Faith Daily | 245 May 2022

PRAYER of the DAY - APBA p 514

Eternal God,

whose Son Jesus Christ is the way, the truth and the life:

grant that we may walk in his way,

rejoice in his truth,

and share his risen life;

who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,

one God, now and for ever.

Amen

Prayer of the week until Ascension

Grant, we pray, almighty God,

that as we believe your only Son, our Lord Jesus Christ,

to have ascended into the heavens,

so we may also in heart and mind thither ascend,

and with him continually dwell;

who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,

one God, in glory everlasting. Amen.

GOSPEL for the Day: John 16: 12-15

12“I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. 13When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth; for he will not speak on his own, but will speak whatever he hears, and he will declare to you the things that are to come. 14He will glorify me, because he will take what is mine and declare it to you. 15All that the Father has is mine. For this reason I said that he will take what is mine and declare it to you.

GOSPEL REFLECTION: Paul McLaughlin

The Holy Trinity is very much the theme of today’s reading.

The resurrected Jesus is addressing his disciples’ frustration and puzzlement as they try to comprehend his departure from them once more. Although Jesus had told them earlier (John 15 :15) “I have made known to you everything that I have heard from my Father”, he now tells them he has many more things to tell them “but you cannot bear them now”.

It seems that Jesus is preparing his disciples to embrace and understand the coming of the Holy Spirit to continue the revealing of God’s word. Just as Jesus the Son has shared with them the word of the Father, so will the Spirit follow on from Jesus. He is teaching them a concept of God in three forms – The Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Jesus and the Spirit have the same source of revelation (God).

For Christians today the theologian Gilberto Ruiz summarises :

“The question we are left with is whether we will listen to the Spirit and be open to newer and deeper understandings of our faith and to the implications of Jesus’s revelation for us today. The internet, social media, and the 24-hour news cycle now give us a more immediate awareness of local, national, and global crises that challenge us for a Christian response, such as immigration and racial disparity in police treatment, to list just two examples. What is the Christian response to such realities? What response is more true and faithful to Jesus’ revelation? Can we, like John, trust the Spirit to guide us in discerning what it means to live out Christian faith today?”

FINAL PRAYER Jim Cotter “Unfolding the Living Word”

Holy Presence,

teaching us not to be afraid of anything you have created,

however threatened or repelled we may feel,

fill us with your Holy Spirit,

that we may draw near to transform whatever we encounter.

We pray this in the same Spirit

who finds a home in our flesh and blood.

Amen