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Christian communities are not always the most united of groups. Yet Jesus asks us to go out preaching the need to be one with others as well as ourselves. Can we do this without being hypocritical? We can reassure ourselves by looking at the early disciples. The were often at odds with each other both before and after their experience of the risen Lord and His gift of the Holy Spirit. However, they do appear to have been better at sorting out their differences after Pentecost than before. It is as though they recognized in each other that gift of God’s love and so gave each other the space to explore what that love was saying.

Our ability to be one and to live, believe and work together in harmony is ultimately the gift of God’s own love within us. It will always be a challenge to express this fully. We will try shortcuts, make assumptions, identify God’s will too quickly with our own. We will be afraid. But like the sunflower constantly turning its face to find the sun, so we are asked to turn our faces again and again to God, that it may be God’s love that truly enlightens us and helps us to choose the right path.

In today’s Gospel, Jesus assures us that we are more than any earthly group can make us, and we are interior led by more than any human code or sense of honor. Through the giving of the Spirit, we become dwelling places of the Holy Spirit, and if the Holy Spirit, then the whole of the Blessed Trinity. This teaching of Christ on the indwelling of the Holy Spirit is absolutely central to the New Testament.

Like any adventure in living together, allowing the Holy Spirit to dwell within us requires certain things. First of all, spending time with God in prayer. Not only do we raise our minds to God, but our hearts become aware of God’s presence within us and in the Church. Secondly, living together with friends requires communication. We need both to speak and to listen. The time we spend in prayer helps us reveal our joys and sorrows, our hopes for this world and our desire for eternity.

The setting for this Sunday’s Gospel is the Last Supper. Jesus had promised to give the Holy Spirit to instruct and guide the Church after His Ascension into heaven, but at this moment of His final meeting with the apostles before His death He was eager to tell them what was closest to His heart. He did so in but a few words: “Love one another.” These days some Catholics think that the Church has gone soft. They lament the fact that the practice of fasting and abstinence has been lessened both in its frequency and its severity. They say there is too much talk about mercy and not enough about penance. They judge that the Church is lax about allowing frequent communion. They seem to be of the opinion that the “good old days” meant it was a challenge to be a good Catholic. The truth is that some of the external practices were easy to comply with in comparison with the command of Jesus. When we face what His commandment entails, we see that it is far from easy, especially when we understand what Jesus meant when He declared that His commandment is new. That is what He meant when He added, “Such as my love has been for you, so must your love be for each other.”

It was this commandment of love which inspired the preachers of the early Church, like Paul and Barnabas whom we heard about in the first reading, to travel great distances under difficult circumstances to proclaim the good news. It was love which made their hearers accept the faith and persevere in it so that the Church spread throughout the world. It was love which moved the martyrs to give up their lives. It was love which inspired saints to serve others unselfishly without hope of gain. And it is this same love for each other which will make us good Catholics today. Participating in the Eucharist helps us to become more and more like Christ so that we may keep His commandment, “Such as my love has been for you, so must your love be for each other.”