If You Love Him

A Reflection on the Gospel for June 5th, 2022:
The Solemnity of Pentecost Sunday

John
14.15-16, 23b-26

Jesus said to the disciples: “If you love me, you will keep my commandments. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate, to be with you forever.

“Whoever loves me will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him. Whoever does not love me does not keep my words; and the word that you hear is not mine, but is from the Father who sent me.

“I have said these things to you while I am still with you. But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you everything, and remind you of all that I have said to you.”

“If you love me…”  

“...as I have loved you…”

Holy Spirit, come. Show me the ways in which You have loved me, my whole life. 

I have been so loved in my life — but have also often been unable to receive love well. I had a proverbial heart of stone.

I thought it was my fault. I thought I was weak, or cold-hearted, or too practical. And I judged myself accordingly whenever I was called out…I defaulted to shame in a heartbeat. 

I didn’t know how loved I have always been. “God loves you” made no sense to me. I wanted to believe it, and envied people who knew it. 

One of the Ora contributors, Sister Gemma, wrote in a recent reflection: “All of our true blessings come from relationship”. This profound truth has been resonating in my heart since I read it — I know that to reap the fruit of life to the fullest is to cultivate relationship with others. The flip side of this truth is, of course, that we often experience our deepest wounds in the context of relationships.  

God has loved me by showing me what love looks like. He has brought healing and forgiveness into my heart; forgiveness of myself and forgiveness of others.

The only way this is possible is with the help of the Holy Spirit, who sits with me as I read Jesus’ gentle challenge: “If you love me… ”

If you love Jesus, you will see the ways you have been loved — and the ways in which you should have been. And your heart will be healed… and you will forever seek this Love, which we have been promised: it will be with you, forever.

Holy Spirit, come.

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“I am definitely loved and whatever happens to me, I am awaited by this love. And so my life is good.” (Saint Josephine Bakhita)  ​




Lindsay Elford
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