Happy Mother’s Day to all our mothers and grandmothers and mother-figures!
One of the challenges of motherhood was explained by a woman named Nicole Deroy. She says, “My kids wanted to know what it was like being a mom, so I woke them up at 2:00 am to let them know my sock came off.”
“If you love me, you will keep my commandments,” we hear in our Gospel today, and Jesus adds, as a blessed consequence of living the commandments, “And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate to be with you always.”
Moms and the Advocate have a lot in common.
We rarely use the word ‘Advocate’ in everyday language, but it covers a lot of things: Comforter, Counselor, Friend, Guide, Helper, Intercessor, Interpreter.
At this point in our church year, we are getting ready for Pentecost. The Scripture readings we have heard since Easter Sunday are full of references to the Holy Spirit and the work the Holy Spirit will do among believers. In today’s gospel, Jesus said that the disciples would do greater works than he did.
To do this, Jesus said that the disciples would need prayer, obedience and the Holy Spirit. The greater works referred to are the proclamation of the fact of deliverance and the hope and promise of salvation.
When the Holy Spirit is in us, it shows that we love Jesus. We must always ask ourselves what the condition of our love for God is. How do we respond to God’s love for us by loving others?
We often think of God’s love as being unconditional, but this passage from John’s Gospel concludes with two conditions for receiving God’s love: keeping Jesus’ commandments and loving Jesus. These two conditions are so interdependent that Jesus binds them together as if they were one. When we love Jesus, we will obey his commandments and we will not find them burdensome. On the contrary, we will obey them joyfully, because the Holy Spirit inspires us to go into the world and share God’s love, even if the world can’t or won’t accept this message.
Last week we saw how John begins with the disciples being faced with a problem. Jesus has just told them that he’s about to leave them, then he says these words to reassure them: “Do not let your hearts be troubled. Believe in God, believe also in me.” They’re clearly meant as words of comfort but you can imagine some of them thinking :“That’s all very well, but it’s just pie in the sky when you die. I’m worried about what’s going to happen in the next few months when Jesus isn’t here to help us and guide us.”
Up until now they’ve hardly done a thing without Jesus being there to direct them, or to correct them. Now they’re going to be on their own.
So, Jesus sets out to give them some more reassurance.
“If You Love Me…” The first bit of reassurance he gives them comes in the form of a proposition: “If you love me, you will keep my commandments.” If you think about it that’s how loving relationships work isn’t it? When we love someone, we’re glad to do what pleases them.
Advocacy always looks like love and affirms life. When your heart breaks for the pain of the world, when you reach out in compassion, when you weep over another’s loss you are the Advocate in that moment. When you offer or seek forgiveness, when you refuse to judge, when mercy rather than condemnation is your way, you are God’s Advocate. When another encourages and stands beside you, says exactly what you need to hear, or shows up at just the right time you are experiencing God’s advocacy. When someone listens to your life, celebrates your joys, or cries over your losses, the Advocate is with you. When you love or are loved the Advocate is there. When another speaks a truth or offers guidance that helps you change your life she or he is advocating on your behalf. When you speak words of hope, hold another’s needs and concerns as important as you own, or pray for another you are their Advocate. Advocates sit at the bedside of another. They care for the sick and dying. They console the bereaved.
Wherever there is love, there is the Advocate. Wherever there is life and more life, there is the Advocate. Life and love are the advocacy of God.
Look around. Look at the concrete conditions of your life, relationships, and world. Look for the places of pain, diminished life, or disconnection. What advocacy is being asked of you?
–Dcn. Terry Murphy