This weekend is the Sixth Sunday of Easter and the Gospel reading comes from John 14:15-21. Before His final farewell to His disciples, Jesus said, "If you love me, you will keep my commandments." Loving and obeying Jesus are inseparable and His most basic commandment is to love: "Just as I have loved you, so you ought to love one another." Just as the Son loves and obeys the Father, so the disciples love and obey Jesus. And as the will of the Father and the Son are one, the disciples can approach the Father through the Son. God first sent an Advocate to be present with the disciples, Jesus. Now, He would send another Advocate, the Holy Spirit, who is the spirit of truth. Many people do not accept the Holy Spirit because they have not accepted Christ first. Jesus was going back to the Father, but He promised to return to the disciples again. Jesus only appeared to some people after His Resurrection but through the Church, He meets each of us, especially in the Sacrament of the Eucharist. In obeying and keeping the commandments of Jesus, we witness to our love of Christ, thereby gaining the love of the Father.

This weekend is the Fifth Sunday of Easter and the Gospels retell Jesus telling His disciples at the Last Supper, "Do not be troubled." Although Jesus was about to die, He still desired them to trust in Him, the absolutely trustworthy Son of God. Jesus also told them He would go to the Father's home to prepare rooms for them and one day bring them to the glory of the Father. All earthly temples are merely reflections of the Presence of God, but Jesus transformed His Body into the new Temple after His Resurrection, the only path to God. His disciples originally did not understand this, so Jesus said, "I am the way, the truth, and the life." Unless we live by Jesus' teachings, we cannot reach the Father; unless we enter into the Word made flesh, we cannot understand the teachings of God; and unless we are led to the Kingdom of Heaven by Jesus, we cannot attain new life. Jesus is the narrow gate, the only intercessor between God and man. The Gospel of John 14:1-7 is often used in funeral Masses because it reassures us that Jesus will return to Earth and is even now preparing rooms for us in Heaven, our true home. Moses and Philip yearned to see the Father, but Jesus says that whoever sees Him has already seen the Father. He said that if the apostles followed Him, they would perform even greater deeds than He performed on earth, because He would send them the Holy Spirit and together with His glorified humanity, they would work miracles together to save the world.

This weekend is the Fourth Sunday of Easter, also known as Good Shepherd Sunday. The Gospel reading comes from chapter 10 of the Gospel of John, describing Jesus as the good shepherd who enters the sheepfold through the gate, as opposed to the thief and robber who eneter through other ways. The thief and robber enter through violence to benefit from the sheep's misfortune, but the shepherd takes care of the sheep. When Jesus endured His Passion, the people released a robber instead of Him and Jesus hung on the Cross between two robbers, showing how far His way is from the way of violence. Some biblical commentators have explained that the gatekeeper who lets the sheep into the sheepfold is God the Father, who leads the apostles to Christ. Just as the gatekeeper lets the shepherd lead the sheep to the pastures, God the Father sent Jesus to lead all peoples to the pastures of everlasting life. In the previous chapter, chapter 9, Jesus healed a blind man persecuted and driven from the synagogue by the Pharisees. The Pharisees sought to scatter the sheep, whereas Jesus sought to gather them. The good shepherd calls each sheep by its name, just as Jesus called His followers by name, like Peter, Lazarus, and Mary Magdalene. The sheep do not follow strangers, but follow their shepherd faithfully. Jesus is our Good Shepherd and He understands our every need and problem, so we must not only listen to Him by studying the Scriptures and the Church's teachings, but also respond to His voice by imitating His example.

This weekend is the Third Sunday of Easter and the Gospel reading describes the resurrected Jesus appearing to the two disciples on the road to Emmaus. Jesus explained the Scriptures to them and as night approached, He took bread, blessed it, broke it, and gave it to His disciples, just as He did at the miracle of the five loaves and two fish. That earlier miracle foresaw the institution of the Eucharist on Holy Thursday and now, after Jesus' Resurrection, He again appeared to His disciples in the breaking of the bread to signify the end of His earthly ministry. The two disciples' eyes were opened and they recognized Jesus, just as Adam and Eve's eyes were opened to recognize the evil brought by sin after they ate the forbidden fruit. However, whereas Adam and Eve's sin corrupted our human nature, Jesus the New Adam has elevated our human nature. The liturgy of the Mass has two parts: an initial Liturgy of the Word to listen to the Scriptures and a later Liturgy of the Eucharist to consecrate the Body and Blood of Christ. The Mass has many similarities with the appearance of Christ on the road to Emmaus: He first revealed the Scriptures then blessed and broke the bread. The Liturgies of the Word and the Eucharist mutually aid each other: by listening to the Word of God, we are prepared to receive the Body and Blood of Christ; and by receiving the Eucharist, we are given the grace to understand and live out the Word of God. Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, we cannot go to church or attend Mass, which causes us much suffering. But we cannot neglect the Word of God--by studying it, we can prepare ourselves to participate once again in the Mass