6th Sunday of Easter (C) 05-13-07

Scripture Readings
First Acts of the Apostles 15:1-2. 22-29
Second Revelation 21:10-14, 22-23
Gospel John 14:23-29

Prepared by: Fr. Peter John Cameron, O.P.

1. Subject Matter

• The Holy Spirit as “memory”

• The Church relies on the authority of Paul, Barnabas, along with the chosen representatives
Judas and Silas, to repair the dissension and to restore the peace of mind.
• The heavenly city of Jerusalem

2. Exegetical Notes

• “Whoever does not love me does not keep my words” – “There is another world that has
responded to Jesus by rejecting his claims for himself…, and is committed to the untruth of
all that it can control” (de la Potterie).
• “The Holy Spirit…will remind you of all that I told you” – “The inability of the disciples to
understand the words and deeds of Jesus will be overcome as they ‘remember’ what he had
said…. The ‘remembering’ will be the fruit of the presence of the Paraclete” (Moloney).
• “my peace I give to you” – “The peace of Jesus flows from is oneness with his Father”
(Moloney); “One of the astonishing things about peace is that it usually begins at the very
point where it seems most unlikely, with our recognition of our sinfulness, which is the cause
of our conflicts and evils…. New Testament peace is the power of God radiating through the
believer and inclining him to spread the peace of Christ around him” (Servais Pinckaers,
O.P.).
• “We have decided to choose representatives” – “For resonances of the verb ‘to choose/elect’,
see Lk 6:13; 9:35; Acts 1:2, 24; 6:5; 13:17; 15:7” (L.T. Johnson).
• “disturbed your peace of mind” – “For Luke’s use of [this verb], see Lk 1:12; 24:38; Acts 17:8,
13…. It has a range of negative connotations, fro ‘distracting’ to ‘destroying’” (L.T. Johnson).
• “the holy city Jerusalem coming down out of heaven from God” – “This expression describes
a permanent characteristic of the city” (Wilfred Harrington, O.P.)
• “The city had no need of sun…for the glory of God gave it light” – “The glory of the divine
presence renders all created light superfluous” (Wilfred Harrington, O.P.); “No words could
more clearly demonstrate the purely spiritual character of John’s conception of the new
Jerusalem” (Swete).

3. References to the Catechism of the Catholic Church

• 1099 The Spirit and the Church cooperate to manifest Christ and his work of salvation in the
liturgy. Primarily in the Eucharist, and by analogy in the other sacraments, the liturgy is the
memorial of the mystery of salvation. The Holy Spirit is the Church's living memory.
• 1103 Anamnesis. The liturgical celebration always refers to God's saving interventions in
history. "The economy of Revelation is realized by deeds and words which are intrinsically
bound up with each other. . . . [T]he words for their part proclaim the works and bring to light
the mystery they contain." In the Liturgy of the Word the Holy Spirit "recalls" to the assembly
all that Christ has done for us. In keeping with the nature of liturgical actions and the ritual
traditions of the churches, the celebration "makes a remembrance" of the marvelous works of
God in an anamnesis which may be more or less developed. The Holy Spirit who thus
awakens the memory of the Church then inspires thanksgiving and praise (doxology).
• 2625 The Holy Spirit, who thus keeps the memory of Christ alive in his Church at prayer, also
leads her toward the fullness of truth and inspires new formulations expressing the
unfathomable mystery of Christ at work in his Church's life, sacraments, and mission.
• 2685 Daily family prayer is the first witness of the Church's living memory as awakened
patiently by the Holy Spirit.

• 1919 Every human community needs an authority in order to endure and develop.

• 2236 The exercise of authority is meant to give outward expression to a just hierarchy of
values in order to facilitate the exercise of freedom and responsibility by all. Those in
authority should practice distributive justice wisely, taking account of the needs and
contribution of each, with a view to harmony and peace. They should take care that the
regulations and measures they adopt are not a source of temptation by setting personal
interest against that of the community.
• 2238 Those subject to authority should regard those in authority as representatives of God,
who has made them stewards of his gifts: "Be subject for the Lord's sake to every human
institution. . . . Live as free men, yet without using your freedom as a pretext for evil; but live
as servants of God." Their loyal collaboration includes the right, and at times the duty, to
voice their just criticisms of that which seems harmful to the dignity of persons and to the
good of the community.

• 756 "Often, too, the Church is called the building of God. The Lord compared himself to the
stone which the builders rejected, but which was made into the corner-stone. On this
 foundation the Church is built by the apostles and from it the Church receives solidity and
unity. This edifice has many names to describe it: the house of God in which his family
dwells; the household of God in the Spirit; the dwelling-place of God among men; and,
especially, the holy temple. This temple, symbolized in places of worship built out of stone, is
praised by the Fathers and, not without reason, is compared in the liturgy to the Holy City,
the New Jerusalem. As living stones we here on earth are built into it. It is this holy city that is
seen by John as it comes down out of heaven from God when the world is made anew,
prepared like a bride adorned for her husband.

• 1044 In this new universe, the heavenly Jerusalem, God will have his dwelling among men.
"He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there
be mourning nor crying nor pain any more, for the former things have passed away."

• 2016 The children of our holy mother the Church rightly hope for the grace of final
perseverance and the recompense of God their Father for the good works accomplished with
his grace in communion with Jesus. Keeping the same rule of life, believers share the
"blessed hope" of those whom the divine mercy gathers into the "holy city, the new
Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her
husband."

4. Patristic Commentary and Other Authorities

• St. Gregory the Great: “The proof of love is one’s actions. Love for God is never lazy: if it is
present it accomplishes great things; if it refuses to work, it will not love. To love God it is
necessary to use our words, our minds, and our lives.”
• St. John Chrysostom: “To enable the disciples to sustain his bodily departure more
cheerfully, Jesus promises that that departure shall be the source of great benefit; for that
while he was then in the body, they could never know much, because the Spirit would not
have come.”
• St. Gregory the Great: “The Advocate moves the sinner to pray for himself. The Comforter
relieves the sorrow of penitents, and cheers them with the hope of pardon.”
• St. Gregory the Great: “Unless the Spirit be present to the mind of the hearer, the word of
the teacher is vain.”
• St. Augustine: “There is a peace which is serenity of though, tranquility of mind, simplicity of
heart, the bond of love, the fellowship of charity. None will be able to come to the inheritance
of the Lord who do not observe this testament of peace; none be friends with Christ who are
at enmity with the Christians.”
• St. Augustine: “Though Jesus was only going for a time, their hearts would be troubled and
afraid for what might happen before he returned; lest in the absence of the Shepherd the wolf
might attack the flock.”
• St. John Chrysostom: In going to the Father, Jesus “goes to one greater, one able to
dissolve and change all things. All this is said in accommodation to the disciples’ weakness.”
• St. Thomas Aquinas: “Whoever loves me….” – “Three things are necessary for a person
who wants to see God: 1) to draw near to God; 2) one must lift up his eyes in order to see
God; 3) one must take time to look, for spiritual things cannot be seen if one is absorbed by
earthly things.
• St. Thomas Aquinas: “Through obedience a person is rendered fit to see God.”
• St. Thomas Aquinas: “God is said to come to someone because he is there in a new way, in
a way he had not been there before, that is, by the effect of his grace. It is by this effect of
grace that he makes us approach him.”
• St. Thomas Aquinas: “According to Augustine, God comes to us in three ways and we go to
him in the same three ways: 1) by filling us with his effects; 2) by enlightening us; 3) by
helping us.”
• St. Thomas Aquinas: “The mission of the Holy Spirit is to lead the faithful to the Son.”
• St. Thomas Aquinas: “According to Gregory, we should say that Holy Spirit is said to bring
things to our remembrance because in a hidden way he aids our ability to know. Or, one
could say the Spirit teaches because he makes us share in the wisdom of the Son; and he
brings things to our remembrance because, being love, he incites us.”
• Msgr. Luigi Giussani: “Memory is the surge with which Jesus becomes familiar to us daily….
The memory of Christ is the memory of a past which becomes so present that it determines
the present more than anything else that is present.”
• Cesare Pavese: “Memory is a passion repeated.”
• Fr. Julian Carron: “'People ‘who make you feel the memory of Christ ten times more easily
than all the others’ (L. Giussani) are the true authorities. They are the ones who make it
easier for you, in your relationship with Christ, to feel and experience Christ, because they
acknowledge him more, they obey him and live the memory, not because they speak more
than the other, but because they acknowledge him, obey him and live his memory…. We
need an authority who will open our hearts continually. An authority is a person who makes
us more present, and makes it easier for us to recognize the Mystery. It is what helps our
freedom, and helps us to stand before the Mystery; it is a need we have if we are not to
succumb to our own measure and not close ourselves up.”

5. Examples from the Saints and Other Exemplars

• St. Catherine of Siena as an example of a saint who, because of she dedicated he life to the
Name of our Lord Jesus, was an effective arbitrator and mediator to popes, royalty, and
secular leaders.
• St. Paul Miki, martyr (+1597) as a witness to the power of the peace that the risen Christ
gives: “Fastened to his cross, Paul Miki gave his final defense in the form of a samurai
farewell song: ‘I did not come from the Philippines. I am a Japanese by birth, and a brother of
the Society of Jesus. I have committed no crime. The only reason I am condemned to die is
that I have taught the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. I am happy to die for such a cause
and accept death as a great gift from my Lord. At this critical time, when you can rest
 assured that I will not try to deceive you, I want to stress and make it unmistakably clear that
man can find no way to salvation other than the Christian way.”

6. Quotations from Pope Benedict XVI

• “The ongoing actualization of the presence of Jesus—through the work of the Spirit and
through the Church’s apostolic ministry and fraternal communion—is what we mean by the
term Tradition; it is not just a transmission of “things” but the efficacious presence of the Lord
who accompanies and guides the gathered community. The Holy Spirit nurtures this
communion, assuring the connection between the apostolic faith experienced by the first
communities of disciples, and our experience today of Christ in his Church.
• “In the Son, we were told everything, we were given everything. But our ability to understand
is limited; for this reason the mission of the Spirit consists in introducing the Church in an
ever new way, from generation to generation, into the grandeur of the mystery of
Christ…Thus, the Holy Spirit is the force through which Christ makes us experience his
closeness.”
• “The ultimate thirst of men cries out for the Holy Spirit. He, and he alone, is, at a profound
level, the fresh water without which there is no life. In man’s thirst, and in his being refreshed
by water, is portrayed that infinite, far more radical thirst that can be quenched by no other
water…The Holy Spirit is eternally, of his very nature, God’s gift, God as wholly self-giving,
God as sharing himself, as gift.”
• “Only when a person has been touched by Christ and opened up by him in his deepest heart
can the other person also be touched in his heart; only in that case can reconciliation be
effected in the Holy Spirit; only then can true community grow.”
• “What makes the Church real is not that there are likable people in her…The reality is her
exousia: she is given the power, the authority to speak words of salvation and to perform
deeds of salvation which humans need and can never achieve on their own.
• “To become a Christian means to be brought in to share in a new beginning. Becoming a
Christian is more than turning to new ideas, to a new morality, to a new community. The
transformation that happens here has all the drastic quality of a real birth, of a new creation.
But in this sense the Virgin Mother is once more standing at the center of the redemption
event. The Yes of Mary opens for the Christian the place where he can pitch his tent. She
herself becomes a tent for him, and thus she is the beginning of the Holy Church, which in
her turn points forward to the New Jerusalem, in which there is no temple any more, because
God himself dwells in her midst.”

7. Other Considerations

On the verge of his own horrific Passion, the compassion of Christ is turned toward the troubled
hearts of his disciples. From the tenderness of his own heart that is about to be pierced, Jesus
speaks promise after promise of consolation: “My Father and I will come to you. We will make
our dwelling with you. The Father will send you the Holy Spirit in my name. He will teach you
everything. He will remind you of all that I told you. My peace I give to you. Do not let your
hearts be troubled. I will come back to you.” The peace that Jesus promises to leave with us
recovers our potential to live in a justified relationship with God. For this peace is a supernatural
force that restores the harmony which was lost in Eden. It is this peace and only this peace that
makes it possible for us to respond in friendship to God’s offer of love. That is why when
conflict, disagreement, “dissension and debate” rise up, true followers of Christ are not
threatened. Rather, such trials give them occasion to glorify God by relying on the gift of
resurrection peace by turning to the authority of God’s “chosen representatives” to those “who
have dedicated their lives to the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.” In their counsel we find the
wisdom and truth that pacifies whatever has “disturbed your peace of mind.” And, like the holy
city Jerusalem that never ceases “coming down out of heaven from God”, through the gift of the
Holy Spirit—the “Memory” of the Church—the promises of Christ (and their fulfillment) forever
keep happening.

Recommended Resources

BENEDICT XVI, POPE, Benedictus: Day by Day with Pope Benedict XVI Yonkers: Magnificat,
2006.

CAMERON, PETER JOHN, To Praise, To Bless, To Preach: Spiritual Reflections on the Sunday
Gospels—Cycle C Huntington: Our Sunday Visitor, 2000

TOAL, M.F. Editor, The Sunday Sermons of the Great Fathers Swedesboro: Preservation Press,
1996

VON BALTHASAR, HANS URS, Light of the Word San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 1993