6th Sunday of Easter Year A, 17/05/2020

We started Easter time with the uncertainty from the difficult and challenging events in our lives. And even though we continue to struggle from the trauma of these events, this week the readings have some sense of joy.

            We hear of this joy from the first reading, deriving from the great acts of Philip. In fact, that joy did not come from an idea, nor it is an idea or a theological concept, but a real change in the lives of people. Although the present events are changing our lives in a bigger way, and seemingly taking away our joy, we can still count on, and be filled with gratitude for the many favours received from the Lord. Just as in the second reading, the sufferings directed to the followers of Christ could not diminish their gratitude for the Lord, so too for us, we believe in the God who sustains things and brings them to completion.

As we continue to face the difficult times and also to endure, let us be open to the Spirit of truth with a sense of joy, forgiveness between persons, and families. The Lord Jesus is promising us a helper, an advocate, a paraclete, one to stand besides us; the Spirit of truth. Will you open your heart first for him to enter? How about in your family? Will he most likely be standing outside your house waiting until you reconcile with one another?

If you open and with gratitude receive him, you will experience the real change like in the early Christian community in the first reading. He will be given to us, and the Lord will be in us and we shall be in him. With the Psalmist we shall sing a hymn of rejoicing in the great things the Lord has done for us.

Joy and Peace.