6th Sunday of Easter 2026
Acts 8: 5-8,14-17; 1Peter 3:15-18; John 14:15-21
Were you good at Maths? I had no real aptitude for the subject, but being an awkward so-and-so, I slogged away at it, spending literally hours over my Maths homework, and finally managing a Grade 1 at O-level. (I should point out that, in those days, grades went down from 1 to nine, rather than the other way round, so Grade 1 was the top grade, which made me more chuffed than all my other grades put together. About the recent proposal that everyone should study Maths till the age of 18, I can only say “Stark raving lunacy!”)
My best subject was Latin, which, oddly, bears a certain resemblance to Maths, as they both follow a strict set of rules. That makes them different from life, which constantly flouts the rules, or ignores them, confusing us, driving us barmy, flattening us for a shorter or longer interlude.
I mention Maths because much of today’s Gospel reminds me of a mathematical equation—or do I mean a syllogism? Never mind: it reminds me of something. Our Lord begins “If you love me, you will keep my commandments” and after pursuing His argument, He concludes “Whoever has my commandments and keeps them is the one who loves me”. If X then Y: X, therefore Y.
All Jesus’ words in between are tightly packed. They deal with the Holy Spirit, who WILL come, but who HAS already come. While promising that the Father will give the Holy Spirit, Jesus also uses the present tense in speaking of the Holy Spirit: “He/It dwells with you”. (Incidentally, the English translation speaks of the Spirit as “He” but the Greek from which the English is drawn uses the neuter—to pneuma—the Holy Spirit has no gender.) We cannot tie the Holy Spirit down by tense or gender: as Jesus says elsewhere, the Holy Spirit is like the wind which blows where it will, and, we might add, when it will.
If I were to ask you, “When was the Spirit given to the apostles?” you might reply “at Pentecost”, and you would be correct, but only partly so. What about Easter Sunday evening, when the Risen Christ appeared to the apostles in the Upper Room, breathed on them, and said “Receive the Holy Spirit”?
“Ah” you might now say, “so the Spirit WAS given at Pentecost, but was first given on Easter Sunday evening”. Well, not exactly. Today’s Gospel is taken from Our Lord’s words at the Last Supper, before both Easter and Pentecost, yet He says to the apostles, on the subject of the Holy Spirit “He/It dwells with you”. Even before these two occasions, the Spirit is with the apostles, simply because He is the Spirit. He blows where He will, and isn’t bound by any laws, whether of Maths or of Latin.
We tend to think that we received the Spirit at our Baptism and at our Confirmation, and we are right, but the Holy Spirit isn’t limited to the sacraments. The Samaritans of today’s First Reading must have been led by the Spirit to seek Baptism, even before Peter and John lay hands on them, effectively confirming them.
Back we come then to Our Lord’s opening and closing words “If you love me, you will keep my commandments”. What are the Lord’s commandments? Remember how Jesus summed up all the commandments under the heading of the first two: “You must love the Lord your God with all your heart and soul and mind and strength, and your neighbour as yourself”.
If we keep these commandments of love, then by definition we are loving the Lord; we are being inspired by the Holy Spirit. Our ability to do this comes from God’s love for us, and leads to God’s love for us. As Our Lord goes on to say, “Anybody who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I shall love them and show myself to them”. Is this a circle or a spiral, as God’s love for us enables us to love Him, which causes Him to love us, and to dwell within us, causing us to love Him more, and so on.
Finally, what does Jesus mean by saying “I shall show myself to them”? Perhaps it means that He will make us more conscious of His presence, which is always with us. He will help us to see Him in our neighbour, to be more aware that He is present in our times of prayer, to recognise His activity in the events of our lives, to be conscious of Him when He seems to be absent, when our prayer is dry and without consolations, when we are called by Him to the Garden of the Agony or to the Cross. We may even find Him in the rules of Mathematics or of Latin, but we can guarantee that He will break the rules.
