Tuesday in the Sixth Week of Easter, May 19, 2020

John 16:5-11

Jesus said to his disciples: “Now I am going to the one who sent me, and not one of you asks me, ‘Where are you going?’ But because I told you this, grief has filled your hearts. But I tell you the truth, it is better for you that I go. For if I do not go, the Advocate will not come to you. But if I go, I will send him to you. And when he comes he will convict the world in regard to sin and righteousness and condemnation: sin, because they do not believe in me; righteousness, because I am going to the Father and you will no longer see me; condemnation, because the ruler of this world has been condemned.”

The Lord, teaching at the Last Supper, had spoken more than once of his departure, even telling the Apostles that though he was going away, he would not leave them as “orphans”.  Previously, they had heard him speak of his departure while preaching to the crowd.  The response of those in the crowd was one of confusion: “Jesus said to them: ‘I go: and you shall seek me. And you shall die in your sin. Where I go, you cannot come.’  The Jews therefore said: ‘Will he kill himself?’ ” (John 8, 21-22).  But the Apostles seem not to have followed up to ask about his leaving.  Where was he going? Would they be following him there?  Much of his teaching they did not understand; perhaps they thought that he would explain this in his good time.  Here, at the Last Supper, his exclamation, “Not one of you asks me, ‘Where are you going?’ ”, sounds like a rebuke.  St. Thomas comes nearest to asking where he is going, yet he gets only as far as, “Lord, we know not where you are going. And how can we know the way?” (John 14, 5).  The Lord reads their hearts and tells them, “Because I told you this, grief has filled your hearts.”  It was grief, then, that prevented them from asking where he was going.  They knew the answer to the question all along, but did not dare have it confirmed.  This “grief” of which Jesus speaks tells us much of the love borne him by his Apostles.  They followed him not as a soldier follows his superior, or as an apprentice follows his master, but simply out of their love for him and his teachings.  This love came even though the Lord frequently upbraided them for their lack of knowledge, for their lack of faith, for their hardness of heart.  It came despite the hardness of his teachings and of the demands made upon them personally.  We see the intensity of this love again when Peter, in his weakness, denies the Lord.  St. Luke says, on that occasion, “And the Lord, turning, looked on Peter . . . and Peter, going out, wept bitterly.”  The Lord’s “look” was not of anger, but of love for his friend.  Peter’s bitter tears were shed because he had hurt the love of his life, and the One he loved, loved him still.

Jesus hastens to assure them, who were bearing a sorrow so deep they could not speak, that, “It is better for you that I should go.”  The Lord connects his departure with the arrival of the Holy Spirit, the Advocate.  It was better for them that Jesus went, because by his Death he set them free from sin and opened for them the Kingdom of heaven.  This could not occur without his sacrificial Death.  His going away also provided great motivation for living according to his word so that they might be with him forever in heaven.  And with his Death, Resurrection, and Ascension into heaven, the era of the New Covenant begins: the Holy Spirit fills them and transforms them so that they might spread the Lord’s Gospel and accomplish his work on earth.

“When he comes he will convict the world in regard to sin and righteousness and condemnation.”  The Greek word ἐλέγχω (elégkho), translated here as “convict” also means “to expose” and “to reprove”.  It has also been translated, in this context, as “to convince”.  I think that here the word is better translated as “to expose”: he will expose the world in regard to sin and righteousness and condemnation.  It is not the work of the Holy Spirit to render judgment, to “convict” — that is for the Son at his Second Coming.  But it is the work of the Holy Spirit to enlighten the understanding and to inspire.  In that sense, when the Holy Spirit comes he will expose the world in all its depravity to all the followers of Jesus: they will know the truth of the false and fleeting pleasures the world offers so that they may reject them.  He will also expose righteousness, in that they will understand the purpose of the Son of God in coming among us, and for his Death and Rising.  And he will expose the defeat and punishment of the enemy of mankind, the devil.  Only with the Holy Spirit can these things be known, and only when the Lord dies and rises and leaves this world until the time when he comes again as its judge, can the Holy Spirit come.  Knowing these things will also enable them, indeed, spur them on, to preach to all the nations.  

The Father and the Son have bestowed the Holy Spirit upon us in Baptism and Confirmation to strengthen us in trial, to enlighten us as to the divine will, and the strength to bring the Gospel before all nations.  We have been given everything we need to imitate the love of the Apostles.