June 12th 2022. TRINITY SUNDAY

GOSPEL: John 16:12-15

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­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­Translated from a homily by Don Fabio Rosini, broadcast on Vatican Radio

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Don Fabio’s reflection follows the Gospel reading ...

 

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GOSPEL: John 16:12-15

Jesus said to his disciples:
"I have much more to tell you, but you cannot bear it now.
But when he comes, the Spirit of truth,
he will guide you to all truth.
He will not speak on his own,
but he will speak what he hears,
and will declare to you the things that are coming.
He will glorify me,
because he will take from what is mine and declare it to you.
Everything that the Father has is mine;
for this reason I told you that he will take from what is mine
and declare it to you."

The Gospel of the Lord: Praise to you Lord Jesus Christ

 

SUMMARY OF HOMILY

We are inclined to think that the truth is a body of knowledge or information. Maybe we think that truth is something that can be diffused through the world with a sufficiently good internet service. However Jesus teaches us that truth is not information, but the relationship of love that is the life of God. This love is the source of all that exists. Jesus tells us that we cannot comprehend this truth using our own capacities. We must be led gradually into the truth by the Holy Spirit. How does he lead us into the truth? Is it like doing a university course? No! How do I learn who my child is? By studying or reading books? I learn who my child is by living with him in a relationship of love. Similarly it is one thing to “know” who Christ is by studying theology, but an entirely different matter to know Jesus from the point of view of a person who has been saved by him. It is significant that the Holy Spirit is described as the one “who does not speak about himself”. This is the fundamental characteristic of love, focus on the other instead of upon oneself.  Further on in this Gospel passage, Jesus tells us that the Holy Spirit will “announce the things to come”. Is this a reference to prophecies about the future? No, this rather is the way in which the authentic Christian, possessed by the Holy Spirit, trusts implicitly in the providence of God to look after everything in the future. A person who does not trust in the providence of God might have a very anxious or deceptive view of the future. Christians are called upon to develop an attitude in which we permit the Holy Spirit to announce to us the things that are to come. In other words, when we are led by the Spirit, we trust implicitly in the designs of a loving God. We know what our future is: intimate union with God.

 

1. Jesus tells us that we enter into the truth in a gradual way

“I still have many things to tell you, but for the moment you are not able to carry the weight of it ". There is a gradualness in the spiritual life. It is analogous to the biological one in that for both there exists a birth, a childhood and a maturity. We start from a first light on the truth, with a good orientation towards it. Then we begin to live more and more in the truth and go towards fulfillment. It is a gradual process and the ultimate goal is beyond this earthly existence. We are inclined to think that someone either knows the truth or they do not. In reality, we enter into the truth slowly. It takes a lifetime to open up to it. At some point in our lives we discover that she was always there waiting for us before that we finally started to see better and allow ourselves to be changed by it.

 

2. How do we enter into the truth?

"When he comes, the Spirit of truth, he will lead you into all truth." The truth is not something that we conquer by our own efforts. Rather, we are led to it. Letting myself be guided to the truth is not easy, because it implies renouncing my own inclinations, calling into question the things that I consider to be certain. The truth is greater than us and we know that we will always remain disciples of the truth, never the owners. But just what is truth? Is it an abstraction? A concept to understand? A doctrine? "The Spirit of truth will guide you to all truth because he will not speak of himself." The Master of truth is humble. He does not focus on himself. He does not deliver the truth as some sort of body of information, but as something that arises from a relationship. For example, I could learn about the nature of childhood by attending an academic course, but it is another thing entirely to be a father or a mother! Similarly, it is one thing to talk about Christ from the point of view of one who has studied theology, but a different thing altogether to talk about Jesus as one who has been saved by him! In the second case we do not speak simply about ourselves, or the abstract contents of our minds, but of the Lord as my personal saviour. In this case, the Holy Spirit is no longer an idea or a rule but a lived experience.

 

3. Our future is in the intimate life of God

The Holy Spirit, from the very heart of God, "will say all that he has heard". He will repeat what he himself has heard, and he will also do other things: "he will announce the things to come". We might think that this refers to prophecies regarding the future, but it is something else: if our heart is open to the interior guidance of the Holy Spirit, it will slowly be brought to the whole truth, which is God himself, that is, to the intimate life of Lord Jesus and his Father. And knowing "all that the Father possesses", we will then know the love, generosity and mercy that is in him. We may not realize it, but we are in a relationship with the future. We are shaped by our way of thinking about what is to come. If I believe that my future is a black sky without stars, I live with an oppressed frame of mind and everything can become distressing. If I believe that my tomorrow is in the hands of a good Father who provides for me, then I already know what is coming towards me: the designs of loving Providence are unfolding before me; I know where my path leads and who is guiding my life. We need to learn the art of allowing the Holy Spirit to announce the future to us, rather than being led by our deceptive or anxious projections. I know my future, I know where my life is heading: towards the Father.