In the second reading today, Peter encourages us to a "passionate love for goodness": to be zealots ("ardent lovers") of goodness, enthusiastic, on fire with God's love (The opposite, tepidity, you see in Rev. 3:15-16). "No heart is pure that is not passionate." And Peter warns us that the pursuit of goodness will mean suffering: "If they have persecuted Me, they will persecute you as well" (Jn. 15:20). By accepting suffering lovingly and in faith, we are demonstrating our loyalty to Christ, and sharing His salvific sufferings.

We are preparing for the feast of Pentecost and, in today's Gospel, we listen to Jesus as He promises us the Paraclete. The Greek parakletos is a word rich in meaning. It is the Spirit who "takes away our inadequacies and enables us to cope with life". It is the Spirit who enables us to see persons and events, as it were, with the eyes and heart of God, and to judge things according to divine values. With the Spirit in our hearts, Jesus assures us, we will never feel "orphaned" or "forlorn".