6th Sunday of Easter A - Homily 4

Homily 4 - 2020

Restrictions are easing but some are still with us. How seriously do we take them? This issue is being addressed, in fact, in today’s Gospel passage, taken from the Gospel according to John, that started with the observation: “If you love me, you will keep my commandments.”

What commandments did Jesus give us? An obvious answer is:”This is my commandment that you love one another … Love one another as I have loved you”. Can you think of any others in John’s Gospel? I can’t. In a sense the disciples didn’t need them — the historical Jesus was there on hand to ask personally if ever there was any unfamiliar moral decision they had to reach. But the matter does not end there. Jesus would soon be killed — so he would no longer be there to ask.

The Gospel passage, however, went on: “I will not leave you orphans. I will come back to you.” But there is a catch. Where do we find him? How does he communicate with us — to answer our moral questions? Let’s read on… “I shall ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate to be with you for ever,… the Spirit of Truth.” The Greek word translated as Advocate can be translated in a number of ways, depending on the context, for example, one who acts on behalf of another. The Spirit is the one who acts on behalf of the no-longer-physically-present Christ — the one through whom, as Jesus said, “I am in you .. and you in me.” So the Spirit stands in for Jesus, or is the one who connects us with Jesus and enables Jesus to communicate with us.

In the area of moral decisions, Jesus communicates with us through the Spirit by means of our conscience. And when we tune in to our conscience, we pick up the sense pretty strongly that it calls for our consent. We experience its guidance as, for lack of a better word, his commandment.

How does conscience work? Already we have some sense of a range of moral values that mattered to Jesus. The other three Gospels especially are full of them. We can become more and more aware of and personally convinced of those values if and as we mature. Conscience draws on our knowledge and appreciation of the values that mattered to Jesus, and assists us to apply them to the complex human situations that we face, where sometimes different values can even seem to conflict.

One of those basic values is that of human life. As we mature, we see other values closely tied to human life — human freedom, for example, human responsibility, human rights. We appreciate the importance of life in community if we are to live our personal lives fruitfully. The list goes on. We recognise, of course, that other people can evaluate things differently — which leads us perhaps to look more closely at what we have taken for granted.

But human life, life in community, is often complex — with values interacting all over the place. Conscience sorts them out, prioritises them, and makes the practical judgment how we are to act responsibly. Through our conscience, Jesus engages with us —enlightening us how to act responsibly in the complex details of life — if we take the time to listen.

How seriously do we take the current directions for living within the shadow of the pandemic? Jesus will direct us through our conscience, taking account of how much we value human life, our own and that of others — how much we genuinely love our neighbour. Its practical judgment will also depend on how we prioritise conflicting values: protection of life, protection of the economy. It will draw on the importance we give to acting together, to trusting our social decision makers. The list goes on. But since Jesus is engaging with us there in our conscience, it is important that we take its guidance seriously. “If you love me, you will keep my commandments.”