Daily Reflections

The terrifying question is not whether the world hates the Gospel. Jesus already told us it would. The more dangerous question is whether we have learned to betray the Gospel while defending it.

Yet, how often do we focus our attentions on the things of the world and place our priorities on the temporal while ignoring the eternal?

Let us therefore not lose heart in times of struggle. Instead, let us hold firmly to the Lord who has conquered the world.

We, too, have been “baptized with the Holy Spirit” because, like the first disciples, we have been claimed by Christ to be his witnesses to every person who comes our way.

Jesus reminds us in the gospel today of the importance of being willing to ask God for what we need.  Sometimes we do this in prayer, other times we are called to listen to the people that God places in our lives.

Because of Jesus, we know that no matter what we go through, God will companion us in our labor and bring us to resurrection and new life.

We get to try to deliver unconditional love, mercy, and humility in everyday life. We aspire to address the needs of the marginalized. We want to help heal broken relationships, whether they are between individuals, groups, or even nations.

This God, who is the creator of all, who is“not far from any of us.” A God who cannot be fashioned from anything of the earth, be it gold or silver, but rather is one who is always present. The great I AM.

Today’s gospel reading from the Chapter 16 of John’s gospel is a continuation of a series of chapters entitled Last Supper Discourses that are inserted between the end of the Last Supper in Chapter 13 and the arrest of Jesus in Chapter 18. 

The promise Jesus made to his disciples the night before he died is the promise he extends to us. When we are baptized, we are baptized in the Trinity, and like the Trinity we are united in community.