Monday of the Sixth Week of Easter

Today's Mass Readings

In today's first reading from the Acts of the Apostles we encounter Paul and his companions filled with the Spirit of God and spreading the Good News of Jesus. Paul and his companions find welcome listeners among some women, and Lydia, who is one of these kind women receives baptism and invites them to stay at her home. Just yesterday, in the Sunday gospel reading, Jesus had promised that he would send an "advocate" to help his disciples. We see that promise being fulfilled in the life of the Church. This is a different kind of welcome than Jesus foretells in today's Gospel reading. Jesus informs His disciples that they will be rejected by many, and in fact, although the early Christians were sometimes welcomed, on other occasions they were tortured and killed.

The point of Jesus' message is that He wants us to stand firm in the faith, no matter what trials we face. The Spirit of God will be our advocate, testifying to Jesus in and through us. But the Spirit of God is more than simply there to bear testimony. The Holy Spirit dwells within us as our advocate.

We need continually to learn to live by the Spirit, and not simply rely upon ourselves. The Spirit will help us endure and move beyond the trials we encounter in life. As we near the end of Easter and begin to approach Pentecost, the feast celebrating the outpouring of the Spirit, let us really learn to rely upon the power of the Holy Spirit in our lives.

Very often we are inclined to call upon the Spirit when our human potential is exhausted. The Spirit is not given to us as a stop gap arrangement. Rather, every breath we take is the result of that first breath of the Spirit that Adam and Eve received (Gen 2). If we can even say "Jesus is Lord!" it is because of the Spirit (Rom 8:15). In fact, we cannot even pray without the presence of the Holy Spirit within us (Rom 8:26).

Let's ask God to send down His Spirit upon us, to enkindle our hearts. Let's ask God to help us rely more upon the Spirit, our Holy Advocate. Only then will we be able to face the trials ahead, as Jesus' disciples did at the dawn of the Church. It is only then that we can live as "children of God" (Rom 8:14).

- Jeff Morrow