Sixth Sunday of Easter

If we have something to say to someone, the words we use and our tone of voice can be important. However, timing can also be important. There can be something about the time we say something that makes it difficult for people to hear it, even when what we say will serve them well. At a later time, people can be much more open to what we want to communicate to them. According to the Book of Ecclesiastes in the Jewish Scriptures, there is a time to speak and a time to be silent. Sometimes we discover that the time we spoke to someone about something important was really a time to be silent. Only later on were they disposed to hearing what we had to say to them.

I was reminded of that aspect of human experience by today’s first reading from the Acts of the Apostles. The Samaritans welcomed the message of the gospel preached by Philip, one of the leaders of the early church. However, according to the gospel of Luke, the Samaritans did not welcome the message of the gospel preached by Jesus. Luke tells us that when Jesus and his disciples entered a Samaritan village to preach the gospel, they did not receive Jesus because he was a Jew, heading towards Jerusalem. There was a great deal of animosity between Jews and Samaritans at the time. Jesus’ disciples were so enraged by the refusal of the Samaritans that they said to Jesus, ‘Lord, do you want us to command fire to come down from heaven and consume them?’ In recent times we have become accustomed to hearing about fire coming down from above on people in various parts of the Middle East and in Ukraine and consuming them. In response to the disciples’ suggestion, Luke tells us that Jesus ‘turned and rebuked them’, and then led them on to another village. Jesus understood that the time wasn’t right for the Samaritans to hear the gospel. However, he did not give up on the Samaritans. In today’s first reading from Luke’s second volume, the Acts of the Apostles, Jesus, now risen Lord, sent Philip to preach the gospel to the Samaritans. On this occasion, the Samaritans united in welcoming the message Philip preached and went on to be baptized. When the leaders of the church in Jerusalem heard the news that Samaritans were now entering the church for the first time, they were amazed. They sent down two of their leading members, Peter and John. They prayed over the Samaritans, laying their hands on them, and the Holy Spirit came down upon them. The time of the Samaritans had come, and the Lord was prepared to wait on their timing.

The Lord is prepared to wait on our timing too. There can be a time in our lives when we are not really open to receiving what the Lord wants to give us. We may be just too absorbed in the business of living. We may have some emotional block in us regarding the Lord. We may have been baptized and confirmed; we may even go to Mass occasionally. However, we someone manage to keep the Lord at a distance. According to the book of Revelation, the risen Lord says, ‘Listen! I am standing at the door, knocking; if you hear my voice and open the door, I will come in to you and eat with you, and you with me’. Often, we don’t hear his knock or, if we do, we don’t open the door of our lives to him. Somehow, the time isn’t right for us. Yet, today’s first reading shows us that the Lord does not give up on us. He continues to stand at the door of our lives and knock, because there is so much that he wants to give us.

In the gospel reading Jesus, in the setting of the last supper, says that he wants to give us the Holy Spirit, the Paraclete or Advocate, just as he poured out the Holy Spirit on the Samaritans. We don’t often speak of the Holy Spirit as the Advocate. In the time of Jesus an Advocate was someone you could rely on to stand by you when you were in difficulty, when, for example, you found yourself in the dock in a court of law, under hostile questioning. The Advocate (or Paraclete) was a kind of counsellor for the defence, or a witness who spoke up for the good character of the person on trial. In the gospel reading, Jesus says to his disciples that even though he will be leaving them soon, because he is to be crucified, he will not leave them orphans. He will come back to them. He will come back to all of us because those disciples represent us all. The Lord keeps coming back to us through the Holy Spirit, the Advocate. He lives in us through the Holy Spirit as our defender, our helper, our counsellor. Through the Holy Spirit, the Lord stands beside us to help us to keep going when life is difficult. It is the Holy Spirit who keeps us hopeful, when there is little reason for optimism. The Lord has much to give us, and he is prepared to wait until we are ready to receive all his gifts, especially the gift of his Spirit.