Gospel according to Saint John 14:23-29:
Jesus said to his disciples: “Whoever loves me will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our dwelling with him. Whoever does not love me does not keep my words; yet the word you hear is not mine but that of the Father who sent me.
“I have told you this while I am with you. The Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you everything and remind you of all that I told you. Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give it to you. Do not let your hearts be troubled or afraid. You heard me tell you, ‘I am going away and I will come back to you.’ If you loved me, you would rejoice that I am going to the Father; for the Father is greater than I. And now I have told you this before it happens, so that when it happens you may believe.”
The Trinity Experience
Luis CASASUS President of the Idente Missionaries
Rome, May 25, 2025 | VI Sunday of Easter
Acts 15: 1-2.22-29; Ap 21: 10-14.21-23; Jn 14: 23-29
Today’s Gospel text speaks to us of the three Persons of the Most Holy Trinity, but it is Christ himself who tells us how they act, how they will always accompany us, with the poetic and meaningful expression of dwelling within us. Even more, the first reading offers us a moving example of how, by being faithful to the call to walk together, the disciples felt truly confirmed by the Trinity and, in seeking the solution to a complex problem, they came to affirm: We have decided, the Holy Spirit and we…
And there is also a relevant detail: the decision taken by the apostles was unanimous, which teaches us that the Holy Spirit is truly the only source of true unity and true peace. As St. John Paul II says in his encyclical Ut Unum Sint (1995), unity is a gift of the Holy Spirit.
—ooOoo—
We really need, more than “believing in God,” more than -as is often said- “feeling that we belong to a group.” We need to have an intimate conversation with Him, a family chat around a warm table, as our Father Founder recounts, and realize that the Trinity fills our lives with signs of its presence. We need to feel seen, understood, and feel the utmost trust, which is achieved when we see that we are heirs to the mission entrusted to Christ by the Father, for which the Spirit teaches us everything and reminds us of everything Jesus has told us.
It is truly a Trinitarian experience and presence. Is there a model for living it?
Yes, indeed: the practice of mercy. By forgiving, for example, when we overcome indifference, or when we are truly patient with the mistakes of others. These are not just efforts we make, but we are participating in our Father’s plan, in his way of loving, and for this we will receive the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, so that we can do it in the style of Christ, with his form of compassion.
To persevere in this attitude, or better still, in this Spirit of the Gospel, we must not forget that mercy ALWAYS bears fruit, which may be immediate or take time, but it is never lost.
I would like to tell a little story to help our fragile memory remember this truth.
The forgotten plant. In a city like any other, among tall buildings and urban noise, lived Don Julián, a retired janitor who spent his days tending a small garden on the roof of the building where he had worked for decades. It wasn’t exactly a beautiful garden: a few pots, dry soil, and a skinny plant that never seemed to grow.
Everyone in the building knew him, but few spoke to him. Except Leo, a teenager on the 7th floor who was always getting into trouble: fights at school, petty theft, bad company. He greeted the old retiree with a mischievous, mocking smile. One night, fleeing after smashing a car windshield, he hid on the rooftop.
Don Julián found him shivering behind a bench. Instead of chasing him away or calling the police, he simply offered him some lemonade and let him stay there.
Months passed. Leo began to go up to the roof on his own. Sometimes he helped water the plants, other times he just talked to Don Julián, and it was clear that he couldn’t share his most important concerns with his friends or family. Little by little, he began to change. He stopped getting into trouble. He started studying more. He even looked for a temporary job.
One day, he asked Don Julián:
Hey, why don’t you pull up that plant that won’t grow?
Don Julián smiled:
That plant was a gift from someone who hurt me badly years ago. I didn’t throw it away because I decided to take care of it instead of feeding my resentment. I thought that if I couldn’t change the past, at least I could plant something different.
Leo was silent. The following year, when Don Julián passed away, it was Leo who took care of the garden. The plant, which had been withered for so long, bloomed for the first time that summer.
We should all make an effort to be more aware of how a gesture of mercy has marked our lives forever. Sometimes it is a word, an act to which the person who did it did not attach any importance. I remember our Father Founder once saying that before entering heaven, in that moment of renewed forgiveness, we will shed tears when we contemplate how many times it would have been so easy for us to show mercy… and we did not do so, we lacked faith.
On the contrary, the merciful acts they performed for us, or those we perform for our neighbor, will shine with new light, giving glory to God forever and shaping our eternal happiness in unexpected ways.
There are many examples in our personal lives and in the history of the Church that show how the Divine Persons make themselves felt at every moment.
During the early centuries of Christianity, a Roman soldier was sent on a long military campaign, leaving his pregnant wife behind in his hometown. While he was away, his wife gave birth. Shortly thereafter, she converted to Christianity, was baptized, and had her son baptized as well.
Meanwhile, the soldier also met some Christians and heard their explanations about the gift of faith and the grace of baptism. When he returned home, his wife was very happy to see him, but she was worried about his reaction when he found out that she had baptized the child.
She decided to break the news to him little by little. First, she showed him the child, casually mentioning that he had been baptized as a Christian. The husband was surprised and remained silent. He looked again at the child, thoughtfully. Then he knelt down beside the crib. He bowed his head, closed his eyes, and began to pray silently. His wife was surprised. Kneeling beside him, she asked him what he was doing.
He looked at her and said, “I am praying to the one true God. If our son has been baptized, he himself has become a holy place! Christ, the Lord, his Father, the Creator of all, and the living Holy Spirit have made their home in his heart, so that we can pray to God before him.”
To some this may seem naive, but the truth is that in baptism we have received divine life, indelibly imprinted on our souls. We have within us the presence of the Trinity: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. God dwells in us. St. Paul had had this experience more than once when he told the Corinthians that we are temples of the Holy Spirit.
The Second Reading, which is part of Chapter 21 of Revelation, announces the fulfillment of all God’s promises. It is the vision of the new heaven and the new earth, where the essential thing is that God will dwell fully and forever with his people, and where evil has been definitively defeated.
—ooOoo—
Jesus’ call today to keep his word has several implications. Of course, it is not just a matter of believing it intellectually and reflecting on it. Nor is He talking about feelings, which are certainly present. That is necessary, but “keeping” has the meaning of welcoming, embracing every piece of advice, every commandment of Jesus, not only those we read in the Gospel, but those He personally transmits to us through the Holy Spirit.
The Holy Spirit is our intimate master; for good reason he is traditionally called Paraclete, which means “the one who stands beside us to comfort, defend, and advise,” as a good lawyer does.
We cannot limit ourselves to thinking that the Holy Spirit is a kind of agenda, instruction book, or memo of important matters. Above all, it is in moments when doubt, fatigue, and adversity overwhelm us that the Holy Spirit manifests himself as a discreet and clear light, simply to tell us: That is not all; do not let your eyes be clouded, because victory belongs only to the One who was crucified and to the Father who looks upon you with gratitude.
This explains why Christ gives this discourse, called “the Last Supper,” at a time when the disciples could easily fall into discouragement, feeling that all their efforts had been a complete failure.
The peace that the world can give us is not insignificant: some successes, some health, some good company… but all of this is insufficient, not only because it is fleeting, but because it is inevitably mixed with disturbing, unpleasant elements. Jesus insists today that his peace will be with us. His farewell is both a promise of closeness and of life in our hearts.
His authority, the power of the words he speaks, does not come from some brilliant reasoning, but from having first washed the feet of his disciples. That unexpected act of mercy is the guarantee that he wants to entrust to us everything he has learned from his Father, everything that can make us happy in the midst of the most overwhelming difficulties.
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In the Sacred Hearts of Jesus, Mary and Joseph,
Luis CASASUS
President
