Church of Saint Veronica

By Father Brendan Williams

When I went to pray with Robert in the hospital he was in a coma. All through the time of my visit his Mom was caressing him, stroking his hair, massaging his hands and feet, speaking loving and encouraging words to him. There was no response from Robert, yet Mom did not cease her loving attention.

I was very moved by this outpouring of love. What was even more remarkable was that this mother did not see herself as remarkable: She was simply doing what her maternal instinct called her to do. Pouring out her maternal love, even when there was no recognition or response, was totally natural to her: totally ordinary. What a reflection of divine love, I thought, is the love of a mother. When I visited Robert at his home a year later nothing had changed: The maternal love continued to flow without any discernable response.

As we prepare to celebrate Pentecost in this Year of God the Father, let us again reflect on the central role of the Holy Spirit as He reveals to us, and leads us into, the experience of Jesus Risen and God as our loving Father, Who never ceases to love us – even when we do not respond.

During the Easter Season, the Liturgy of the Word brings us in touch with the exalted teaching of Jesus in St. John’s Gospel and the lived experience of Pentecost in the early days of the Church through the Acts of the Apostles. There are some striking contrasts in the pictures painted for us in these readings.

First, we see the clarity of Jesus’ teaching about the Father’s plan. For St. John, Jesus is the profound preacher who is ever in intimate communion with the Father. It is Jesus, in His own very person, who reveals the Father to us. It is through Jesus alone that we come into our Father’s arms (Jn 14: 6, 7). Scholars tell us that the theology of St. John is beautifully summarized in a passage in St. Matthew’s Gospel: At that time Jesus said, “I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and the intelligent and have revealed them to infants; yes, Father, for such was your gracious will. All things have been handed over to me by my Father; and no one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal him” (11:25-27).

Jesus reveals to us His intimacy with the Father and promises that we will share in this very intimacy. In chapter 14, St. John opens up to us what is truly one of the most profound discourses in Scripture leading us into the very heart of the Holy Trinity. The awesome truth is: Where Jesus abides in the heart of His Father, He is preparing a place for us.

In contrast to the clarity of this teaching of Jesus we find that the disciples do not get it. They are just as dull and obtuse as Jesus’ enemies. Like Robert, they are unable to make the connection with and respond to the parenting love of our Father. Yet John uses their ignorance, as expressed in Thomas’ question (V. 5), to call forth one of Jesus’ most powerful statements that in effect provided the cornerstone of the entire Gospel: Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me” (V. 6).

In the Gospel then the contrast that reveals the disciples’ ignorance and lack of understanding has a twofold purpose:

1. It allows Jesus the opportunity to expound with clarity the profound truths of the Gospel.

2. It underscores a fundamental theological truth: No one can grasp the mysteries of salvation without the light of the Holy Spirit. So Jesus makes a promise: “And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate, to be with you forever. This is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, because he abides with you, and he will be in you” (Jn 14: 16-17).

This leads us to the other contrast highlighted in the Easter Readings through the Acts of the Apostles: the extraordinary transformation and empowerment brought about in the disciples through the experience of Pentecost. They are now forthright and courageous witnesses of the Resurrection of Jesus, calling their hearers to repentance and Baptism. They have a full grasp of the teachings of Jesus and the import of His Paschal journey – that completely evaded them before the anointing of the Holy Spirit.

It is important to note here that to be full witnesses to the Resurrection, the disciples had to visually encounter Christ first. However, this encounter was incomplete until Christ began to live in their hearts at Pentecost. St. Paul expresses the experience of Christ’s indwelling in his proclamation: “I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but it is Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me” (Gal 2:19-20).

Today, the Church continues the work of the Apostles, giving witness to the Risen Christ primarily through lives transformed in the Holy Spirit and empowered with all the charismatic gifts that Jesus bestowed on His Church for the building up of His Body. We are always inspired and encouraged by the glowing witness of those whose lives have been radically changed, and are now called into the ministry of evangelization. We can see in their lives the very presence of the Holy Trinity and we are encouraged and moved to deeper conversion by their powerful testimony. This has been the blessed experience of Baptism in the Holy Spirit in our day.

In his book, Call To Holiness, Archbishop Paul Josef Cordes, Episcopal Advisor to the International Catholic Charismatic Renewal Office in Rome, give us an in-depth overview of Renewal in the Church today:

The experience of ‘Baptism in the Holy Spirit’ is the certain and sometimes overwhelming “realization” of the loving nearness of God proclaimed in the Church’s message and encountered in the individual act of faith. It is a threshold of spiritual life that is crossed, bringing trust in the Father and a desire to being open to the teaching of the Holy Spirit. It constantly deepens our faith, so confirming our “conviction about things we do not see” (Heb 11:1) and making possible the perception of God’s effective presence. This experiential perception reveals God in His immense incomprehensibility as well as in His loving and Fatherly care… (Called To Holiness: p. 12).

In a world today, that has lost sight of God and is wallowing in the mud of confusion and despair, there is an urgent cry for witnesses who proclaim with joy the reality of our Father’s love being poured out through Jesus in the Holy Spirit. In his address to the Renewal Gathering in Rome last year, Pope John Paul II had this to say:

“Today the Church rejoices at the renewed confirmation of the prophet Joel’s words.. “I will pour my Spirit upon all flesh” (Acts 2:17). You, present here are the tangible proof of this “outpouring” of the Spirit. Each movement is different for the others, but they all are united in the same communion and for the same mission…

Today, I cry out to all of you gathered here in St. Peter’s Square and to all Christians: Open yourselves docilely to the gifts of the Spirit! Accept gratefully and obediently the charisms, which the Spirit never ceases to bestow on us! Do not forget that every charism is given for the common good, that is for the whole Church.”

There is a hunger in every human soul for the loving embrace of our Heavenly Father. Yet, as with the disciples, that embrace has so many obstacles. So often in ministry I have witnessed the inner spiritual and emotional aching that has been described in terms of darkness, great emptiness, gnawing sense of loss. I will invite them to open their hearts to Christ and surrender to his loving embrace. I ask Jesus to breathe the Holy Spirit into their hearts so that they can experience the love of God our Father drawing them to Himself. Often there is struggle, disbelief that God loves them, fear that this exercise will fail and the end result will be worse than the first, an exaggerated sense of unworthiness, a sense of condemnation, deep mistrust. Yet as we open ourselves to the gentle love of Christ and the anointing of the Holy Spirit, light begins to flood the darkness. Fear begins to dissipate. Chains of hurt and anger begin to crumble. A sense of freedom and liberation begins to replace slavish torment. A sense of family replaces the feeling of abandonment. And above all, a sense of wholesomeness replaces that of sin.

Having awakened to this redeeming and healing love, perhaps for the first time Jesus’ proclamation about His mission rings true, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor” (Lk 4: 18-19). What a blessing to know that the Gospel is for real. It works! As we continue to experience our Father’s eternal parenting love, let us become witnesses to those who, like Robert, are still unaware of the flood of love that surrounds them.

The Scripture quotations contained herein are from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Catholic Edition, copyright (c) 1993 and 1989 by the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the U.S.A.. Used by permission. All rights reserved.”

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