On the 6th Sunday of Easter our readings give us many images to dwell on... Jesus not leaving us orphans, Jesus sending the Spirit of Truth, Phillip evangelizing Samaria, Peter and John laying hands calling the Holy Spirit upon those who were baptized. These images remind me of a seminarian, Ben, who helped me in my travels in Sudan, a war orphan, forced to be a child soldier, who found the Spirit of Truth in the Lord Jesus and sought to serve His Peace.
One memory I have is of him, like Phillip in the Acts of the Apostles, assisting the Bishop in a Confirmation for about 100 enthusiastic youth and adults, whom, after many years of war and privation, were now able to celebrate receiving the gifts and fruits of the Holy Spirit.
As we remember those who lost their lives in war during Memorial Day, let us reflect on what causes such wars and devastations.
False ideologies and the push to accumulate power are the evil forces which cause war and cause such suffering of innocent people.
Yet, peace cannot endure unless there is a moral order. A moral order is the result of the Spirit of Truth that Jesus sends, the Spirit of Truth that Jesus speaks of in the gospel (John 14:15-21). It is moral order that allows us to work cooperatively, to be of one heart and one mind, to be at peace with one another.
If we take time to pray about what the tragedy of war really is, and remember the pain of all those suffering, soldier and civilian, then love will impel us to want to live by the commandments of God, the holy order of God, for only in this way can we ever have peace.
If we really want peace,then we will obey, out of love, the Spirit of Truth that Jesus sends. I see in Ben an example of a person who, out of great suffering, came to live this truth.
Reflecting on the suffering of war victims, of the poverty and disregard that soldiers live, of his own time in an orphanage...he realized that the only choice now is between a world where people continue to fight over false ideologies, people who cheat and manipulate the system, people who seek selfish desires and create havoc in society, or a world where peace endures, a moral order. The source of that moral order is the Spirit of Truth that Jesus gives.
Whom will we serve? The world of power, pleasure, and posession, and the damage that it does, or the Spirit of Truth, the Peace that only the Lord can give.
