If you love me, you will keep my commandments says Jesus. I try to apply these words to our situation today. If you love me, your Jesus, you will keep your trust in me; you will feel my presence in you; you will hold on to my finger during this crisis; you will experience the solidarity with your parish church;  you will stay and pray together; you will love your family members though they are too close and remain inside always; you will be merciful toward the neighbors; and you will pray for the sick and the needy in the world. Loving Jesus means doing something for love.

Mark these phrases: ‘My Father will give you another Advocate to be with you always;’ ‘You know him, because he remains with you.’ This advocate is the Spirit of Truth. The Spirit is advocate because he Himself pleads for us. We know and trust that the Spirit is always with us, even during this pandemic. The Spirit is like the wind. It cannot be seen; but it can be felt. All good things happening during this crisis are inspired by the Spirit. From all who risk their lives to heal and save lives to our parish volunteers who make face masks are moved by the same Spirit.

And Jesus continues, ‘I will not leave you orphans; you will see me, because I live and you will live.’ ‘You will live; and you will see me.’ The disciples lived and saw Jesus after His resurrection. We too will live and see Jesus. We don’t need to wait for the eternal life to see Jesus; we can see him during our life time. Jesus said, ‘Whatever you did for one of the least of my brothers, you did for me.’ The invisible Jesus is visible in whomsoever we see: family members, friends, neighbors, and especially the sick, the dying and the needy.

Look at how appropriate are the words of Jesus, ‘Whoever loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him.’ We love those whom we can see; through that love we love Jesus; because we love Jesus, the Father loves us; He gives us the Holy Spirit; thus, the Holy Trinity is with us, loves us, inspires us, guides us, heals us and saves us.

As we begin to open more opportunities to start our normal life, pray to God that this illness may decrease and be gone; that people may safeguard the health of themselves and others; that sound vaccination may be available for all sooner; and that the world may come out of fear and move into healthy and happy life.

May God open our churches in the near future! May God bring us together as a congregation to worship God! May God bless all of us and our families and bring us back to freedom, joy and peace!