In today’s Gospel, Jesus tells us: “Whoever has my commandments and observes them is the one who loves me. Whoever loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and reveal myself to him.” Jesus’ commandment to us is to love God and to love our neighbor. Jesus continues, saying: “Whoever loves me will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our dwelling with him.” How does the Father and Son dwell in us? It is through the Holy Spirit. The same Spirit that the Father sends in the name of our Jesus Christ to dwell in our hearts. It is the Spirit that Saint Paul wrote of, saying: “Do you not know that your body is a temple of the holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own?” (1 Corinthians 6:19). It is the Spirit that we received at Baptism and are sealed with at Confirmation.
It is the Spirit the Father sends in the name of his Son who “will teach [us] everything and remind [us] of all that [Jesus] told [us].” Pope Francis reflected on this, saying: “Teaching and remembering. This is the role of the Holy Spirit. He teaches us: he teaches us the mystery of faith, he teaches us to enter into the mystery, to understand the mystery a little more. . . the Holy Spirit helps us grow in understanding faith, understanding it more, understanding what faith says. . . He will teach us the things that Jesus has taught us, he will develop in us an understanding of what Jesus has taught us, he will grow the doctrine of the Lord in us, to maturity” (Homily, 11/5/2020). One of the shortest and most powerful prayers we can pray when we are struggling with our faith is, “Come Holy Spirit.”
Moreover, Pope Francis reflected further, saying: “The Holy Spirit is like memory, he wakes us up. . . he keeps us awake, always awake in the Lord's things, and also reminds us of our lives” (id). The Holy Father recalled how “one person prayed before the Lord like this: ‘Lord, I am the same one who, as a child, as a boy, had these dreams. Then, I went along the wrong paths. Now you've called me.’ I am the same: this is the memory of the Holy Spirit in one's life. He brings you to the memory of salvation, to the memory of what Jesus taught, but also to the memory of one's life. . . a beautiful way of praying, looking at the Lord: ‘I am the same. I've walked a lot, I've been wrong, but I'm the same and you love me.’ The memory of life's journey” (id). Again, one of the shortest and most powerful prayers we can pray to help us activate the graces of the Sacraments that we have received, particularly the Sacraments of Baptism and Confirmation, to help remind us of who we are and whose we are is, “Come Holy Spirit.”
When we pray this prayer to the Holy Spirit, the Third Person of the Most Holy Trinity will remind us that we are beloved sons and daughters of the Father. That is who we are and whose we are. My sisters and brothers in Christ, Lent prepared our hearts for the Resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ - for God so loved the world that He sent his Only Begotten Son to die on the Cross for our salvation. Easter prepares us to receive the gift of the Holy Spirit from God and the Risen Lord - “But I tell you the truth, it is better for you that I go. For if I do not go, the Advocate will not come to you. But if I go, I will send him to you” (John 16:7). We are three weeks away from Pentecost, let us cultivate our hearts - through prayers and words - to receive the gift of the Holy Spirit from the Father through the Son.
