Christ Who Dwells in Us

Today’s Gospel brings us to the night when Jesus was about to be arrested. He was spending his final hours with his disciples. They did not yet know how that night would end. But Jesus knew. Soon the disciples would be scattered. One would betray him. One would deny knowing him. Others would run away. And there, in that very moment, Jesus said, “I will not leave you orphaned; I am coming to you.”

These words were not spoken to people whose faith was strong and steady. They were spoken first to people who would soon be shaken. Jesus did not promise that nothing painful would happen. The disciples would be shaken. They would fail. But their failure would not have the power to separate them from the Lord. “I will not leave you orphaned.” To be orphaned is more than to be left alone. It is to lose the place to which one can return. Jesus says to his disciples, “I will not leave you in such a place. Even if you let go of me, I will not let go of you.”

And the risen Lord truly kept that promise. When the disciples were hiding behind locked doors, the Lord came to them there. He came first to those who had run away. And he said, “Peace be with you.” Jesus stood among them. They had not been able to stand by him. But he did not cast them away. Before the disciples returned to the Lord, the Lord came to them first. The promise of Jesus is more than his return to them. He promises to hold them within his own life. Faith is entrusting ourselves to God. But it is also learning, often slowly, that we have already been held in God’s life. Before we reach out our hands, the Lord is already holding us.

Jesus says, “On that day you will know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you.” Jesus does not simply say, “I will be beside you.” He says, “You in me, and I in you.” To be beside someone can still leave some distance. But to be in someone is something deeper. Jesus is speaking here of more than nearness. He is speaking of shared life. The Lord is not merely someone who comes to help us for a moment when we are in need. He gives life to us from within. He is not simply someone we look at from the outside. He breathes within us, teaches us to love, and gives us life.

Today is Mother’s Day. It is a day when we remember the love through which life is carried, protected, and nurtured. A child in the womb hears the mother’s heartbeat and lives within the rhythm of her breath. The child receives nourishment from what the mother eats. Through the mother’s body, the child is first connected to the world. The child cannot yet sustain life by their own strength. The mother’s body surrounds and protects the child, giving the child a place to grow. When the mother is at peace, the child shares in that peace. When the mother is tense, the child feels something of that as well. The two lives are not simply the same. But neither are they separate lives standing apart from one another.

The child is not the mother. And yet the child cannot speak of their own life apart from the mother. The child grows within the mother, and the mother’s life sustains the child. This is more than closeness. It is a deep bond in which one life holds, nourishes, and brings another life into being. In the love of a mother who carries and nurtures life, we may come a little closer to the promise of today’s Gospel: “You in me, and I in you.” We live in Christ. And Christ lives in us. As a child receives life within the mother, we receive life in Christ. As a child grows by leaning on the mother’s life, we grow within the life of Christ. Faith is not the work of creating life by our own strength. Faith is entrusting ourselves to the life of Christ, who already holds us.

This is why Jesus promises the Holy Spirit. “And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate, to be with you forever.” The Holy Spirit is not a power that passes by us for a moment. Nor is the Spirit only help we call upon when life becomes difficult. The Holy Spirit is the breath of God awakening the life of Christ within us. Jesus says, “You know him, because he abides with you, and he will be in you.” The Spirit works within us so that our hearts may slowly become more like the heart of Christ.

That is why Jesus speaks of love and commandments together. “If you love me, you will keep my commandments.” At first, these words may sound like a heavy command. But Jesus is not asking for obedience without love. When we love someone, what is precious to that person begins to become precious to us. Love first changes the heart, and then it changes the life. It is the same with loving Jesus. Where Jesus stopped for others, we also begin to stop. The people Jesus did not pass by become harder for us to ignore. This is why we need the Holy Spirit. The Spirit does not merely tell us to try harder. The Spirit awakens the heart of Christ within us. The Spirit makes love more than a duty. The Spirit allows the love of Christ to shape the pattern of our lives. Faith, then, is more than receiving help from God. It is living in Christ, and opening our lives so that Christ may live in us.

Paul gives a similar witness in the Acts of the Apostles: “In him we live and move and have our being.” God is not the one who comes only when we call. God is already present where we breathe, move, love, endure, and live through another day. Faith moves us toward God. But faith also opens our eyes to see that our lives have been held in the life of God from the beginning. Jesus calls the Holy Spirit the one “whom the world cannot receive.” In the Spirit, even an ordinary day becomes time lived in God.

On this Mother’s Day, we remember the love that has helped us live. We remember a mother’s love. And we also remember all those who have stood near us with motherly care. Through such love, we learn something of the love of God. Even when it is imperfect, even when it is incomplete, love that carries and sustains another life can help us glimpse the life of God.

Today we stand before this promise in the Holy Eucharist. In the bread and the cup, we receive the love of Christ, who still feeds us and gives us life. At this table, we are nourished again by the life of Christ. We do not only remember something that happened long ago. We meet Christ, who comes to us now. Christ comes into us and holds us within his own life. We do not stand outside Christ, looking at him from a distance. We receive his life, and we live in him.

When we receive this bread, we receive again the promise that we have not been left alone. The life we receive here is not something we create for ourselves. It is the life of Christ given to us, placed within us, and made alive by the Holy Spirit. And so today, we do not stand here as orphaned people. We stand as children living in the love of God. Amen.