Friends, today’s Gospel focuses on the Holy Spirit’s role as witness to Jesus: “When
the Advocate comes whom I will send you from the Father, the Spirit of
truth that proceeds from the Father, he will testify to me.”
All
Christian preaching is ultimately about the Paschal Mystery—the dying
and rising of Jesus—and the sending of the Holy Spirit. But this last
element is especially important for today, because it signals the way
that we are able to participate in the life that Jesus opens up to us.
One
of the chief marks of the Holy Spirit is the prompting to bold speech.
From the Apostles through the great evangelists and theologians, up to
Billy Graham and John Paul II, the Spirit prompts people to confess the
Lordship of Jesus. Remember that Paul told us, “No one can call Jesus
Lord except in the Holy Spirit.”
Who
is the Holy Spirit? He is the third Person of the Holy Trinity, but
more precisely, the love shared by the Father and the Son. As the love
between Father and Son, the Spirit comes most fully to historical
expression during the great events of the Incarnation and the Paschal
Mystery.
Jesus said to his disciples: "When the Advocate comes whom I will send you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father, he will testify to me. And you also testify, because you have been with me from the beginning. "I have told you this so that you may not fall away. They will expel you from the synagogues; in fact, the hour is coming when everyone who kills you will think he is offering worship to God. They will do this because they have not known either the Father or me. I have told you this so that when their hour comes you may remember that I told you."
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