I am reminded of a famous adage or quote: "Promises are made to be broken." I suppose this is true for us humans. We have made a lot of promises to people, but how many times have we broken them? This is not so with Jesus. He always fulfills His word and promise. He said this in His Last Supper discourse to His disciples: "I will ask the Father and he will give you another Paraclete - to be with you always: the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot accept..." (Jn 14:16) "When the Paraclete comes, the Spirit of truth who comes from the Father - whom I myself will send from the Father - he will bear witness on my behalf. (Jn 15:36) If I fail to go, the Paraclete will never come to you." (Jn 16:7)

Fr. Flor McCarthy, SDB, the author of the New Sunday & Holy Day Liturgies, has a beautiful anecdote to share with us. When Jesus returned to heaven after His death and resurrection, the Archangel Gabriel was surprised to see Him back soon. "Back so soon?" Gabriel said to Jesus. "Well, I would have stayed longer but they crucified me," Jesus replied. "Oh so, they crucified You," said Gabriel. "That means You failed." "Not necessarily," said Jesus.

In order for us to understand well and deeply this particular Gospel account, it is necessary and expedient to know the context where this particular passage is located in the whole Gospel. Where was Jesus? What was he doing? To whom is this particular passage is addressed? What were the circumstances or situations the disciples faced?

In last Sunday's of readings, we reflected one of the most beautiful descriptions of Jesus being the Good Shepherd. We Catholics have many titles to address Jesus and these are embedded in our devotions to honor Him like the Sacred Heart of Jesus, the Diving Mercy, the Black Nazarene (famous in the Philippines), The Holy Child, the Redeemer and Christ the King.