“On that day you will realize that I am in my Father and you are in me and I in you” (John 14:20). This word from today’s Gospel reveals a mystery of love that we should ponder and, even more, into which Jesus invites us to enter. Friends and married couples know something of this mystery: when two people are united in the bond of love, each carries the other with them in memory and in spirit. Thus a lover can say to his beloved, “I will carry you in my heart,” and in the mystery of love, his word is true. And this is no fusion of persons, but a bond in which the two are one while remaining distinct.
With the Father and the Son, this mystery of love is infinitely deeper, since in his very being the Son is one with the Father. And the bond that unites the Father and the Son is none other than the Holy Spirit, the Advocate and Spirit of truth who raised Jesus to life and whom the Samaritans received when the Apostles laid hands on them (cf. John 14:16–17; 1 Pet 3:18; Acts 8:17). This is the Spirit given to us in Baptism and Confirmation, the Spirit whose coming we will celebrate in two weeks’ time at Pentecost. And it is the Spirit who will realize and make us realize—again in mystery—the truth of Jesus’ words: “you are in me and I in you.”
Today, let us ponder this mystery of love, the love of Father, Son, and Spirit. And let us pray that the Spirit will draw us ever more deeply into the depths of this mystery.