Interiorising Jesus

The central theme of today's Gospel is found in Jesus's promise: "I will not leave you orphans". This gathers meaning as we approach the feast of Pentecost. It is a very touching and much needed assurance in a world where people, from conception to the tomb, are literally disowned. The image of the orphan is the image of someone without father or mother. Whenever we become isolated, we are prone to being damaged. We become vulnerable to fear and negativity. But, as John O'Donohue writes in his Eternal Echoes, "the hunger to belong is at the heart of our nature".

There is a very important teaching in today's readings as regards this sense of belonging which the Spirit gives and which in turn we should all feel committed to bring to the world around us. The Gospel speaks of interiority, almost of the intimacy of the spiritual life. This interiority entails faithfulness, even to the commandments which, otherwise, would just sound burdensome to us all. Peter in the second reading shows the urgency of being transparent, in the sense of being always ready to give the reason for our hope. The reading from Acts, speaks of the evangelisation of Samaria, a city so much representative of many of our cities today and of the dominant culture that conditions our way of thinking.

We rarely stop to realise what it means as believers to carry within us the presence of the Father, the Son, and the Spirit who consoles. It is God's presence in our hearts that leads to the truth not only about God but even about ourselves and all that darkens our perspective on life. It is the presence that transforms us from just being human into being open to the transcendent, rendering us capable of experiencing the divine in the most adverse of experiences.

The situation in Samaria depicted in Acts where people "had only been baptised" but as yet had not received the Holy Spirit tells so much with regard to the spiritual situation of our times. We've come to be used in our environment to we are all baptised. Being Christian was something to be taken for granted in our country where our culture was our religion. Today we have other demands and other commitments. We really need, on the individual level as witnesses and on the collective level as Church, an overhaul where the transmission of the faith to the emerging generations is concerned.

We rarely think that the sacraments we celebrate and we participate in, still yearn in our hearts for completion, which only the Spirit can bring about. The coming of the promised Spirit represents completeness. That is why Jesus calls him the Spirit of Truth, that Spirit whom the world can never receive since it neither sees nor knows him.

This is the meaning of the seven-week interval from Easter to Pentecost. These 50 days significantly represent our own life. It takes time to let significant moments in life to sink in and to grasp their real meaning. From Easter to Pentecost we are led into this journey of the mind and heart that makes us deepen the mystery of Christ and helps us to come to the whole truth about events and experiences which otherwise would never, of themselves, make us experience the real presence of the Lord.

In communicating this interiority to the world around us which is so chaotic and cacophonic, gentleness is above all the foremost ingredient. The good news is always to be proposed gently, never to be imposed. Whenever we tend to be aggressive, judgmental, intolerant with the world around us, that is a clear sign that we have not yet interiorised who Jesus really is. One thing is for sure: the world is in dire need of this good news. Whether that comes to destination, depends on those who claim to believe in it.