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EVENING CELEBRATION (cont.)
(seated)
DISCOURSE AFTER THE SUPPER
(Saint John 13:33-38; Saint Luke 22:31-38)
“Little children, yet a little while I am with you. You will seek Me, but I repeat to you now what I said to the Jews: ‘Where I am going, you cannot come.’
“A new commandment I give you: that you love one another as I have loved you. Yes, have this same love for one another. And behold the sign by which all men will know that you are My Disciples: the pure and tender love you will have for one another.”
“Lord,” Simon Peter replied, “where are You going?”
Jesus answered, “Where I am going, you cannot follow Me now; you shall follow Me later.”
“Why can I not follow You now?” asked Peter. “I will lay down my life for You! With You, Lord, I am ready to go to prison and to death!”
“You will lay down your life for Me? O Peter! Amen, amen, I say to you, before the cock has crowed twice, you will have denied Me three times!
“Simon, Simon, behold, Satan has asked to sift you as wheat! But I have prayed for you, that your faith may not fail. And once you have converted, uphold and strengthen your brethren.”
And Jesus said to all of them, “When I sent you without purse or bag or shoes, did you lack anything?”
“Nothing,” they said.
Jesus went on: “Now, let him who has a bag take it, and likewise a purse; and let him who has no sword sell his tunic and buy one. For I say to you that the words of Scripture must yet be fulfilled in Me: ‘He was reckoned among the wicked.’ Now the prophecies concerning Me will soon be fulfilled.”
They answered, “Lord, here are two swords!”
“Enough!” He said.
THE FINAL RECOMMENDATIONS
(St. John 14:1-31; 15:1-17)
I - Union with Jesus through faith and prayer
“Let not your heart be troubled. You believe in God, believe likewise in Me.
“In My Father’s House there are many mansions. Were it not so, I would have told you; I go to prepare a place for you. Yes, I am going; but when I have prepared a place for you, I will come again and I will take you to Myself, so that where I am, there you also may be. Besides, you know where I am going, and you know the way there.”
“Lord,” answered Thomas, “we do not know where You are going, so how could we know the way?”
Jesus said to them, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father but through Me. If you had known Me, surely you would have known My Father. But henceforth you shall know Him; and yes, you have already seen Him.”
“Lord,” exclaimed Philip, “show us the Father, and it is enough for us.”
“What!” said Jesus, “I have been so long a time with you, and you do not know Me yet? Philip, who sees Me also sees My Father. How can you say to Me, ‘Show us the Father’?
“Do you not believe that I am in the Father, and the Father in Me? Not on My own authority do I speak the words I speak to you. And it is the Father dwelling in Me who accomplishes My works. Once again, do you not believe that I am in the Father, and the Father in Me? At least believe it because of the works themselves.
“Amen, amen, I say to you, he who believes in Me, he also shall do the works that I do; even greater than these he shall do, because I am going to the Father. And whatever you ask the Father in My Name I will accomplish, in order that the Father may be glorified in the Son. And if you ask Me anything in My Name, I will do it.”
II - Union with Jesus through love
“If you love Me, keep My commandments.
“And I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Comforter who will always dwell with you. He is the Spirit of truth whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him. But you shall know Him, because He will dwell with you, and be in you.
“No, I will not leave you orphans, I will come to you.
“Yet a little while and the world will no longer see Me; but you will see Me, for I live and you also shall live. In that day you will know that I am in My Father, and that you are in Me, and that I am in you.
“The one who accepts My commandments and observes them, he is the one who loves Me. And he who loves Me will be loved by My Father; and I too will love him and manifest Myself to him.”
Jude, not the Iscariot, said to Him, “Lord, how is it that You will manifest Yourself to us, and not to the world?”
Jesus answered, “If anyone loves Me, he will keep My teachings, and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and establish Our abode in him. He who does not love Me does not keep My words. Now, the teachings that you have heard are not Mine, but the Father’s who sent Me.”
III - Union with Jesus in the Holy Spirit
“These things I have spoken to you while yet dwelling with you. But the Holy Spirit, the Comforter, whom the Father will send in My Name, will teach you all things, and bring to your mind whatever I will have said to you.”
IV - Union with Jesus in peace and in joy
“My peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you! Not as the world gives it do I give it to you. Let not your heart be troubled, let it not be afraid!
“You have just heard Me say, ‘I am going, and I shall come back to you.’ If you loved Me, you would indeed rejoice that I am going to the Father, for the Father is greater than I.
“I tell you this now, before it comes to pass, so that when it has come to pass, you may believe. I will no longer speak much with you; for behold, the prince of this world is coming, although nothing in Me belongs to him.
“But that the world may know that I love the Father, and that I am carrying out the Father’s command, arise, let us go from here.”
V - The necessary and intimate union with Jesus for all holy deeds, especially for works of Christian charity.
“I am the true Vine, and My Father is the Vinedresser. Every branch that bears no fruit in Me, He will take away; and the one that bears fruit He will cleanse, that it may bear still more fruit.
“As for you, you have already been pruned and purified by the words that I have spoken to you.
“Abide in Me, and I in you! As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it remains on the vine, so neither can you unless you abide in Me.
“I am the Vine, you are the branches.
“He who abides in Me, and I in him, that one bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing.
“He who does not abide in Me shall be cast outside as the branch and wither; and such branches are gathered up and thrown into the fire and burned.
“If you abide in Me, and if My words abide in you, ask whatever you will and you shall obtain it.
“It is the glory of My Father that you bear much fruit and become My Disciples.
“As the Father has loved Me, so have I loved you. Abide in My love!
“You will abide in My love if you keep My commandments, as I abide in My Father’s love by keeping His commandments.
“These things I have spoken to you, that My joy may be in you, and that your joy may be made full.
“Now, this is My commandment: Love one another as I have loved you.
“Greater love than this no one has, that he lay down his life for his friends. And it is you who are My friends if you do the things I command you. No longer do I call you My servants, for the servant does not know what his master does. I have called you friends, for all things that I have heard from My Father, I have made known to you.
“You have not chosen Me; I have chosen you and have appointed you so that you should go and bear fruit, and that your fruit should remain. That is why, whatever you ask the Father in My Name, He will give you.
“Above all, My commandment to you is to love one another.”
THE TESTAMENT OF CONSOLATION
(Saint John 15:18-27; 16:1-24)
I - Consolation and joy in persecution
“If the world hates you, know that it has hated Me before you. If you were of the world, the world would love what is its own. But because you are not of the world, and because I have separated you from the world, therefore the world hates you. Remember the word I spoke to you: ‘No servant is greater than his master.’ If they have persecuted Me, they will persecute you also; if they have kept My word, they will keep yours also. But it will be on My account that they will do all this to you, because they do not know Him who sent Me.
“If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not be guilty; but now they have no excuse for their sin. He who hates Me, hates My Father as well. If I had not done among them works such as no one else has done, they would have no sin; but now they have seen them, and have hated both Me and My Father. In this way the word written in their Law is fulfilled, ‘They have hated Me without cause.’
“When the Comforter comes, whom I will send you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father, He will bear witness concerning Me. And you also will bear witness concerning Me, because you are with Me from the beginning.
“These things I have spoken to you that you may not be scandalized.
“They will expel you from the synagogues. Yes, the hour is coming for everyone who kills you to think that he is doing a work pleasing to God. They will do these things to you because they know neither the Father nor Me.
“But I have told you these things so that the time having come, you may remember that I told you. However, I did not tell you these things from the beginning, because I was with you. Now I am going to the One who sent Me, and not one of you asks Me, ‘Where are You going?’ But because I have said these things to you, sorrow has filled your heart.”
II - Consolation in the impending descent of the Holy Spirit
“Yet what I am telling you is the truth: it is expedient for you that I depart. For if I do not go, the Comforter will not come to you, whereas if I go, I will send Him to you.
“When He has come, He will convince the world that there has been sin, that there was justice, and that there will be judgment.
“That there has been sin, because they have not believed in Me.
“That there was justice, because I am going to the Father, and you will see Me no more.
“And that there will be judgment, because the prince of this world has already been judged.
“Many things yet I would have to say to you, but you are not able to bear them now. But when the Spirit of truth has come, He will teach you all the truth, for He will say nothing on His own authority; He will only reveal what He will hear, and He will declare to you what is to come. He it is who will glorify Me, because He will receive of what is Mine and declare it to you.
“All things that the Father has are Mine; that is why I have said to you that what He declares to you, He will receive of what is Mine.”
III - Consolation in the triumphs that will crown the struggle
“A little while and you shall see Me no longer; and still a little while and you shall see Me again, because I go to My Father.”
The Disciples asked one another, “What does He mean: ‘A little while and you shall see Me no longer; then, still a little while and you shall see Me again, because I go to My Father’? What is the meaning of these words: ‘a little while’? We do not know what He means.”
Knowing that they wanted to ask Him, Jesus went on, “You inquire among yourselves what these words mean: ‘A little while and you shall see Me no longer; and then, still a little while and you shall see Me again.’
“Amen, amen, I say to you, you shall weep and lament, and the world shall rejoice; and you shall be sorrowful, but your sorrow shall turn into joy.
“A woman is also sorrowful when she is about to give birth, because her hour has come; but as soon as she has given birth to the child, she forgets her pain for the joy she has because a man is born into the world.
“And you also have sorrow now. But I will see you again; then your heart shall rejoice, and no one shall take your joy from you.
“On that day you shall no longer have to question Me.”
IV - Consolation in the efficacy of prayer
“Amen, amen, I say to you, what you shall ask the Father in My Name, He will give it to you. Until now, you have not asked anything in My Name. Ask, and you shall receive, that your joy may be full.”
CONCLUSION OF THE DISCOURSE
(Saint John 16:25-33)
“I have said all these things to you in parables. The hour is coming when I will no longer teach you in parables, but will speak to you plainly of My Father. On that day you shall ask in My Name, and I do not tell you that I will ask the Father for you; for the Father also loves you because you have loved Me, and have believed that I came forth from God.
“I came forth from the Father and have come into the world; now I am leaving the world and returning to the Father.”
“Now You are speaking plainly and without parables!” exclaimed the Disciples. “Now we understand that You know all things, and that there is no need to question You. Therefore, we believe that You came forth from God.”
“You believe now?” Jesus then said. “Behold, the hour is coming, and even has already come, when you will scatter, each one going his own way, and will leave Me alone! But I am not alone, since the Father is with Me.
“I have said these things to you so that you may find your peace in Me. In the world you will be tormented by tribulation. But take courage, I have overcome the world.”
