Reflections (6th Sunday of Easter: John 14:15-21)

Jesus said to his disciples:
“If you love me, you will keep my commandments.
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.
But you know him, because he remains with you,
and will be in you.
I will not leave you orphans; I will come to you.
In a little while the world will no longer see me,
but you will see me, because I live and you will live.
On that day you will realize that I am in my Father
and you are in me and I in you.
Whoever has my commandments and observes them
is the one who loves me.
And whoever loves me will be loved by my Father,
and I will love him and reveal myself to him.”

I am a Catholic. I was born into this religion and despite its many challenges, it endured for thousands of years already. People in the Church's hierarchy are human beings. Even The Rock (St. Peter not the wrestler/actor) denied Jesus Christ three times. My favorite, Alexander VI ( Rodgrio Borgia), who, for me, gave Catholics a bad name. There are several Borgias still in this world from the seminarians, deacons, priests and I'll stop with the Cardinals.

These leaders of my Church are teaching humility but so proud to admit that some of their teachings are applicable only during, yes, the time of Rodrigo Borgia. They are so proud that they could not look eye-to-eye with leaders of government who propose policies to stop population explosion, and so on.

I am not a good Catholic. I do not go to mass every Sunday. I commit sin, yes, everyday. I carry anger in my heart for people who do not like me. Just like my priests, I am human.

Despite of these, I will continue to be a Catholic until my human body stops breathing.

LOVE and OBEDIENCE
In today's Gospel, I am reminded of Jesus' teaching of love and obedience. "If you love me, you will keep my commandments." For adults, obedience is a very heavy challenge. As adults, our experience would tell us to obey because we should; to obey because we are paid to do so and the food we place in our family's table is dependent on our obedience. Military personnel obey without question but the conscience will not stop asking questions. Yet, when it comes to love, the master will not give his servant an order that will hurt the servant. The servant will obey because he loves the master and that he knows his master will take care of him.

When the master and the servant, boss and employee, teacher and student, husband and wife, parent and child, and friends show love for each other. Obedience will not be a problem. Obedience will follow. Love after all is the greatest thing.

COACH
Surfing around my FB account, I came across friend-priests discussing about their homily today. One pointed out that the Father will send out the paraclete. He mentioned that a paraclete is like an advocate or a lawyer. Several Bible versions used advocate, helper or comforter. Fr. Francis said that the paraclete is like a coach.

An athlete needs a coach. No matter how good an athlete is, he needs his coach. As I always say to my ex-girlfriend (now my wife) when we were both active in badminton (now she's the only one actively playing the sport): "you need someone outside the playing court to tell you waht you are doing right or wrong. As the one playing, you can not see what you are doing or what you're opponent is doing to you all the time." That's why athlete's have coaches.

Unfortunately, some great athletes are not coachable. They say they already know what to do to win but that's all pride and ego. These athlete's are not worthy to be part of a team. They do not even understand what it means to be part of a team. They may be happy that they are winning but their coaches and teammates are not. These athletes are most of the time traded to another team. The other team who accepts them hopes that they can coach these athletes to become team players. Unfortunately, most of the time, even if they are the best in their field, they find themselves out and traded again; contract terminated. These athletes will have no friends and will become alone real soon.

As the Gospel also reminded us that, "I will not leave you orphans; I will come to you." Jesus, our coach, will not leave us. The master and his servant, the husband and the wife, the parent and the childe, the teacher and the student, the coach and his player, if real love is present, obedience follows. Trust also comes in the picture.

Today is also the feast day of Blessed Joseph Gerard (1831-1914). Blessed Joseph is a missionary of the Oblates of Mary Immaculate who was ordained in 1854 and had his mission in South Africa until his death in 29th May 1914. He is called the Apostle of the Basuto.