6th Sunday of Easter
First Reading — Acts 8:5–8,14–17
They laid hands on them, and they received the Holy Spirit
Philip went to a Samaritan town and proclaimed the Christ to them. The people united in welcoming the message Philip preached, either because they had heard of the miracles he worked or because they saw them for themselves. There were, for example, unclean spirits that came shrieking out of many who were possessed, and several paralytics and cripples were cured. As a result there was great rejoicing in that town.
When the apostles in Jerusalem heard that Samaria had accepted the word of God, they sent Peter and John to them, and they went down there, and prayed for the Samaritans to receive the Holy Spirit, for as yet he had not come down on any of them: they had only been baptised in the name of the Lord Jesus. Then they laid hands on them, and they received the Holy Spirit.
Responsorial Psalm — Psalm 65(66):1–7,16,20
Cry out with joy to God all the earth,
O sing to the glory of his name.
O render him glorious praise.
Say to God: ‘How tremendous your deeds!
‘Before you all the earth shall bow;
shall sing to you, sing to your name!’
Come and see the works of God,
tremendous his deeds among men.
He turned the sea into dry land,
they passed through the river dry-shod.
Let our joy then be in him;
he rules for ever by his might.
Come and hear, all who fear God.
I will tell what he did for my soul:
Blessed be God who did not reject my prayer
nor withhold his love from me.
Second Reading — 1 Peter 3:15–18
In the body he was put to death, in the spirit he was raised to life
Reverence the Lord Christ in your hearts, and always have your answer ready for people who ask you the reason for the hope that you all have. But give it with courtesy and respect and with a clear conscience, so that those who slander you when you are living a good life in Christ may be proved wrong in the accusations that they bring.
And if it is the will of God that you should suffer, it is better to suffer for doing right than for doing wrong. Why, Christ himself, innocent though he was, had died once for sins, died for the guilty, to lead us to God. In the body he was put to death, in the spirit he was raised to life.
Gospel — John 14:15–21
I shall ask the Father and he will give you another Advocate
Jesus said to his disciples:
‘If you love me you will keep my commandments.
I shall ask the Father,
and he will give you another Advocate
to be with you for ever,
that Spirit of truth
whom the world can never receive
since it neither sees nor knows him;
but you know him,
because he is with you, he is in you.
I will not leave you orphans;
I will come back to you.
In a short time the world will no longer see me;
but you will see me,
because I live and you will live.
On that day you will understand that I am in my Father
and you in me and I in you.
Anybody who receives my commandments and keeps them
will be one who loves me;
and anybody who loves me will be loved by my Father,
and I shall love him and show myself to him.’
Reflection
There is a tenderness in today’s Gospel that can easily be overlooked because of how familiar the words are.
“I will not leave you orphans.”
Christ speaks this not to people who are secure and settled, but to disciples standing near uncertainty, fear, and eventual suffering. He does not promise that difficulty will disappear. He promises presence within it.
This matters deeply, because much of human life is shaped by the fear of abandonment. We build identities, routines, ambitions, and distractions partly to avoid confronting how fragile we feel underneath. Yet Christ speaks directly into that fear and answers it not with abstraction, but with communion.
The Advocate—the Holy Spirit—is not symbolic encouragement. The Spirit dwells within believers and sustains the life of grace (cf. Catechism of the Catholic Church 733–736). This means faith is not merely intellectual agreement. It is participation in the life of God Himself.
Acts reveals this concretely. The apostles do not remain distant observers. They go physically to Samaria, pray over the believers, and lay hands upon them. The Spirit is received within the life of the Church, through relationship, prayer, and sacramental reality (CCC 1288).
Then the second reading introduces another challenge: “always have your answer ready for the hope that you have.” But Peter adds something modern culture often neglects—“with courtesy and respect.”
Truth without love hardens into performance. Conviction without humility becomes noise.
And perhaps that is where many people quietly struggle now. Not whether truth exists, but whether it can still be carried with gentleness. Whether faith can remain rooted in love rather than becoming a reaction against the world.
Jesus ties love directly to obedience. “If you love me you will keep my commandments.” Not because obedience earns love, but because love naturally reshapes the life of the person who receives it (CCC 1822–1829).
The Spirit does not erase struggle.
He prevents isolation within it.
And that changes everything.
One line to carry today:
God’s presence does not remove the weight of life—it keeps you from carrying it alone.
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