May 14th 2023. The Sixth Sunday of Easter
GOSPEL: John 14, 15-21
Translated from a homily by Don Fabio Rosini broadcast on Vatican Radio
Don Fabio’s homily follows the Gospel
GOSPEL: John 14, 15-21
Jesus said to his disciples:
“If you love me, you will keep my commandments.
And I will ask the Father,
and he will give you another Advocate to be with you always,
the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot accept,
because it neither sees nor knows him.
But you know him, because he remains with you,
and will be in you.
I will not leave you orphans; I will come to you.
In a little while the world will no longer see me,
but you will see me, because I live and you will live.
On that day you will realize that I am in my Father
and you are in me and I in you.
Whoever has my commandments and observes them
is the one who loves me.
And whoever loves me will be loved by my Father,
and I will love him and reveal myself to him.”
The Gospel of the Lord: Praise to you, Lord Jesus Christ
SUMMARY
Jesus says, “I will pray to the Father and he will give you another Paraclete”. What is a paraclete? In ancient Semitic society, the paraclete was a lawyer who stood close to the defendant. The defendant had to defend himself, but the paraclete whispered vital counsel to him. Our Paraclete is the Holy Spirit. He does not do what we need to do ourselves. He does not replace our free will. But he gives us precious counsel when we act. In fact, what he murmurs to us is the Word of God, the same Word that took flesh in the womb of Mary! But I will not hear the voice of the Holy Spirit if my head is full of worries, anxieties, and seductions of this world. I will only hear his voice if I am seeking to live a relationship of love with the Father and the Son. Jesus also says, “If you love me, you will keep my commandments, and I will ask the Father and he will give you another counsellor to be with you forever” The key cannot be anything else but love. Opening the heart to the Father and the Lord Jesus opens the doors to the Spirit. How does this wonder begin? With gratitude. Our love for God is always a love of response. It is not our initiative but something we do when we contemplate what he has done for us: "We love because he loved us first" (1 Jn 4:19). Those who keep this fact in mind begin to enter into a dialogue with the Holy Spirit, the greatest counsellor in the world!
1. A paraclete was a lawyer who stood close to the defendant and counselled him on how to proceed with his defence. Our Paraclete is the Holy Spirit. He does not do what we need to do ourselves. He does not replace our free will. But he gives us precious counsel.
“I will pray to the Father and he will give you another Paraclete”. What is a paraclete? To understand this, you need to know the details of ancient Semitic law, which involved procedures different from ours. In fact, "Paraclete" is translated into Latin as “Advocatus”, which means "summoned near". This referred to the legal expert who stood close to the defendant and whispered legal advice to him during the trial. Nowadays, a defendant completely delegates all dialogue to his lawyer and he (the defendant) opens his mouth only when he has to testify himself. By contrast, in the biblical world the accused had to participate fully in the various stages of the trial. But those who were wealthy could hire themselves a paraclete, a person who stood by him and who spoke in his ear, advising him how to respond. A paraclete was a luxury for the elitist few. A passage from Luke’s Gospel refers to this: “When they bring you before synagogues, magistrates and authorities, do not worry about how to defend yourself, or what to say, because the Holy Spirit will teach you at that moment what you must say" (Lk 12,11f). We can deduce various things from this. The first is that the Holy Spirit does not do everything for us. He counsels us on how to act, but he does not replace our free will. God is a Father. He is not paternalist, he does not take things from us because he does not trust us, he does not infantilize us. His Spirit is the wonderful adviser who illuminates us and shows us the way, always leaving us free to say no to Him. The decisions of life are not delegated to the Holy Spirit, but we enter in synergy with him, and he teaches us the art of truth, of which he is master. The second things we should notice is that we are indeed privileged because we can afford the best lawyer! We are children of the King of kings, our aides are top class. In fact, the law firm that we have on our side cannot be afforded by everyone because he is "the Spirit of truth, which the world cannot receive because it does not see him and does not know him".
2. The Paraclete whispers precious counsel to us. In fact, what he murmurs to us is the Word of God, the same Word that took flesh in the womb of Mary. But I will not hear the voice of the Holy Spirit if my head is full of worries, anxieties, and seductions of this world. I will only hear his voice if I am seeking to live a relationship of love with the Father and the Son. “If you love me, you will keep my commandments, and I will ask the Father and he will give you another counsellor to be with you forever”
To have such help, one must be in the world but not of the world. Like the seed among the thorns (the parable of the Sower), if I am a slave to the things of the world, if I permit the worries of the world and the seduction of wealth to suffocate the Word, then I will bear no fruit (Mt 13:22). In other words, the counsel of the Paraclete, the Holy Spirit is also offered to my ear, but that voice is a gentle murmur that can be drowned out by the scream of the anxieties of the world, which shamelessly raise their voices around me and distract me. How can I hear that voice, that breath which is the Lord’s? How can I receive that word that gives life and through which Christ incarnated himself in the womb of the Virgin Mary? The key to all this is given in the beginning of the Gospel passage: "If you love me, you will keep my commandments. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate to be with you always ...". The key cannot be anything else but love. Opening the heart to the Father and the Lord Jesus opens the doors to the Spirit. How does this wonder begin? With gratitude. Our love for God is a love of response: "We love because he loved us first" (1 Jn 4:19). The observance of the commandments does not take its point of departure from us, but from love. Obedience to the Lord is a consequence of gratitude to him, not a premise. The saving of the Israelites through the Red Sea happened before the giving of the Ten Commandments on Sinai. First there is salvation then there is observance of the Law.
Those who keep this fact in mind begin to enter into a dialogue with the Holy Spirit, the greatest counsellor in the world! Let us turn to him for his promptings, but always starting with gratitude towards the Lord.
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