Daily Gospel Reflection: Memorial of Saint Catherine of Siena, Virgin and Doctor of the Church
Bishop Robert Barron
Memorial of Saint Catherine of Siena,
Virgin and Doctor of the Church
April 29, 2024
Gospel: Jn 14:21-26
Jesus said to his disciples:
"Whoever has my commandments and observes them
is the one who loves me.
Whoever loves me will be loved by my Father,
and I will love him and reveal myself to him."
Judas, not the Iscariot, said to him,
"Master, then what happened that you will reveal yourself to us
and not to the world?"
Jesus answered and said to him,
"Whoever loves me will keep my word,
and my Father will love him,
and we will come to him and make our dwelling with him.
Whoever does not love me does not keep my words;
yet the word you hear is not mine
but that of the Father who sent me.
"I have told you this while I am with you.
The Advocate, the Holy Spirit
whom the Father will send in my name --
he will teach you everything
and remind you of all that I told you."
*United States Conference of Catholic
Bishop Robert Barron
Friends, we see in our Gospel reading that the Holy Spirit’s principal sign is love. The night before he died, Jesus told his friends the deepest truths. He spoke of himself, his Father, and the Holy Spirit.
The Holy Spirit is the love that connects the Father and the Son. From all eternity, he is breathed back and forth between the Father and the Son, and hence he is nothing but love. When, therefore, he comes to dwell in you and me, he turns us to the path of love. “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. Whoever loves me will be loved by my Father.”
God has created a dynamic universe, moving restlessly and relentlessly toward a goal, and this goal has been disclosed to us in Christ: the sharing in the love between the Father and the Son. Therefore, if we wish to know the creaturely realm in all of its complexity and multiplicity, in both its coming and going, we must immerse ourselves in the stream of the Spiritus Sanctus.
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