I have made your name known; Keeping the flame alive.

How many of us can really say that, and at the same time feel that we have made it a priority? I know from my own point of view I have fallen short. But we mustn’t beat ourselves up about it, after all even St Paul admits to the reality of the weakness of our fallen nature when he told the community in Rome with commendable honesty, how often he failed to do the good he wanted to do and instead kept on the doing the wrong he didn’t want to do. We all know how he felt! Nevertheless, we must not allow our own weaknesses to prevent us from striving to do the work we are called upon to do, which is the task of making the name of Jesus Christ known.

What then can we learn from what Jesus tells us in today’s gospel? He seems to be speaking in veiled almost esoteric language which we often find difficult to understand and to convey. So just how are we to approach the task? Remember the context of his discourse is the Last Supper, the moment when he showed us all how to love, and so everything he tells the disciples thereafter must be related to this reality. The relationship between Father and Son is predicated on the nexus of the Holy Spirit which issues forth from this Father, Son relationship. Notice how Jesus constantly relates the events he speaks about as a mirroring of what he has received from the Father and has passed on to the disciples. This is to be the model of our actions and deeds. We are to love in the same way as the Father loves the Son and the Son, the Father and as long as we sense and experience the presence of the Spirit within our love, we retain in our relationships the life-giving breath which was first kindled in us from the very beginning of creation.

This last week of the season of Eastertide now gives way to the abundance of the feast of Pentecost and to the season of what used to be called post-Pentecost and is now referred to as Ordinary Time. I think I liked the former as it kept the feel of the presence of the Holy Spirit very much alive and in our minds. Our inclination when we speak of the ordinary weeks of the year is to imagine a sense of normality or convention, whereas what we should have in our minds is the image of the fire of the Spirit re-igniting the Easter flame that burnt so brightly at the great Vigil on Holy Saturday making our own hearts burn within us. Indeed, if we were to do the Vigil Mass of Pentecost properly it would be like a mini-Easter Vigil with 4 Old Testament readings and associated psalms. Doing it in this way would highlight the importance of what this feast means. Perhaps next year we should give it a try and it might just light up our lives to live in his love and to make his name known.