6th Sunday of Easter

Gospel Reflection

John 14:15-21

We are nearing the end of the Easter season and the readings chosen by the Church for this Sunday make reference, in part, to what lies ahead - the celebration of the coming of the Holy Spirit, the solemn feast of Pentecost. It was during the Last Supper that Jesus spoke with special clarity about “another Paraclete” that He would have the Father send to us. The translation we listen to in today’s Mass translates this unusual word as “Advocate.” An advocate commonly means someone who either defends us or speaks on our behalf to obtain something good and important. We need not think of a   lawyer, though often in ordinary usage, this is what people are referring to. But an even more suitable meaning, perhaps, of this special word that Jesus used to speak of the Holy Spirit, is one who consoles, who supports, who counsels.

When Jesus describes Him as “another Advocate” He makes it clear that the Holy Spirit will fulfill a role like His own. He Himself, Jesus that is, came to defend, to console, to  support and to teach us. He is the first Paraclete and the Holy Spirit’s action confirms and continues what Jesus has done. That does not mean that Our Lord’s presence and assistance has ended. The Holy Spirit’s mission is inseparably tied to Jesus’ saving work. Besides, when Jesus tells the Apostles (and us) that He will not leave them orphans, He adds “because I will come back to you.”

The Apostles, at the time, probably understood little or nothing of what this might mean. It would take the experience of Jesus’ actual death, His Resurrection (after which He spent 40 days meeting with them at different times and places) and finally, His Ascension before they would understand the new way in which Christ would remain with them and with us. “On that day you will understand that I am in the Father and you in me and I in you.”

This intimate spiritual presence of Jesus in our lives is the work of God’s grace. We believe as Christians that it is the result of the activity of the Holy Spirit in our souls. It need not be felt in any emotive way but does ask of us the exercise of our faith and the effort to live by God’s wise and good commandments. As a result Our Lord assures us that He will always be with us, to assist us, whether we feel it or not. “I shall love him and show myself to him.” And certainly, for any person who does their best to live out their Christian life and commitments, there will be times when he or she will experience some special consolation. Whether or not anything is felt, there is God’s strength to rely on in defending ourselves against various temptations or possible injuries or injustices coming from others, our own bad inclinations or Satan himself. Note how St. Peter encourages his fellow Christians of the first century writing “And if it is the will of God that you should suffer, it is better to suffer for doing right than for doing wrong. Why, Christ himself, innocent though he was, had died once for sins, died for the guilty, to lead us to God.”
 
Jesus is our first Paraclete or Advocate, and the second—who is the Holy Spirit— seeks always to draw us closer to Him, because, as the Psalm prays, “You, Lord, are our strength” (Psalm 42).