return to them, He will come to them.  He will come in the sending of the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of truth, the Comforter and Helper.  That is, the One who will come to our sides when we call, and perhaps more to the point, the One "whom the Father will send in My name," the One who "will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all things that I said to you."  Christ will be present to them -- and to us in the Holy Spirit, and in so many ways described here.  He, the Holy Spirit, is the One who will bring Christ's presence to us in all the ways we need Him to be with us, to guide us and teach us, to show us His way (in His name), and who can bring all things to remembrance that Christ has said, to teach us meaning and purpose and even application in our own lives.  Jesus tells them, "If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our home with him.  He who does not love Me does not keep My words; and the word which you hear is not Mine but the Father's who sent Me."  This is a solemn promise, a commitment, a covenant that those who love Him -- which is shown by keeping His commandments, His words, has a depth of communion with both Christ and the Father.  The Holy Spirit makes all of this possible through the functions Jesus names here in this passage.  Moreover, Jesus teaches them, and us, "Peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you.  Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid."  This is the promise in Him that He will not leave them or us parentless; He will come to us, albeit in ways different from His work and ministry as the human Jesus, Christ Incarnate.  But in His communion with us, in all the ways He will be present to us and with us, he gives us His peace.  And what He can give is given as no one else can give, as the world cannot give.  This is a peace found in our souls and spirits, in the depth of this relationship that becomes a part of us, in our communion with Him.  As we read further in His discourse, Jesus will be giving us more fullness in terms of the meaning of that communion.  Let us continue to read in the spirit of the peace He gives, and the confidence of our trust in the One who does not leave us orphans, but comes to us through so many ways. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This is My commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you

 

 "This is My commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.  Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one's life for his friends.  You are My friends if you do whatever I command you.  No longer do I call you servants, for a servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all things that I heard from My Father I have made known to you.  You did not choose Me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit, and that your fruit should remain, that whatever you ask the Father in My name He may give you.  These things I command you, that you love one another.

 

"If the world hates you, you know that it hated Me before it hated you.  If you were of the world, the world would love its own.  Yet because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you.  Remember the word that I said to you, 'A servant is not greater than his master.'  If they persecuted Me, they will also persecute you.  If they kept My word, they will keep yours also.  But all these things they will do to you for My name's sake, because they do not know Him who sent Me.  If I had not come and spoken to them, they would have no sin, but now they have no excuse for their sin.  He who hates Me hates My Father also.  If I had not done among them the works which no one else did, they would have no sin; but now they have seen and also hated both Me and My Father.  But this happened that the word might be fulfilled which is in their law, 'They hated Me without a cause.'

 

"But when the Helper comes, whom I shall send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who proceeds  from the Father, He will testify of Me.  And you also will bear witness, because you have been with Me from the beginning."

 

- John 15:12–27 

 

We are currently reading through what is called Christ's Farewell Discourse to the apostles, given at the Last Supper (starting with Monday's reading).  Yesterday we read that Jesus said to them, "I am the true vine, and My Father is the vinedresser.  Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit He takes away; and every branch that bears fruit He prunes, that it may bear more fruit.  You are already clean because of the word which I have spoken to you.  Abide in Me, and I in you.  As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in Me.  I am the vine, you are the branches.  He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing.  If anyone does not abide in Me, he is cast out as a branch and is withered; and they gather them and throw them into the fire, and they are burned.  If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you.  By this My Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit; so you will be My disciples.  As the Father loved Me, I also have loved you; abide in My love.  If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love, just as I have kept My Father's commandments and abide in His love.  These things I have spoken to you, that My joy may remain in you, and that your joy may be full."

 

"This is My commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.  Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one's life for his friends."  Jesus has already given this commandment to them at the Last Supper (John 13:34), now He is repeating it.  My study Bible comments that many religions and philosophies teach people to love one another.  But what makes this commandment new (as Jesus called it in chapter 13) is the measure that is required of this love:  we're to love as Christ has loved us, laying down His life not only for His friends, but even for His enemies.

 

"You are My friends if you do whatever I command you.  No longer do I call you servants, for a servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all things that I heard from My Father I have made known to you.  You did not choose Me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit, and that your fruit should remain, that whatever you ask the Father in My name He may give you.  These things I command you, that you love one another."  My study Bible comments here that friendship is higher than servanthood.  Servants obey their masters out of fear or a sense of duty; friends obey out of love and an internal desire to do what is good and right.  Abraham was called a "friend of God" (James 2:23) because he obeyed God out of the belief of his heart.  The disciples -- even all of the saints -- are honored as friends of Christ because they freely obey His commandments out of love, my study Bible notes.  It says that those who have this spirit of loving obedience are open to receive and understand the revelations of the Father.  

 "If the world hates you, you know that it hated Me before it hated you.  If you were of the world, the world would love its own.  Yet because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you.  Remember the word that I said to you, 'A servant is not greater than his master.'  If they persecuted Me, they will also persecute you.  If they kept My word, they will keep yours also.  But all these things they will do to you for My name's sake, because they do not know Him who sent Me.  If I had not come and spoken to them, they would have no sin, but now they have no excuse for their sin.  He who hates Me hates My Father also.  If I had not done among them the works which no one else did, they would have no sin; but now they have seen and also hated both Me and My Father.  But this happened that the word might be fulfilled which is in their law, 'They hated Me without a cause.'"  My study Bible explains that the term world is used in several distinct ways in Scripture.  In some cases, it is a reference to all that is glorious, beautiful, and redeemable in God's creation (John 3:16).  At other times, it refers to that which is finite in contrast to that which is eternal (John 11:9; 18:36).  At still other instances, it indicates all that is in rebellion against God (see also John 8:23).  Moreover, it notes that the rebellion of this world against God reveals many things.  First, while union with Christ brings love, truth, and peace, it also brings persecution, because the world hates love and truth (verse 19).  Second, the world hated Christ, and so therefore it will hate those people who try to be Christlike (verse 20).  Additionally, the world hates Christ because it neither knows nor desires to know the Father (verses 21-24).  Finally, hatred for Jesus Christ is irrational and unreasonable, for Christ brings love and mercy; so, therefore, Christ is hated without a cause (verse 25).

 

 "But when the Helper comes, whom I shall send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who proceeds  from the Father, He will testify of Me.  And you also will bear witness, because you have been with Me from the beginning."  With respect to God's working salvation in the world, my study Bible comments, the Son sends the Holy Spirit from the Father.  With respect to the divine nature, it notes, the Holy Spirit eternally proceeds from the Father alone.  In other words, the Holy Spirit receives His eternal existence only from the Father.  In conformity with Christ's words, the Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed confesses belief "in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of life, who proceeds from the Father."  While the Son is begotten of the Father alone, my study Bible explains, the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father alone; the source, the Fountainhead, of both Persons is the Father. 

Once again, we're told, "This is My commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you."  Jesus has reiterated this teaching repeatedly in this Farewell Discourse to His apostles.  My study Bible cites Christ's upcoming sacrifice of His own life as the standard by which that measure of love should be understood.  It's also important that we understand He calls the disciples "friends," and not servants.  Friends are those who follow His commandments out of love for Him.  So again, we go back to the same point repeatedly in this Farewell Discourse, Jesus wants us to engage in a relationship of love with Him, a true friendship, and in that friendship is communion.  He commands that we share His love with one another.  But who are these friends?  Let's look at His words; there are those who hate Him.  He says, "He who hates Me hates My Father also."  The works He has done testify to Him and to the Father, and yet they are rejected.  But then Jesus calls on the disciples, in effect, to do the same.  The Spirit of truth, the Helper, will testify of Him to us, and in turn we may bear fruit by witnessing to the world.  Whose wrath will we incur?  And how will we share His love, live His love, do His commandments?  This tension between love and rejection must exist for us as it did for Him, but if we abide in His love our joy remains within us.

 

 

 

 

 

As the Father loved Me, I also have loved you; abide in My love

Christ the true vine; 13th century.  Benaki Museum, Athens, Greece

 "I am the true vine, and My Father is the vinedresser.  Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit He takes away; and every branch that bears fruit He prunes, that it may bear more fruit.  You are already clean because of the word which I have spoken to you.  Abide in Me, and I in you.  As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in Me.  I am the vine, you are the branches.  He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing.  If anyone does not abide in Me, he is cast out as a branch and is withered; and they gather them and throw them into the fire, and they are burned.  If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you.  By this My Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit; so you will be My disciples.  

"As the Father loved Me, I also have loved you; abide in My love.  If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love, just as I have kept My Father's commandments and abide in His love.  These things I have spoken to you, that My joy may remain in you, and that your joy may be full."

 

- John 15:1-11 

 

We are currently reading through Christ's words to the apostles at the Last Supper, in what is called the Farewell Discourse.  In yesterday's reading, Jesus said to them, "If you love Me, keep My commandments.  And I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may abide with you forever -- the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him; but you know Him, for He dwells with you and will be in you.  I will not leave you orphans; I will come to you.  A little while longer and the world will see Me no more, but you will see Me.  Because I live, you will live also.  At that day you will know that I am in My Father, and you in Me, and I in you.  He who has My commandments and keeps them, it is he who loves Me.  And he who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and manifest Myself to him."  Judas (not Iscariot) said to Him, "Lord, how is it that You will manifest Yourself to us, and not to the world?"  Jesus answered and said to him, "If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our home with him.  He who does not love Me does not keep My words; and the word which you hear is not Mine but the Father's who sent Me.  These things I have spoken to you while being present with you.  But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all things that I said to you.  Peace I leave with you; My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you.  Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.  You have heard Me say to you, 'I am going away and coming back to you.'  If you loved Me, you would rejoice because I said, 'I am going to the Father,' for My Father is greater than I.  And now I have told you before it comes, that when it does come to pass, you may believe.  I will no longer talk much with you, for the ruler of this world is coming, and he has nothing in Me.  But that the world may know that I love  the Father, and as the Father gave Me commandment, so I do.  Arise, let us go from here."

 

  "I am the true vine, and My Father is the vinedresser.  Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit He takes away; and every branch that bears fruit He prunes, that it may bear more fruit.  You are already clean because of the word which I have spoken to you.  Abide in Me, and I in you.  As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in Me.  I am the vine, you are the branches.  He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing.  If anyone does not abide in Me, he is cast out as a branch and is withered; and they gather them and throw them into the fire, and they are burned.  If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you.  By this My Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit; so you will be My disciples."  My study Bible comments that the vine is a symbol of Israel (Isaiah 5:1-7; Jeremiah 2:21).  In contrast to disobedient and unfruitful Israel, it says, our Lord calls Himself the true vine, which together with the branches constitutes a new and fruitful people of God:  the Church.  In the divine liturgy of the Orthodox Church, the bishop prays that the Lord will visit and confirm the vineyard, the local body of Christ, is planted with His own right hand (Psalm 80:15-16).  To abide in this vine is to abide in Christ and His Church.  My study Bible comments that the figure of the vine and the branches shows first that our union with Christ is intimate and real; second, that life flows from the vine to the branches.  In other words, abiding in Christ is dynamic and vitalizing.  Finally, the fruit we bear is both good works and mission (John 15:16; 17:18).

 

 "As the Father loved Me, I also have loved you; abide in My love.  If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love, just as I have kept My Father's commandments and abide in His love.  These things I have spoken to you, that My joy may remain in you, and that your joy may be full."  My study Bible notes here that one cannot love God and disobey His commandments.  To love God, as Jesus taught in yesterday's reading, is to obey God (John 14:15).  

Jesus teaches us something more about love in today's reading.  He says,  "As the Father loved Me, I also have loved you; abide in My love."   He seems to say to us, to tell us through these words, that love comes from somewhere.  Love has a Source, and that Source is God.  As long as we know that we are created by a loving Father, then we know that there is love, and that love is part of who we are because it comes from the ultimate Source of all things.  Jesus teaches us, "If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love, just as I have kept My Father's commandments and abide in His love."   We express and live our love for Christ by keeping His commandments, and in this way we become like Him -- for He has kept the Father's commandments and so abides in the Father's love.  He is inviting us into this depth of communion, which is a communion of love.  We may stop to think, in our modern context, that to follow the commandments of an authority figure, even a parent, doesn't necessarily translate into love.  We can, after all, receive abusive or wrong commandments in our lives, from those whose wills are unhealthy, unhealed, suffering, and all the ways in which our imperfect world expresses its imperfection.  But Christ is not speaking of worldly commandments and worldly authority; He is speaking and offering the opposite.  He's offering us the life of what is necessary for us, and that which is in so many ways missing in our world.  He is offering communion in and with the Source of all love, even as we are in a world distant and separate from that communion, with the "ruler of this world" an opponent to Christ.  He follows with, "These things I have spoken to you, that My joy may remain in you, and that your joy may be full."  He's offering us joy even when we have sorrow, even when we are disappointed and afraid, even abandoned by the people and things we are fond of in life.  For this joy remains in us when all else may fail.  For what Christ is offering is to abide in Him, and He in us, within the strength and Source of the Father's love, rooted in a place so deep within us we might not even know it's there.  This is the way Christ offers us love and communion, and all we have to do is love Him by following the commandments which are His words of life for us.  These commandments are for us, and they are the words of eternal life for us.  They are the words that share His love with us, and share with us His joy.  Let us take in all that we are offered, and take Him up on His offer, so that we may abide in His love, and joy may abide in us. 

 

 

 

If you love Me, keep My commandments

 

 "If you love Me, keep My commandments.  And I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may abide with you forever -- the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him; but you know Him, for He dwells with you and will be in you.  I will not leave you orphans; I will come to you.  

"A little while longer and the world will see Me no more, but you will see Me.  Because I live, you will live also.  At that day you will know that I am in My Father, and you in Me, and I in you.  He who has My commandments and keeps them, it is he who loves Me.  And he who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and manifest Myself to him."  Judas (not Iscariot) said to Him, "Lord, how is it that You will manifest Yourself to us, and not to the world?"  Jesus answered and said to him, "If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our home with him.  He who does not love Me does not keep My words; and the word which you hear is not Mine but the Father's who sent Me.  These things I have spoken to you while being present with you.  But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all things that I said to you.  

"Peace I leave with you; My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you.  Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.  You have heard Me say to you, 'I am going away and coming back to you.'  If you loved Me, you would rejoice because I said, 'I am going to the Father,' for My Father is greater than I.  And now I have told you before it comes, that when it does come to pass, you may believe.

 

"I will no longer talk much with you, for the ruler of this world is coming, and he has nothing in Me.  But that the world may know that I love  the Father, and as the Father gave Me commandment, so I do.  Arise, let us go from here."

 

- John 14:15–31 

 

In yesterday's lectionary reading, we were given the beginning of Christ's Farewell Discourse to the apostles, spoken at the Last Supper.  He said to them, "Let not your heart be troubled; you believe in God; believe also in Me.  In My Father's house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you.  I go to prepare a place for you.  And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also.  And where I go you know, and the way you know."  Thomas said to Him, "Lord, we do not know where You are going, and how can we know the way?"  Jesus said to him, "I am the way, the truth, and the life.  No one comes to the Father except through Me.  If you had known Me, you would have known My Father also; and from now on you know Him and have seen Him."  Philip said to Him, "Lord, show us the Father, and it is sufficient for us."  Jesus said to him, "Have I been with you so long, and yet you have not known Me, Philip?"  He who has seen Me has seen the Father; so how can you say, 'Show us the Father'?  Do you not believe that I am in the Father, and the Father in Me?  The words that I speak to you I do not speak on My own authority; but the Father who dwells in Me does the works.  Believe Me that I am in the Father and the Father in Me, or else believe Me for the sake of the works themselves.  Most assuredly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do he will do also; and greater works than these he will do, because I go to My Father.  And whatever you ask in My name, that I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the son.  If you ask anything in My name, I will do it."

 

  "If you love Me, keep My commandments.  And I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may abide with you forever  . . ."  My study Bible comments that the Helper (in Greek, παράκλητος/parakletos) refers to the Holy Spirit.  This title, it says, also means "Comforter," "Counselor," and "Advocate."  This term, in ancient Greek culture, signified one who came to help with legal matters, but expanded to include any form of support or encouragement.  In the context of the New Testament, it indicates the Holy Spirit, who acts as a divine helper and guide for believers.  

". . . the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him; but you know Him, for He dwells with you and will be in you.  I will not leave you orphans; I will come to you."  The Spirit of truth is in each believer, my study Bible says, and we are called to know Him.  The Holy Spirit, it recalls, prays for us when we do not know how to pray, enabling us to pray in Christ's name (John 14:13-14; Romans 8:26) and giving us words of witness when we speak the gospel (Mark 13:11).

 

 "A little while longer and the world will see Me no more, but you will see Me.  Because I live, you will live also."  According to my study Bible, the brief separation of Christ from His disciples at His death will lead to a deeper mystical union after the Resurrection, and to the gift of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost.

 

"At that day you will know that I am in My Father, and you in Me, and I in you.  He who has My commandments and keeps them, it is he who loves Me.  And he who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and manifest Myself to him.  He who has My commandments and keeps them, it is he who loves Me.  And he who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and manifest Myself to him."  Judas (not Iscariot) said to Him, "Lord, how is it that You will manifest Yourself to us, and not to the world?"  Jesus answered and said to him, "If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our home with him.  He who does not love Me does not keep My words; and the word which you hear is not Mine but the Father's who sent Me.  These things I have spoken to you while being present with you."   My study Bible comments that that day is a reference to Pentecost.  It cites St. John Chrysostom, who tells us that it is "the power of the Holy Spirit that taught them all things."

 

"But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all things that I said to you."   Again, the emphasis on the role of the Holy Spirit is given here, and more explicitly.  My study Bible comments that we have confidence in the apostles' doctrine (Acts 2:42) because the Holy Spirit is their Teacher; He brings to remembrance not only Christ's words, but also their meaning.  It says that we have confidence in the Church because the Holy Spirit is our Instructor as well from Pentecost until today, leading us into all truth (John 16:13).  There is a quotation cited from St. Irenaeus:  "Where the Church is, there is the Holy Spirit and the fullness of grace."

 

 "Peace I leave with you; My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you.  Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid."  Peace, according to my study Bible, was the customary Jewish word of both greeting and farewell.  Perfect peace is brought by Christ, who reconciles humanity to God (Ephesians 2:14).  Peace, it says, is part of the traditional greeting of Christians to one another (Romans 1:7; 1 Corinthians 1:3), and the greeting "Peace be to all" is offered many times during the liturgical services of the Church.

 

"You have heard Me say to you, 'I am going away and coming back to you.'  If you loved Me, you would rejoice because I said, 'I am going to the Father,' for My Father is greater than I.  And now I have told you before it comes, that when it does come to pass, you may believe."   My Father is greater than I does not mean that the Father is greater in nature or essence than the Son; the Father and the Son share one divine nature.  Neither does it mean that the Son is created, for the Son is begotten from all eternity (John 1:1-5).  Instead, it means that the Father, who is the Fountainhead of the Trinity, is the eternal cause of the Son.  According to my study Bible, before it comes is a reference to Christ's coming Passion.  To tell of these events before they happened was a way to strengthen the disciples' faith. 

 

 "I will no longer talk much with you, for the ruler of this world is coming, and he has nothing in Me.  But that the world may know that I love  the Father, and as the Father gave Me commandment, so I do."  The ruler of this world, my study Bible says, is the devil (see also John 12:31; 16:11), who dominates the realm of those who do not love Christ or keep His commandments.  Jesus has said the devil has nothing in Me because there can be no compromise between Christ or His followers and the devil.  Jesus became a human being, but was never stained with sin.

 

"Arise, let us go from here."  Jesus takes His disciples to another room or location to complete His discourse, so that He will gain their undivided attention.  According to St. John Chrysostom, my study Bible says, their current location was susceptible to intrusions, and the disciples were likely to be distracted from fear.

 

In today's reading, the disciple  Judas asks Jesus a question (not Iscariot, for that Judas is no longer present at the Last Supper in this setting).  The text tells us Judas says, "Lord, how is it that You will manifest Yourself to us, and not to the world?"  Jesus answered and said to him, "If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our home with him."  What are we to make of this?  How can this not be the greatest gift possible in life, in this world, and for all of us?  There is a great, tremendous promise here.  Imagine that the Father will love us, and both Christ and the Father will come to us and make Their home with us.  We also have to understand -- given the whole text of today's reading -- that this We in "We will come to him and make Our home with him" includes the Holy Spirit also.  How can we not imagine that kind of grace as the most wonderful and stupendous gift in the whole world, and that is better, in fact, than the whole world and what it can offer to us?  But there is a sort of catch, a premise here made for us in order to realize that promise.  Jesus says, "If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word."   We first need to love Him, and that means we will keep His word.  We think of grace as that which comes to us undeserved, even when we are unworthy.  And this is the truth about grace, for we can never "earn" what grace offers, as we're not capable of paying some sort of indeterminable price beyond anything we can understand.  We don't have anything we can possibly do to earn what is beyond this world.  But that doesn't mean there are no conditions implied here.  That doesn't mean that becoming a person capable of receiving that grace doesn't involve some sort of two-way street.  For that is, in fact, what love is.  It's a two-way street.  One could possibly venture to say that without this two-way street of love, there is no love at all.  There is just some sort of strange entitlement, a power relationship that doesn't work at all and is no longer about love.  Christ asks for our love here, and not only does He ask for our love, He tells us quite plainly that love isn't just a question of feeling something or believing something.  Love is a matter of doing something.  To love Christ is to keep His word.  What does that mean?  How can we keep Christ's word?  Is this a question of being perfect all the time?  No, it is a question of love, of being loyal out of love, of making every effort to live by what He has given us, to cherish this gift He has given of His word, which He clearly says comes from the Father in the first place.  Therefore we keep His word in love, and in turn He and the Father (and the Holy Spirit, for where One Person of the Trinity is present, all are present) will come and make Their home with us.  This is the simple, straightforward way God finds and makes a home in us:  we love God and keep the word Christ has given us.  This is covenant, it is union, it is a kind of marriage.  We are the Bride and He is the Bridegroom, only our Bridegroom does not come alone to make a home with us.  He brings more, and so much more.  How can we not accept such a gift?  Where are we going to find a better one?  Jesus says, "If you love Me, keep My commandments."  This is what it means to keep His word.  Let us live that love He desires.

 

 

 

 

 

Your word is truth. As You sent Me into the world, I also have sent them into the world. And for their sakes I sanctify Myself, that they also may be sanctified by the truth

 "While I was with them in the world, I kept them in Your name.  Those whom You gave Me I have kept; and none of them is lost except the son of perdition, that the Scripture might be fulfilled.  But now I come to You, and these things I speak in the world, that they may have My joy fulfilled in themselves.  I have given them Your word; and the world has hated them because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world.  I do not pray that You should take them out of the world, but that You should keep them from the evil one.  They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world.  Sanctify them by Your truth.  Your word is truth.  As You sent Me into the world, I also have sent them into the world.  And for their sakes I sanctify Myself, that they also may be sanctified by the truth."

- John 17:12-19

In yesterday's reading, we began to read what is known as the High Priestly Prayer.  This is the prayer Jesus prayed after giving to His disciples the Farewell Discourse at the Last Supper, before He goes to His Crucifixion.  Jesus spoke these words, lifted up His eyes to heaven and said:  "Father, the hour has come.  Glorify Your Son, that Your Son also may glorify You, as You have given Him authority over all flesh, that He should give eternal life to as many as You have given Him.  And this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent.  I have glorified You on the earth.  I have finished the work which You have given Me to do.  And now, O Father, glorify Me together with Yourself, with the glory which I had with You before the world was.  I have manifested Your name to the men whom You have given Me out of the world.  They were Yours, You gave them to Me, and they have kept Your word.  Now they have known that all things which You have given Me are from You.  For I have given to them the words which You have given Me; and they have received them, and have known surely that I came forth from You; and they have believed that You sent Me.  I pray for them.  I do not pray for the world but for those whom You have given Me, for they are Yours.  And all Mine are Yours, and Yours are Mine, and I am glorified in them.  Now I am no longer in the world, but these are in the world, and I come to You.  Holy Father, keep through Your name those whom You have given Me, that they may be one as We are."

 "While I was with them in the world, I kept them in Your name.  Those whom You gave Me I have kept; and none of them is lost except the son of perdition, that the Scripture might be fulfilled.  But now I come to You, and these things I speak in the world, that they may have My joy fulfilled in themselves."  The son of perdition (meaning "destruction") is Judas Icariot (6:70-71).  My study bible says that Old Testament prophecy alludes to Judas (Psalms 41:9; 109:2-13; Zechariah 11:12-13), and Judas becomes a type for all those who will fall away in the last days (see 2 Thessalonians 2:3, in which "son of perdition" refers to the Antichrist). 

"I have given them Your word; and the world has hated them because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world.  I do not pray that You should take them out of the world, but that You should keep them from the evil one."   My study bible notes that inasmuch as Christ is from heaven, those who are joined to Him become like Him.  (As we are made "in the image and likeness of God" so we may grow in that image and likeness; see Genesis 1:26.)  But thereby, believers attract the world's hatred.  My study bible quotes from the second century Letter to Diognetus (6:3), which states, "Christians dwell in the world but do not belong to the world."  As those reborn in Christ, Christians have their citizenship in the Kingdom of God (3:1-5), but our vocation is in the world, where we are protected by God against the evil one.  Note that this does not mean Christians do not face persecution, hardship, even cruelty; rather, the protection is spiritual.

"They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world.  Sanctify them by Your truth.  Your word is truth.  As You sent Me into the world, I also have sent them into the world.  And for their sakes I sanctify Myself, that they also may be sanctified by the truth."  To sanctify is described by my study bible as to consecrate, make holy, separate, set apart from the world, and bring into the sacred for God's use.  It quotes St. John Chrysostom, who interprets this verse as to say, "Make them holy through the gift of the Spirit and by correct doctrine." 

Jesus speaks of a people who are somehow "set apart."  That is, a holy and sanctified people -- one sanctified by the truth -- who are not like the world, or the worldly.  In this we have an understanding not that we are somehow separate from the world, but rather different.  Christians are sent into the world by Christ specifically in order to be that different people, the ones who are set apart by Christ's truth, His commands, His love, and the communion of the kingdom of God.  The most important desire in Christ's prayer is that those who love Him be sanctified and kept in His truth -- and protected from the evil one.  This is a prayer for spiritual protection; that is, for the keeping of those who love Christ in that love and in His word, for the keeping of the faithful in the faith, and freed from the destructive power of evil.  We are warned many times in the Gospels that if we love Christ we will also face tribulation, persecutions.  But our protection, ultimately, is not from sad or bad things happening in life.  It is protection for our faith, to keep us in this communion of love.  Most especially, it seems to me, Christ's prayer here speaks of a commitment to be sanctified.  That is, to be distinguished and set apart through the commitment to spiritual truth, the word of God, so that even in the midst of persecutions we remain distinctively faithful.  Our love for Christ and our willingness to grow in His likeness continues, and renders us distinctly as followers of Christ.  He asks of the Father that we, as His followers, be sanctified in His truth.  And this is the power and meaning of what it is to follow Christ:  He prays for us for protection from the evil one; that is the deception and destruction of that which hates the spiritual truth of the love of God and all that this entails.  Let us remember how precious is this truth that sanctifies our souls and feeds us with God's love.  It is everything, and in it we are contained, loved, and have our being.   Outside of that is destruction, no matter what the world's delusions may feed us to the contrary.  The world has watched recently while the church of Notre Dame de Paris burned, a cathedral consecrated to and named for the Virgin Mary, the Theotokos.  Millions of French watched the flames and realized what they might be losing, in a country known for its rigorous commitment to secularism.   Let us sanctify ourselves in His truth.  It is the one thing that truly sets us apart and in the love of God.

These things I have spoken to you, that in Me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world

 "A little while, and you will not see Me; and again a little while, and you will not see Me; and again a little while, and you will see Me, because I go to the Father."  Then some of His disciples said among themselves, "What is this that He says to us, 'A little while, and you will not see Me; and again a little while, and you will see Me'; and, 'because I go to the Father'?"  They said therefore, "What is this that He says, 'A little while'?  We do not know what He is saying."  Now Jesus knew that they desired to ask Him, and He said to them, "Are you inquiring among yourselves about what I said, 'A little while, and you will not see Me; and again a little while, and you will see Me'?  Most assuredly, I say to you that you will weep and lament, but the world will rejoice; and you will be sorrowful, but your sorrow will be turned into joy.  A woman, when she is in labor, has sorrow because her hour has come; but as soon as she has given birth to the child, she no longer remembers the anguish, for joy that a human being has been born into the world.  Therefore you now have sorrow; but I will see you again and your heart will rejoice, and your joy no one will take from you.  And in that day you will ask Me nothing.  Most assuredly, I say to you, whatever you ask the Father in My name He will give you.  Until now you have asked nothing in My name.  Ask, and you will receive, that your joy may be full.

"These things I have spoken to you in figurative language; but the time is coming when I will no longer speak to you in figurative language, but I will tell you plainly about the Father.  In that day you will ask in My name, and I do not say to you that I shall pray the Father for you; for the Father Himself loves you, because you have loved Me, and have believed that I came forth from God.  I came forth from the Father and have come into the world.  Again, I leave the world and go to the Father."

His disciples said to Him, "See, now You are speaking plainly, and using no figure of speech!  Now we are sure that You know all things, and have no need that anyone should question You.  By this we believe that You came forth from God."  Jesus answered them, "Do you now believe?  Indeed the hour is coming, yes, has now come, that you will be scattered, each to his own, and will leave Me alone.  And yet I am not alone, because the Father is with Me.  These things I have spoken to you, that in Me you may have peace.  In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world." 

- John 16:16-33

In our current readings, Jesus and the disciples are at the Last Supper, the Passover supper of Christ's final year of His earthly life.  It is Holy Week, and He is about to go to His Passion.  He is giving to His disciples what is known as the Farewell Discourse.  In yesterday's reading, Jesus said to them,  "These things I have spoken to you, that you should not be made to stumble.  They will put you out of the synagogues; yes, the time is coming that whoever kills you will think that he offers God service.  And these things they will do to you because they have not known the Father nor Me.  But these things I have told you, that when the time comes, you may remember that I told you of them.  And these things I did not say to you at the beginning, because I was with you.  But now I go away to Him who sent Me, and none of you asks Me, 'Where are You going?'  But because I have said these things to you, sorrow has filled your heart.  Nevertheless I tell you the truth.  It is to your advantage that I go away; for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you; but if I depart, I will send Him to you.  And when He has come, He will convict the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment:  of sin, because they do not believe in Me; of righteousness, because I go to My Father and you see Me no more; of judgment, because the ruler of this world is judged.  I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now.  However, when He, the Spirit of truth, has come, He will guide you into all truth; for He will not speak on His own authority, but whatever He hears He will speak; and He will tell you things to come.  He will glorify Me, for He will take of what is Mine and declare it to you.  All things that the Father has are Mine.  Therefore I said that He will take of Mine and declare it to you."

 "A little while, and you will not see Me; and again a little while, and you will not see Me; and again a little while, and you will see Me, because I go to the Father."  Then some of His disciples said among themselves, "What is this that He says to us, 'A little while, and you will not see Me; and again a little while, and you will see Me'; and, 'because I go to the Father'?"  They said therefore, "What is this that He says, 'A little while'?  We do not know what He is saying."  The first little while here, my study bible explains, is referring to Jesus' arrest, death, and burial.  The second refers to His time in the tomb before His Resurrection.

Now Jesus knew that they desired to ask Him, and He said to them, "Are you inquiring among yourselves about what I said, 'A little while, and you will not see Me; and again a little while, and you will see Me'?  Most assuredly, I say to you that you will weep and lament, but the world will rejoice; and you will be sorrowful, but your sorrow will be turned into joy."  In a classic form of language of Scriptures and the promises of God (such as in Mary's Song, Luke 1:46-55), Jesus tells the disciples that you will weep and lament, but the world will rejoice; and you will be sorrowful, but your sorrow will be turned into joy.

"A woman, when she is in labor, has sorrow because her hour has come; but as soon as she has given birth to the child, she no longer remembers the anguish, for joy that a human being has been born into the world.  Therefore you now have sorrow; but I will see you again and your heart will rejoice, and your joy no one will take from you.  And in that day you will ask Me nothing.  Most assuredly, I say to you, whatever you ask the Father in My name He will give you.  Until now you have asked nothing in My name.  Ask, and you will receive, that your joy may be full."  Again, in a parallel to Mary's Song, Jesus gives them an image of a woman in labor.  My study bible says that no longer remembers does not imply that the faithful should forget the Passion and Cross of Christ, any more than a woman "forgets" labor.  Instead, we now see these sufferings in the light of the victory of the Resurrection, and this victory is a transfiguration of our perception of suffering.  In this way, Christ's victory enables us to rejoice in anguish, because there is infinitely greater good that comes out of it (Romans 5:3-5; Philippians 3:10).

"These things I have spoken to you in figurative language; but the time is coming when I will no longer speak to you in figurative language, but I will tell you plainly about the Father."  My study bible says that the time when Christ would speak plainly about the Father was during the 40 days following the Resurrection (Acts 1:3).

"In that day you will ask in My name, and I do not say to you that I shall pray the Father for you; for the Father Himself loves you, because you have loved Me, and have believed that I came forth from God.  I came forth from the Father and have come into the world.  Again, I leave the world and go to the Father."    Prayer is offered in the name of God the Father, for Christ taught us to pray that way (Matthew 6:9).  Christ also prayed to the Father Himself (11:41; 12:28; 17:1).  My study bible tells us that in Christ, we have direct access to the Father.  Therefore we pray in the name of the Son as well.  After Pentecost, it's understood that the Holy Spirit Himself "makes intercession for us" (Romans 8:26), and we are also instructed to pray always "in the Spirit" (Ephesians 6:18).  We pray continually and with confidence, therefore, to all three Persons of the Trinity:  "in the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit."

His disciples said to Him, "See, now You are speaking plainly, and using no figure of speech!  Now we are sure that You know all things, and have no need that anyone should question You.  By this we believe that You came forth from God."  Jesus answered them, "Do you now believe?  Indeed the hour is coming, yes, has now come, that you will be scattered, each to his own, and will leave Me alone.  And yet I am not alone, because the Father is with Me.  These things I have spoken to you, that in Me you may have peace.  In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world."   Again, a warning comes from Jesus about what is to come for them, despite what is being revealed at this moment.  They will be scattered, each to His own, and will leave [Christ] alone.  But again, as has so frequently been the case in the Gospel of John, Jesus refers back to His closeness and union with the Father.  He is not alone, because the Father is with Him.  St. Chrysostom comments that the disciples may have peace in always turning to Christ through all tribulation.   He has overcome the world not only in overthrowing the ruler of this world, but also in the work within the faithful through their own struggles with the world.

How has Christ overcome the world?  If we but look around we see all manner of evils all around us.  Harassment of all religious across the board seems to be on the increase, with reports of countries in which Christians were harassed topping the list, according to this article regarding a recent Pew Research publication.  Aside from direct religious harassment, we don't need a research study to tell us of the evils in the world, and the explosive and unmistakable ways in which it doesn't look to our eyes like Christ is victorious here -- or perhaps more specifically, like the world is at all living in the ways that Christ has taught us to live.  So what does it mean that He has overcome the world?  What is it that makes Christ victorious?  First of all, there is the Cross itself.  In His "hour of glory" as Christ puts it throughout John's Gospel, is the great victory.  Perhaps the greatest reason that we can point to for this is precisely the thing with which He instructs the disciples here:  the Cross is a victory because it is an act of absolute faith and obedience to the Father, it is in some sense a final seal of union with the Father -- and in this the world is overcome.  This is indeed a strange paradox for us, and we know that it is characterized by St. Paul as "to the Jews a stumbling block, and to the Greeks [meaning Gentiles] foolishness" (1 Corinthians 1:23).  Does the Crucifixion look like victory?  Certainly the religious leaders and others such as Herod Antipas who collaborated in His death couldn't have seen it that way.  But the key here is that there is so much more than is understood through a surface act.  This Cross becomes a symbol not only of life, but of Resurrection, of transcendence and transfiguration.  It is a symbol of liberation, of overcoming.  It is in itself the power to transform -- to defeat death and to give life.  All of this is so not only because we read of it in the Gospels and because the Church teaches us that it is so.  All of this is so by virtue of the many witnesses we have who testify to this reality.  The disciples have told their stories, and in the Gospels and the whole of the New Testament we read their testimony to what they have seen and experienced.  But through the whole of two millennia, countless faithful have also experienced the liberation of the Cross, life from death in some form in their own lives, and the power of prayer in Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.  This isn't only a victory of Christ, but it is His victory shared with all of us.  It is His power to overcome which is shared with each of us, and in which we may each participate as we face struggles and tribulations in our own lives, and the testimony of uncountable witnesses confirms that it is so.  We only have to look and hear and listen to those around us who tell us so, in their own testimonies and about their own lives and faith.  The power of Christ's Cross is a victory that each of us can feel and experience.  We may not have something obvious to show and to tell.  Christ Himself refused to give miracles and signs and proofs on demand.  But the experience and power contained in the Church as a whole is something unassailable.  Through the experience of the faithful this power works and overcomes, and we are not alone, no matter who else has abandoned us.  We celebrate Resurrection because it is alive in us.  It is not an event that took place once, and so we tell the story.  But Christ's victory is eternal.  It lives in the here and the now, and we are invited in to participate, with Father, Son, and Holy Spirit living and dwelling with us and within us.  We pray in the name of the Trinity and grow in likeness to our Creator through His holy power and especially through His victory which lives in us and is experienced in our own lives.  Give up the restrictions on what that victory looks like, and instead find  it through faith.  Ultimately, the victory of the Cross is sacramental.  We exchange our lives for another kind of life, for something better.  We may not have all of our worldly expectations met, but Christ has His own way to meet us, with Father and Holy Spirit at work in us.  We do our part in faith through tribulation and look to what we don't know, in the good cheer He gives us.  Resurrection is a fuller reality, a different experience than the world gives us.  But its peace is real and abiding, and in it we overcome as well.

They hated Me without a cause

 "This is My commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.  Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one's life for his friends.  You are My friends if you do whatever I command you.  No longer do I call you servants, for a servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all things that I heard from My Father I have made known to you.  You did not choose Me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit, and that your fruit should remain, that whatever you ask the Father in My name He may give you.  These things I command you, that you love one another.

"If the world hates you, you know that it hated Me before it hated you.  If you were of the world, the world would love its own.  Yet because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you.  Remember the word that I said to you, 'A servant is not greater than his master.'  If they persecuted Me, they will also persecute you.  If they kept My word, they will keep yours also.  But all these things they will do to you for My name's sake, because they do not know Him who sent Me.  If I had not come and spoken to them, they would have no sin, but now they have no excuse for their sin.  He who hates Me hates My Father also.  If I had not done among them the works which no one else did, they would have no sin; but now they have seen and also hated both Me and My Father.  But this happened that the word might be fulfilled which is written in their law, 'They hated Me without a cause.'

"But when the Helper comes, whom I shall send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father, He will testify of Me.  And you also will bear witness, because you have been with Me from the beginning."

- John 15:12-27

In our current readings, Jesus and the disciples are at the Passover Supper known as the Last Supper.  He is giving to them His Farewell Discourse.  In yesterday's reading, Jesus said to them, "I am the true vine, and My Father is the vinedresser.  Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit He takes away; and every branch that bears fruit He prunes, that it may bear more fruit.  You are already clean because of the word which I have spoken to you.  Abide in Me, and I in you.  As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in Me.  I am the vine, you are the branches.  He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing.  If anyone does not abide in Me, he is cast out as a branch and is withered; and they gather them and throw them into the fire, and they are burned.  If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you.  By this My Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit; so you will be My disciples.  As the Father loved Me, I also have loved you; abide in My love.  If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love, just as I have kept My Father's commandments and abide in His love.  These things I have spoken to you, that My joy may remain in you, and that your joy may be full."

 "This is My commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.  Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one's life for his friends.  You are My friends if you do whatever I command you.  No longer do I call you servants, for a servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all things that I heard from My Father I have made known to you.  You did not choose Me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit, and that your fruit should remain, that whatever you ask the Father in My name He may give you.  These things I command you, that you love one another."  Jesus repeats and emphasizes His new and final commandment, first given at 13:34 (see this reading).  He is emphasizing what it means to be a branch in this vine that He calls Himself (in yesterday's reading, above).  My study bible comments here that friendship is higher than servanthood.  It notes that servants obey their masters out of fear or a sense of duty.  But friends obey out of love and in internal desire to do what is good and right.  This is a most important distinction for our faith and its understanding of relationship and hierarchy.  Abraham was called a "friend of God" (James 2:23), which my study bible says was because he obeyed God out of the belief of his heart, a true faith or trust.  The disciples -- and all the saints -- are honored as friends of Christ for they freely obey His commandments out of love.  My study bible adds that those who have this spirit of loving obedience are open to receive and understand the revelations of the Father.   So important is this new and final command to love one another that Jesus repeats it four times during the Last Supper.

 "If the world hates you, you know that it hated Me before it hated you.  If you were of the world, the world would love its own.  Yet because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you.  Remember the word that I said to you, 'A servant is not greater than his master.'  If they persecuted Me, they will also persecute you.  If they kept My word, they will keep yours also.  But all these things they will do to you for My name's sake, because they do not know Him who sent Me.  If I had not come and spoken to them, they would have no sin, but now they have no excuse for their sin.  He who hates Me hates My Father also.  If I had not done among them the works which no one else did, they would have no sin; but now they have seen and also hated both Me and My Father.  But this happened that the word might be fulfilled which is written in their law, 'They hated Me without a cause.'"   My study bible comments that the term world is used in several distinct ways in Scripture.  In certain cases, it refers to everything that is glorious, beautiful, and redeemable in God's creation (3:16).  At other times, it is used to refer to that which is finite rather than to that which is eternal (11:9; 18:36).  In still other places, as here, it is used to indicate all that is in rebellion against God (see also 8:23).   My study bible adds that the rebellion of the world against God reveals several things.  First of all, while union with Christ brings love, truth, and peace, it also will bring persecution, because the world hates love and truth.  Secondly, the world hated Christ; therefore, it will hate all those who try to be Christlike.  In addition, the world hates Christ because it neither knows nor desires to know the Father.  Finally, hatred for Jesus Christ is irrational and unreasonable.  Christ brings love and mercy -- and He is therefore hated without a cause. 

"But when the Helper comes, whom I shall send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father, He will testify of Me.  And you also will bear witness, because you have been with Me from the beginning."    My study bible says that with respect to God's working salvation in the world, the Son sends the Holy Spirit from the Father.  With respect to the divine nature, the Holy Spirit eternally proceeds from the Father.  While the Son is begotten of the Father alone, the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father; the Source, the Fountainhead, of both Persons is the Father. 

What is it that causes hatred in the world toward Christ, its Creator?  In the most objective sense, this hatred is not rational.  This is not merely because Christ is Creator, but rather because Christ brings into the world what is nominally good, and true, and beautiful.  He brings love.  He brings what is good and orderly to our lives, and helps us make sense of what is not sensible that surrounds us.  He brings order out of chaos, and this is part of salvation for all those who have experienced Christ's healing love and the work of the Holy Spirit in their lives.  But the spirit of rebellion against God lives in our world.  There is still the struggle between God and mammon, between what is merciful and kind and what is merely expeditious and absent all compassion.  We still struggle, as human beings, with our own greed and selfishness.  But most of all the struggle -- and the picture Christ presents here of the contrast or conflict between Himself and the world -- seems to be the contrast between a purely materialistic outlook on life, and one that respects life as something so much more than material, something requiring respect for its potentials, and its Source, and the capabilities of love inherent in that Source of all life for each of us.  Where there is an absence of this understanding, there is a hatred of the possibilities that Christ -- and the Helper, the Holy Spirit -- brings to every situation.  There is a hatred of love, a hatred of compassion, and a will only to the purely material which of course justifies a selfish or self-centered attitude toward all of life.  But Christ emphasizes hatred here.  This is an active contempt for the things of God, and of course for God, and its effects and presence should not be underestimated nor overlooked; and neither should its response to love.  In this midst of this persecution, Jesus emphasizes witnessing, testimony.  The Helper is called the Spirit of truth, and He it is who will testify to the things of Christ for us.  We in turn will witness to the world, and be prepared for its response.  This is a clear-eyed and level-headed call for the love of truth -- right to its absolute depths in spiritual truth, in the reality of the love of God, and the proclamations of the God of love to the world through Christ.  It does not hesitate to say that the world's response will be hatred, but neither does it hesitate to call us to obedience to its commands out of our own capacity for love and response to that love.  In John's First Epistle, he writes of Christ, "We love Him because He first loved us" (1 John 4:19).  This is where we are, the existential condition of the follower and friend of Christ.  Do we respond to that love?  Or does that love and mercy only bring us a sense of entitlement, of selfishness?  It is up to us.  It is our choice.  His call to us -- and His command -- is clear.  His mission is always ready for us to take up.

These things I have spoken to you, that My joy may remain in you, and that your joy may be full

 "I am the true vine, and My Father is the vinedresser.  Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit He takes away; and every branch that bears fruit He prunes, that it may bear more fruit.  You are already clean because of the word which I have spoken to you.  Abide in Me, and I in you.  As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in Me.  I am the vine, you are the branches.  He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing.  If anyone does not abide in Me, he is cast out as a branch and is withered; and they gather them and throw them into the fire, and they are burned.  If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you.  By this My Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit; so you will be My disciples.

"As the Father loved Me, I also have loved you; abide in My love.  If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love, just as I have kept My Father's commandments and abide in His love.  These things I have spoken to you, that My joy may remain in you, and that your joy may be full."

- John 15:1-11

In our current readings, Jesus and the disciples are at the Passover supper, also known as the Last Supper.  He is speaking to the disciples, giving them His Farewell Discourse before going to His Passion.  In yesterday's reading, Jesus said,  "If you love Me, keep My commandments.  And I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may abide with you forever -- the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him; but you know Him, for He dwells with you and will be in you.  I will not leave you orphans; I will come to you.  A little while longer and the world will see Me no more, but you will see Me.  Because I live, you will live also.  At that day you will know that I am in My Father, and you in Me, and I in you.  He who has My commandments and keeps them, it is he who loves Me.  And he who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and manifest Myself to him."  Judas (not Iscariot) said to Him, "Lord, how is it that You will manifest Yourself to us, and not to the world?"  Jesus answered and said to him, "If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our home with him.  He who does not love Me does not keep My words; and the word which you hear is not Mine but the Father's who sent Me.  These things I have spoken to you while being present with you.  But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all things that I said to you.  Peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you.  Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.  You have heard Me say to you, 'I am going away and coming back to you.'  If you loved Me, you would rejoice because I said, 'I am going to the Father,' for My Father is greater than I.  And now I have told you before it comes, that when it does come to pass, you may believe.  I will no longer talk much with you, for the ruler of this world is coming, and he has nothing in Me.  But that the world may know that I love the Father, and as the Father gave Me commandment, so I do.  Arise, let us go from here."

 "I am the true vine, and My Father is the vinedresser.  Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit He takes away; and every branch that bears fruit He prunes, that it may bear more fruit.  You are already clean because of the word which I have spoken to you.  Abide in Me, and I in you.  As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in Me.  I am the vine, you are the branches.  He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing.  If anyone does not abide in Me, he is cast out as a branch and is withered; and they gather them and throw them into the fire, and they are burned.  If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you.  By this My Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit; so you will be My disciples."  My study bible explains that the vine is a symbol of Israel (Isaiah 5:1-7; Jeremiah 2:21).  But in contrast to the disobedient and unfaithful vine, Christ calls Himself the true vine.  Together with its branches this vine constitutes a new and fruitful people of God, which is the Church.   In the Divine Liturgy of the Eastern Church, the bishop prays that the Lord will visit and confirm the vineyard, the local body of Christ, which He planted with His own right hand (Psalm 80:15-16).  If we abide in this vine, we abide in Christ and in His Church.   My study bible explains that the figure of the vine and branches shows first that our union with Christ is intimate and real.  Second, life flows from this vine to its branches:  abiding in Christ is dynamic and vitalizing.  Finally, the fruit that we bear is both good works and mission (v. 16; 17:18). 

"As the Father loved Me, I also have loved you; abide in My love.  If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love, just as I have kept My Father's commandments and abide in His love.  These things I have spoken to you, that My joy may remain in you, and that your joy may be full."  Once again, Jesus returns to the central theme of His love.  My study bible explains that to love God is to obey God; one cannot love God and disobey God's commandments.  Christ offers us what He Himself has:  His love for and abiding in the Father and keeping His commandments.  So He asks of the relationship we have with Him as well; in this way we are one vine with many branches.

Let us think about Christ's joy, which He speaks of in His final words in today's reading.  What is this joy?  Is it not clearly a product of the love within which He abides in the Father?  Jesus has repeatedly explained what this means:  that the love between Father and Son is revealed through Christ obedience to the commandments of His Father.  Moreover, this is what He asks of us, His disciples -- that we must abide in Him, in love.  And if we love Him, we will  keep His commandments.  All of these things go hand in hand.  So deep and great is this love and connectedness, that we are to be in a communion that is distinguished and known by the fact that we have love for one another (John 13:34-35).  He has given all the tools we need, through His commandments, to teach us how we are to do this, to live like this, to express this love for one another.  But what He tells us is that our communion -- this vine -- is an extension of first of all His relationship to the Father.  He asks us to live as He has lived His life.  He has set the example, and given us the paradigm of what it is to Abide in Me, because this is how He has lived by abiding in the Father and doing the Father's will, in love.  And here is His joy that He shares with the disciples -- and by extension, with all those who would be His disciples.  If we abide in that love, and therefore in His commandments, this is where we will find our joy in life.  It is a long road through the difficulties of life, the disappointments, and the discoveries of betrayals and infidelity.  A long road indeed through lies and corruption of this world, and its injustice.  But we remember the Passion to which Christ goes, which will expose all of those things for judgment and witnessing.  Indeed, He is "the faithful witness" according to Revelation 1:5.  In the fullness of Christ's joy, the world is a setting for witnessing:  living and abiding in His love together with the Father and the Spirit, following His commands, and witnessing for a true justice that surpasses human expediency.  All of these things constitute what He asks of us when He tells us that we are to abide in Him in order to bear much fruit.  Let us continue our focus on building this joy within ourselves as we find our lives increasing in the faith He asks of us.   As He goes to His hour of glory, we are reminded of the words in the book of Nehemiah, when the people were read the commands of the Law:  "Do not sorrow, for the joy of the Lord is your strength."