Gospel according to Saint John 14:15-21
Jesus said to his 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 always, the Spirit of truth, which the world cannot accept, because it neither sees nor knows it. But you know it, because it remains with you, and will be in you. I will not leave you orphans; I will come to you. In a little while the world will no longer see me, but you will see me, because I live and you will live. On that day you will realize that I am in my Father and you are in me and I in you. Whoever has my commandments and observes them is the one who loves me. And whoever loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and reveal myself to him.”

Which commandments is Jesus referring to now?

Luis CASASUS President of the Idente Missionaries

Rome, May 10, 2026 | Sixth Sunday of Easter

Acts 8: 5-8.14-17; 1Pe 3: 1.15-18; Jn 14: 15-21

Christ’s farewell in the Upper Room was filled with statements that were hard to understand: Lord, are you going to wash my feet? … Lord, we do not know where you are going, so how can we know the way? … Where I am going, you cannot come …

To top it off, after insisting that he was giving them a new commandment and teaching that this commandment was the fulfillment of the Old Testament’s “love God and your neighbor,” he now tells the disciples twice to “keep his commandments,” in the plural.

We know well that these commandments are not a new code, nor can they be compiled into a single text. What happens is that, in today’s Gospel, Jesus links three things: love for Him, the fulfillment of “his commandments,” and the coming of the Holy Spirit. A few verses later (Jn 14:26), he will explain the role of the Spirit more clearly: The Spirit will teach you and remind you of everything I have told you.

To love Christ, as we well know, means to identify with Him. It is not merely a generous love, much less a love that “seeks harmony.” On the contrary, He teaches us that our generosity cannot be complete because we forget that everything we have is a gift from God and we try to give based on our own abundance; and, furthermore, that He has come to bring the sword, division (Mt 10:34).

To love Christ is therefore to fulfill what the Holy Spirit communicates to us as something new and unexpected, or reminds us of as characteristic of the person of Jesus. Perhaps that is why, in Matthew 13:52, Jesus uses the expression “the new and the old” to illustrate how a disciple instructed in the Kingdom of Heaven must embrace divine truth. The metaphor comes from the parable of the “householder” who brings out of his treasure things both new and old.

Let us look at an example from literature, a character who both values ancient wisdom and at the same time can accept the most unexpected, the never-before-seen.

The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe is the first book published in The Chronicles of Narnia, written by C. S. Lewis. It features a curious character, Professor Kirke. He is an elderly scholar who lives surrounded by ancient books and suits of armor, in a house that resembles a museum of English history.

He takes in Peter and Susan, Lucy’s older siblings, into his enormous mansion; Lucy insists she has found a magical world inside the wardrobe. Professor Kirke does not judge the children as crazy or liars; he uses his ancient wisdom to validate a totally new and fantastic experience.

He is the only adult capable of accepting the “novelty” that a world exists inside a wardrobe. With his famous key phrase: Either she’s lying, or she’s mad, or she’s telling the truth, the professor argues that, based on Lucy’s character, she does not seem to be lying or mad, so the only remaining option is that she is telling the truth. Thus, this lover of the ancient also manages to embrace the new.

That capacity to embrace something new and unexpected in our spiritual life is also a gift—something received as a present that leads us to see everything with new eyes. That is why we must learn to listen to the Holy Spirit, who changes the way we believe, live hope, and love our neighbor. Undoubtedly, the most spectacular change is coming to love (not just respect) the enemy—the person who hurts me or despises me. In reality, that is exactly the love of our heavenly Father: in the face of our unfaithfulness and ingratitude, his response is to give up what is most intimate to him—his own Son—so that by becoming one of us, he might help us understand and experience the reality of that love which protects, forgives, and heals.

That healing means nothing less than breaking through the limits of our mediocrity and being able to follow the path Jesus pointed out: Be perfect, as my heavenly Father is perfect.

A biblical figure who embodies the synthesis of the new and the old is Simeon (Lk 2:25-35). His figure is the perfect bridge between the Old and New Testaments; he is the man who lives on the “threshold,” and before Jesus became the Teacher that others came to know, he prepared his heart to accept what we now call the Gospel.

Simeon represents centuries of tradition, laws, and ancient promises; he is, literally, “the old,” always awaiting what God’s will determines, at the right time. In his arms he receives a baby just a few days old; that child is the absolute “new,” the Messiah who comes to change everything. Simeon does not reject the child for being new, nor does he remain locked in his books of laws; and as he sings the Nunc Dimittis (“Now, Lord, you may let your servant go in peace”), Simeon recognizes that the old, the promise, has been fulfilled in the new, in the Child.

Let us note that this is possible today in you and me because, as Jesus says today, the Spirit dwells with us.

Thus, the Holy Spirit tirelessly reveals to us these “commandments of Christ,” which are in fact concrete ways of living, here and now, the one commandment of love.

In reality, listening to the voice of the Holy Spirit is the only way to be fully human. Many will recall a famous Victorian-style poem by Rudyard Kipling (1865–1936), in which he lists the qualities that truly make a person fully human. To live in that way always and completely is truly impossible by one’s own strength, without the Holy Spirit.

If you can keep your head when all about you Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,

If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you but make allowance for their doubting too,

If you can wait and not be tired by waiting, Or being lied about, don’t deal in lies, Or being hated, don’t give way to hating And yet not look too good, nor talk too wise:

If you can dream – but not make dreams your master,

If you can think – but not make thoughts your aim;

If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster And treat those two imposters just the same;

If you can bear to hear the truth you’ve spoken Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools, Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken, And stoop and build them up with worn-out tools

If you can make one heap of all your winnings And risk it all on one turn of pitch-and-toss And lose, and start again at your beginnings And never breathe a word about your loss;

If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew To serve your turn long after they are gone, And so hold on, when there is nothing in you Except the Will which says to them: Hold on!

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue, Or walk with kings, yet not lose the common touch, If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you;

If all men count with you, but none too much,

If you can fill the unforgiving minute With sixty seconds worth of distance run Yours is the Earth and everything in it, And, what is more, you’ll be a Man, my son!

—ooOoo—

Today’s First and Second Readings are especially meaningful for those of us who wish to remain faithful to the Idente missionary charism.

In the Second Reading, Peter encourages us to live out our commitment to study and the defense of the Magisterium, which our Founder calls forensic apologetics and which is included in the Vow of Cathedra. In this very brief passage, we find the key to how the Apostolic Vow and the Vow of Cathedra go hand in hand:

Always be ready to give an answer to anyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that is in you. But do so with gentleness and respect, keeping a clear conscience, so that those who speak ill of your good conduct in Christ may be put to shame by their slander. If it is God’s will, it is better to suffer for doing good than for doing evil.

On the other hand, the Second Reading speaks of the fruits of the apostolate in the early days. Some might think that this is not always the case today and that there are not so many visible wonders. However, let us keep in mind that these signs are fulfilled today in a real sense, though not necessarily in a spectacular way. They are fulfilled in the lives of authentic apostles, in daily mission, in inner transformation, and in the charity that overcomes evil.

True missionaries, sent by Christ, “cast out demons” because they free people from the evil that enslaves them. A true apostle casts out demons when he or she helps someone break free from a sin that dominates them, when they accompany a person trapped in addiction, violence, or despair, and proclaim the truth that unmasks lies.

True missionaries, sent by Christ, “speak new tongues,” because grace enables them to speak to the hearts of very different people, finding words that open paths where everything seemed closed; they can proclaim the Gospel in the “language” of every culture and generation, and communicate hope where everyone else sees failure. The “new tongue” is the language of Christ: mercy, truth, patience, clarity, gentleness.

True missionaries, sent by Christ, “handle serpents,” because they confront evil without being paralyzed by it. The serpent is a biblical symbol of cunning evil, of deception, of temptation. An authentic apostle “takes up serpents” when: he faces morally dangerous situations without allowing himself to be contaminated, enters hostile environments without losing his peace, accompanies people wounded by sin without being scandalized, and is able to discern manipulations, ideologies, or spiritual deceptions, always through the grace received for this purpose.

True missionaries, sent by Christ, “if they drink anything poisonous, it will not harm them.” The poison is the evil received from outside: slander, betrayal, injustice, ingratitude, any kind of attack, criticism, or persecution. It is the sign of the spiritual immunity given by the Holy Spirit.

Finally, true missionaries, sent by Christ, “lay their hands on the sick, and they are healed.”

With God’s help, they heal wounds of the body, the soul, and life. The Church has always understood this sign on two levels: physical healing, when God grants it, and spiritual and moral healing, which is constant, universal, and more important.

The authentic apostle heals his neighbor when he comforts those who suffer, reconciles those who are broken inside, helps those who struggle to forgive, and prays for the sick with faith and compassion.

_______________________________

In the Sacred Hearts of Jesus, Mary and Joseph,

Luis CASASUS

President