…lf you love me you will follow me…

In John 14:8  Philip asks, “Show us the Father.”  The last three Sunday Gospels have answered that in “I am the Good Shepherd” and “I am the Way the Truth and the Life.” Today’s Gospel, as John Pilch Says, is a reverse parallelism in “If you love me you will follow me.” All of these Sunday readings are both preparing us for and pointing us toward Pentecost-the Spirit coming as advocate, guide and counselor. At the same time that anticipation is building for this outpouring of the Spirit, Jesus is also preparing the disciples to “make the break from Him.”  Everything now is pointing toward the future and life in the Spirit and at the same time impressing on the disciples (and us) that the Spirit is truly present here and now in us and around us.  Let us be awake and attuned to this presence in our daily lives!

Marilyn Carpenter, OSB