The Advocate (The Holy Spirit) John 14:23-29
The 3 promises from John 14:23-29 The 1st Promise
Do not let your hearts be troubled or afraid. This is a Gospel of beautiful promises.
Jesus makes clear again that true love
for Him is shown by deeds: “Whoever loves Me will keep My word.” Jesus’ word
that we must keep is His command that we love one another as He has loved us. The reward is
practically a taste of heaven on earth, because Jesus promises to one who loves
Him and keeps His words that “My Father will love him, and We will come to him
and make Our dwelling with him.” [u2] The Father and the Son, and their Spirit will live in us if we
obey the command of Jesus and live in mutual love! Indeed, there is nothing closer to heaven on earth
than the experience of living in love together in obedience to Jesus’ command
of love.[u3]
The 2nd Promise
Next, Jesus promises the gift of the
Holy Spirit, the Advocate, whom the Father will send in Jesus’ name. The Advocate
will teach the disciples everything that the Lord Jesus has told them. He will make
them understand what Jesus has not been able to make them understand.[u4]
The 3rd Promise
The last promise is peace, a peace that
is not simply the absence of trouble but the inner harmony that comes from
having a right relationship with God the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit
who live in us. This
peace we can have even in the face of suffering and death.[u5]
Trust in the promises of Jesus and you
will have peace!
Q1. Do you see Jesus as your boss or as
a friend?
If you see Jesus as your boss which is
an idea that many of us feel
more comfortable with, we fail to understand that he wants us to relate to him
as a friend. There is a limit to what a boss can demand from you. There is no
such limit when it comes to friendship and intimacy.
When Jesus speaks
in today’s gospel of “those who love me” he is referring to his
followers. For Jesus “those who love me” is another way of saying “my
disciples” or “those who believe in me” or simply “Christians.” The
relationship between the Christian and Christ is essentially a love
relationship. That is why Jesus said in John 15:15 “I do not call you
servants any longer … I call you friends.”
Q2. What do
people who love each other what to do most?
One thing we know
about love is that lovers want to be with each other.
Q3. How do we
love Jesus who is not physically with us?
This is what today’s gospel is all about. In the gospel Jesus prepares his disciples, those who love him, for his departure from this world and shows them how they can keep love and intimacy alive even in his physical absence.
Those who love me will keep my word, and my Father will love them,
and we will come to them and make our home with them (John 14:23).
If you love Jesus, (1) Keep his word. Follow his teachings. (2) This will activate God’s special love for you, and (3) Jesus and his Father will come and live permanently with you. In this way the vacuum left by the physical absence of Jesus will be filled spiritually by the divine presence which is as real or even more real than the physical presence. Our part in this whole process is to focus on keeping the word of Christ.
But how do we be sure we know the implication and meaning of the word of Christ in the ever changing and ever more complex realities of modern life? How can we be sure what Jesus would do and how he would act in the present concrete situations of our daily lives? Again Jesus foresaw this difficulty and provided for it. “The Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you everything, and remind you of all that I have said to you” (John 14:26).
If that is so,
what do we make of the situation in the world today where a thousand Christians
all “filled with the Holy Spirit” come up with a thousand different answers to
the same question? Does the Holy Spirit contradict Himself? Here it is
important to note that the “you” to whom these promises are made is plural,
meaning, primarily, the community of believers, the church. Of course the Holy
Spirit is with us individually, but the Holy Spirit is given primarily to the
church and, through the church, to us as individuals when we become members of
the church.
Q4. What does the
you in The Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name,
will teach you everything, and remind you of all that I have said to you”
(John 14:26) refer to?
Here it is
important to note that the “you” to whom these promises are made is plural,
meaning, primarily, the community of believers, the church. Of course the Holy
Spirit is with us individually, but the Holy Spirit is given primarily to the
church and, through the church, to us as individuals when we become members of
the church.
Q5. How does the
Holy Spirit work in the Church?
This is what we
see in the 1st reading where disagreements among Christians are
resolved through dialogue and community discernment and not through each one consulting
the Holy Spirit privately. In the end they come out with a resolution which
begins “it has seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us.” (Acts 15:28).
The word of Christ continues to live and resound in the word of the Holy Spirit
speaking through the church. The days between the Ascension of Christ and
Pentecost are special days of prayer for all Christians as they were for the
first disciples of Jesus. This year let us pray especially for the gift of
church unity, so that together we all can discern what the Spirit is saying to
the church in the modern world and so bear united witness to the life-giving
word of Christ.
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