In my family, we can hardly speak about orphans without tears. My father was adopted as a baby. He frequently told us stories of how his parents welcomed him not just into their home but into their hearts. It was never merely a relocation or a legal transaction. It was the joy of being chosen, of receiving a family, a name, and a place where he belonged forever. Even in his later years, recalling that gift still moves him to tears of tender gratitude.
That is the kind of tenderness behind Jesus’ words in today’s Gospel: “I will not leave you orphans; I will come to you.” (John 14:18) He is going away, but not abandoning us. Instead, he sends us the Advocate, the Holy Spirit — his own Spirit, shared with the Father — who dwells in us. Through the Spirit, Christ is present in us, and we are present in him. His Spirit gives us a home and a family.
We deepen this knowledge in the sacraments, in prayer, and in the daily life of the Church. The Spirit is the bond of belonging, the power that makes us God’s sons and daughters, not spiritual orphans. And this is not a one-time event. There is always a deeper outpouring of the Spirit available to us, a fresh appropriation of the promise that we are never abandoned.
If only we could be as grateful as my dad is for his adoption, realizing that we have been adopted by God Himself. In Christ, we are never left as orphans.
— Father John Muir
©LPi
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