Homily for the 6th Sunday of Easter, May 14, 2023. Gospel of St. John 14:15-21. Theme: The Paraclete: Our Advocate & Spirit of Truth
In today's Gospel, John brings us into the Upper Room in Jerusalem, to the place and time of the Last Supper. He shares with us part of the Lord’s farewell speech to the apostles, a last testament intended for all of His disciples, including us. You can sense the deep love and concern in the words of Jesus, as he speaks about the future without Him physically present. He makes several consoling promises that should fill us with hope and strengthen our trust in times of struggle or difficulty, but what I want to focus on is what He told us about the Holy Spirit.
The first thing that gets my attention is that Jesus calls the Holy Spirit a “Parakletos” which is translated into English as Paraclete or Advocate.
I find this very interesting because in the language and culture of Jesus' time, a parakletos was a lawyer and more specifically a defense attorney. Now, that makes me wonder and ask… why in the world did Jesus think that we would need the services of a lawyer? Well, it’s because He knew that the world would treat us no better than it treated Him. He didn’t want us to think that we are on our own, vulnerable and defenseless, when it comes to being accused of causing trouble when what we are really doing is speaking up for what is right and just. He wanted us to know that when we stand before the court of public opinion concerning our Christianity, the Paraclete will be right by our side, advising us and counseling us as would any good and wise attorney.
Jesus also calls Him the Spirit of Truth and in the same breath He says that the world cannot accept this Spirit because it cannot or will not accept truth. What the Lord means is that those who live just for the attractions of this life and without regard for God, do not see or accept the truth because they are not really interested in it. Instead, they prefer to be counted among those who hold to popular positions and who chase celebrity opinions. In refusing to acknowledge truth, they instead try to create a false reality that caters to their own whims, that reflects their own desires and that blesses their own sins.
And don’t we see evidence of this all around us today? I mean, who would have ever thought that the most common sense and obvious facts of life would be called into question and wordsmithed into different twisted meanings? You know, sometimes it might seem like everything around us is traveling down this path of insanity. But I think it’s good to keep in mind a quote from the late great Archbishop Fulton Sheen who said, “The truth is the truth even if no one believes it, and a lie is a lie even if everyone believes it.” Those sure sound like words that could have come straight from Jesus in today’s Gospel!
As Christians who take our faith-relationship with Jesus seriously, we cannot simply remain quiet. Instead, we need to turn to the Paraclete, our Defender and Counselor, and ask Him for the light and fortitude we need to be able to speak up as voices of truth. But as St. Peter tells us in today’s second reading, we must do so with gentleness and reverence because our goal is not to win a debate but to share the reason for the hope that is within us. And in doing so, we need to remember that the truth people need to hear most from us is that they are immensely and personally loved by God. Each and every one of them! Because the sad reality is that so many people have never heard this, they do now know it! And so it’s up to us to tell them so that they, too, can begin to have hope in their hearts and know the joy and peace that flows from a life lived with God.
It’s a big responsibility that we have been given to be agents of the Spirit of Truth. But Jesus assured us that in doing so the Paraclete will advise us and act within us. He will provide us with counsel and direction giving us the right words to say, letting us know when to speak and how to say it in every particular circumstance. However, this sensitivity to the Spirit’s voice and action will develop within us only to the extent that we get to know Him through the practice daily personal prayer from the heart. In order to learn to really hear our Paraclete and recognize His voice, we have to make room in our day for this time of silence alone with the Lord.
In closing, I want to point out how appropriate it is that we are being called to deepen our awareness of and devotion to the Holy Spirit in this month of May and on Mother’s Day as we honor Mary, the mother most blessed among all women. No other disciple of Christ was as open to the Spirit of Truth or as filled with His Divine Presence as she was. Her relationship with the Advocate was so intense, so total and personal, that we call her by analogy the Spouse of the Holy Spirit and their union resulted in the Word becoming flesh to dwell among us. May the Blessed Mother pray for each one of us, so that by the Power and Presence of the Spirit we, like her, can bring Christ to others so that, too, may have hope in their hearts and come to know the truth that will set them free.
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