Sixth Sunday of Easter, May 17, 2020

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.”

Friday afternoon, Bishop Burbidge and, later, retired Bishop Loverde, called to congratulate me on the occasion of the twenty-first anniversary of my priestly ordination.  Bishop Burbidge calls each of his priests every year on their anniversaries to do this, which is very gracious.  Seven men were ordained that day in 1999 for the diocese of Arlington.  One has died, and six are still on the job.

Jesus says here, “I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate.”  The Greek word translated here as “advocate” is παράκλητον (parakleiton), with the accent on the second syllable.  Among this word’s meanings are: “one who speaks for another”, “a legal aide”, “a mediator”, “an intercessor”, and “a comforter”.  It would fascinate us to know what Hebrew or Aramaic word Jesus actually used, but we only have the Greek word it was translated as.  We more commonly refer to this Advocate by another term Jesus uses for him, the Holy Spirit.  

St. Thomas Aquinas says that the Holy Spirit is the nexus of the Father and the Son.  This Latin word has the meaning of “connection” or “embrace”.  The Holy Spirit is the love which is the embrace of the Father and the Son, from both of whom he proceeds.  He is, then, the Unity of the Father and the Son.  Jesus tells the Apostles that the Father (and he) will send this Unity to them to be with them always.  The Holy Spirit will bind them to Christ as members of his Body, and thus to each other.  Jesus tells his Apostles this so that they may know that wherever they are, he is present with them.  On this occasion, at the Last Supper, Jesus calls the Holy Spirit “the Advocate” in order to assure them that even when he, the Lord, is not physically present with them, they are under divine protection.  Jesus will not leave them as “orphans”, lost, helpless, hungry, and entirely vulnerable to whomever comes near them.  The Holy Spirit continues as our Advocate in our own lives and in the life of the Church, ever speaking to us in daily inspirations to perform good works, ever protecting us from evil, at every moment helping us to persevere in faith.

Nor does Lord leave the Apostles to define “unity” for themselves.  The unity that he speaks of is very different from any unity of which they had heard or which anyone had imagined.  This is not a loose grouping of people with common interests — that is a “community” or association.  This is not even the harmony of hearts and minds devoted to a single purpose, a “brotherhood” or society, perhaps.  This unity affects the very being of the person and exists on the deepest level of intimacy possible.  Because it is unity with Jesus, he can say, “I live and you will live.”  We live because he lives.  Obedience to his commandments, then, conforms us to him and is, at the same time, a sign of this union with him.  It is a sign to us: when we obey his commandments, we know that we must be in union with him.  It is a sign to others as well, a mark of distinction that we belong to Christ in this intimate way, and not to the world.