MONDAY OF THE SIXTH WEEK OF EASTER - Jn 15:26-16:4a - THE WORD OF GOD FOR EVERYONE

"When the Advocate comes whom I will send you from the Father, the Spirit of truth that proceeds from the Father, he will testify to me." (Jn 15:26)

READING OF THE DAY

A reading from the Acts of the Apostles

Acts 16:11-15

We set sail from Troas, making a straight run for Samothrace,

and on the next day to Neapolis, and from there to Philippi,

a leading city in that district of Macedonia and a Roman colony.

We spent some time in that city.

On the sabbath we went outside the city gate along the river

where we thought there would be a place of prayer.

We sat and spoke with the women who had gathered there.

One of them, a woman named Lydia, a dealer in purple cloth,

from the city of Thyatira, a worshiper of God, listened,

and the Lord opened her heart to pay attention

to what Paul was saying.

After she and her household had been baptized,

she offered us an invitation,

"If you consider me a believer in the Lord,

come and stay at my home," and she prevailed on us.

GOSPEL OF THE DAY

From the Gospel according to John

Jn 15:26—16:4a

Jesus said to his disciples:

"When the Advocate comes whom I will send you from the Father,

the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father,

he will testify to me.

And you also testify,

because you have been with me from the beginning.

"I have told you this so that you may not fall away.

They will expel you from the synagogues;

in fact, the hour is coming when everyone who kills you

will think he is offering worship to God.

They will do this because they have not known either the Father or me.

I have told you this so that when their hour comes

you may remember that I told you."

MONDAY OF THE SIXTH WEEK OF EASTER - Jn 15:26-16:4a

THE WORD OF GOD FOR EVERYONE

Dear People of God,

Jesus loved all of His disciples. He taught and advised His disciples in the past: God the Father will send the Spirit of Truth to accompany and protect His disciples. The Spirit of Truth will come to testify to the truth of the words of Jesus Christ as coming from God the Father. And the Spirit of Truth will always be with the disciples so that they can live and do exactly what Jesus taught: to believe in Jesus Christ who died and was resurrected to save humanity.

The very lives of the disciples will reflect the true testimony, through a way of living with love, forgiveness, humility, self-abasement, absolute trust, and confidence in the one and only God, the God of love. When living what Jesus taught, His disciples must go and testify for God, bring that testimony, and preach it to everyone to help the souls of others enjoy salvation. They know how to leave their sins and return to God.

When the disciples confess and testify about Christ, the Holy Spirit is always with them and works with the disciples. It is the power of the Holy Spirit that will support, guard and protect the disciples from temptation and the power of Satan. Because when he testifies to God, Satan will not leave everyone alone. They will seek to exclude the disciples from the synagogue and seek to arrest, drag, kill, and torture the disciples so that they will not continue to spread God's saving love to humanity. The very persecutors of the disciples were also deceived by Satan, thinking that they were practicing God's righteous ways. Today, He invites those chosen by God to join His work:

- Live what He teaches and go to testify for God. He promised that He would always give the power of the Holy Spirit to be with and work in those who go out to testify for Him.

- He also foretold when you live what God commands and go to testify for God, you will also be arrested, condemned, and eliminated like the apostles of old. He teaches and warns you in advance so that when things happen, you will be at peace and rejoice that your names are written in heaven.

- Live and love as God loves, and bear witness to God, spreading God's saving love to everyone to save souls. That is what God desires and invites His disciples to do.

Thanks be to God. Amen.