Psalm 66:1-7,16,20  Corporate prayer of thanksgiving   "…Blessed be God who has not turned away my prayer, nor his own faithful love from me."

1 Peter 3:15-18  The persecution  "…Simply proclaim the Lord Christ holy in your hearts, and always have your answer ready for people who ask you the reason for the hope that you have."

John 14:15-21  Farewell discourses  "…I shall ask the Father, and he will give you another Paraclete to be with you for ever, the Spirit of truth whom the world can never accept since it neither sees nor knows him; but you know him, because he is with you, he is in you..."

We begin the sixth week of Easter and the scriptures remain full of the discovery of the Spirit’s presence in the life of the early Church.   We are reminded too of the significance of the sacrament of Confirmation in our own lives with these readings, and in the United Sates today, we celebrate Motherhood.

In John’s gospel, Jesus tells us he will be leaving them soon, but that he will ask the Father to send another Paraclete…the world will not accept this Paraclete because it neither sees nor knows him, but we will know him, because he is with us, he is in us.  When we first read this passage we pause to think about the two groups of people Jesus is referring to and we wonder which group represents our acceptance of God’s Spirit?   How easy it is to feel part of "the world" that Jesus spoke about.  The world that will not accept the Spirit of God, because it cannot see him.  We think, are we not part of the world that cannot see Jesus?   We rely on one of our senses every moment of every day, to relay the experience of that moment to our consciousness.

But we find we cannot rely on our first reaction.  Somewhere deep inside of us we know exactly what John 14:16 & 17 is saying for we DO KNOW JESUS, even though we can’t completely explain the knowledge.  Our reflection reveals that while we may not know him as we know ourselves, neither can we deny that we do know him.  Our understanding of Christ has been growing each year even though we weren’t conscious of this increased understanding.  Jesus told us in John 14:21 "Whoever holds to my commandments and keeps them is the one who loves me; and whoever loves me will be loved by my Father, and I shall love them and reveal myself to them."  He has been revealing himself to us all the while.

In Acts we find Philip preaching the good news to a Samaritan town who accepts the Word of God and Peter and John are sent to pray and lay hands on the people to receive the Holy Spirit.  This is the experience so many of us have had when we received the sacrament of Confirmation.  We didn’t feel anything different in our lives so the gift lie dormant for many years, as we took the gift for granted.  The reason we know Jesus, is not because we've seen him, but because the Spirit has revealed Him to us.

I have many to thank for the gift of knowing Christ as revealed by his Spirit.  The gift of my faith that was handed down especially through the example set by my family.  Today I would like to especially thank my Mother for introducing me to that faith which gives the hope as described in 1 Peter 3:15 "…proclaim the Lord Christ holy in your hearts, and always have your answer ready for people who ask you the reason for the hope that you have."