6th Sunday of Easter, May 17, 2020
Beloved, sanctify Christ as Lord in your hearts. What does this mean? We know that to sanctify means to make holy. We belong to Christ. Jesus Christ is our Lord and Savior. Our life is a life lived in and for Jesus Christ. Our thoughts, words and actions reflect the love of Jesus Christ. The work of sanctification we associate with God the Holy Spirit.
And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate to be with you always, the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot accept, because it neither sees nor knows him. Jesus Christ is the first Advocate. Jesus interceded for us with the Father. The “another Advocate” that Jesus speaks of is the Holy Spirit. The advocacy of the Holy Spirit is as teacher, guide, advisor and consoler. The Holy Spirit helps us remember the teachings of Jesus. We hold fast to the teachings of Christ, as we navigate through this pandemic. The Holy Spirit empowers us to proclaim with our lives the love of Jesus Christ. The sign that the Holy Spirit is actively present is by the evidence of the fruits of the Spirit in one’s life. …the fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, patient endurance, kindness, generosity, faith, mildness, and chastity. (Gal5:22-23)
Philip went down to the city of Samaria and proclaimed the Christ to them…There was great joy in that city. The Samaritans were a people who practice a mixture of the Jewish faith and paganism. Peter and John, after hearing about their acceptance of the Word of God come and pray that they might receive the Holy Spirit. Then they laid hands on them and they received the Holy Spirit. The same Holy Spirit who brought the Samaritans to conversion, continues to bring us to ongoing conversion.
We pray to the Holy Spirit to fill us with joy in this life and with lasting joy in the life with the Holy Trinity to come.
May the joy and peace of the risen Christ be with us always!
Deacon Mike