Gospel Reflection on John 14:15-21
- May 8
- 3 min read
Updated: 6 days ago
May 10, 2026
“If you love me, you will keep my commandments. And I will pray the Father, and he will give you another Counselor, to be with you for ever, even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him; you know him, for he dwells with you, and will be in you.
“I will not leave you desolate; I will come to you. Yet a little while, and the world will see me no more, but you will see me; because I live, you will live also. In that day you will know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you. He who has my commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves me; and he who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and manifest myself to him.”
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We tend to think that the discovery of truth primarily involves reasoning, investigation,
analysis. We think that human beings can uncover the source of truth, work out the truth by ourselves. But truth fundamentally is something that we must receive, it comes from outside ourselves. It doesn't take intelligence to comprehend it, rather it requires openness so that we're able to welcome it. And the openness we need is the openness to a person.
We can't grasp God by rational reasoning. No more than we can get to know a person we've met just by thinking in an intellectual way about them.
Imagine somebody setting out to analyze us. They read about us, take some measurements, do some comparisons, use all the usual analytical tools, their powers of their intellect, and then tell us they understand us. They might be able to say something about our history, education, life, experiences.
But I think most of us would be justified in feeling they don't really understand us. How often we hear people say you don't understand me.
To understand someone, we must allow them to reveal themselves to us. And that is how it is with God and with everyone else.
If we don't permit the other to come close to us, to reveal themselves to us, then we remain
in a process of purely speculative reasoning.
The beloved's story, the Little Prince, captures this beautifully: a boy meets a fox and wants
to be his friend. The fox asks the little prince to tame him, and the little prince says he doesn't have time; he needs to discover things, find friends.
But the fox tells him one only understands the things that one tames; he says, "people have no more time to understand anything. They buy things already made at the shops, but there is no shop anywhere where one can buy friendship. And so people have no friends anymore.
If you want a friend, tame me."
The little prince asks him how, and the fox says, "we should meet in the meadow every day
and sit close to one another, a little closer every day." So the next day, the little prince comes back. Fox says it would have been best to come back at the same hour: "if you came at four o'clock, then at three o'clock, I shall begin to be happy. At four o'clock, I shall already be worrying and jumping about. But if you come at just any time, I shall never know at what hour my heart is to be ready to greet you; when must observe the proper rites."
The problem is not how intelligent we are, but how open we are.
We only get to know someone if we allow them to reveal themselves to us. We can only receive the gift of the Spirit of God if we allow God to reveal God' self to us.
To be known by another gives us joy. To be known by one who loves us deeply is the greatest joy.
The key to this entire last discourse of Jesus is not about being righteous or perfect,
or having a clear conscience. The key is about love, about being tamed by God.
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