Monday in the Sixth Week of Easter, May 15, 2023

John 15, 26; 16, 4

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.”

The Lord Jesus pronounces the great mystery of the Holy Trinity in these words: “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.”  The Father begets the Son, and the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father (and the Son).  Three distinct Persons equal in power and majesty who exist in a unity so profound that they are one God.  The ecstasy of heaven will consist for us of beholding the magnificence of this unity in which love is out-poured relentlessly, and in experiencing this love and being part of this unity ourselves, for the saints remain members of the Body of Christ in heaven.

“He will testify to me.”  The Holy Spirit does far more than remind us of Jesus from time to time but causes his memory to abide in us in such a way that we imitate him in our lives.  He makes us aware of the Lord’s presence in us and helps us to understand his words and deeds as recorded in the Scriptures, to apply them to our daily behavior, and to know his will for us now.  “And you also testify, because you have been with me from the beginning.”  The Holy Spirit, through these means enables us to testify to the Lord Jesus to others through our works and words.  Just as the Holy Spirit convinces us of Jesus and makes us aware of Jesus so that we can know him, so we help others to learn of him and come to know him.  As the Holy Spirit is sent, so we are sent.

“I have told you this so that you may not fall away.”  Our understanding of ourselves as greater than mere receptacles of faith but as transmitters of faith helps us to persevere in it.  The Faith is alive, it is vibrant, and it must be shared.  “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.”  The Jewish leaders did this to those who professed Christ, essentially ostracizing them from the communities of their families, towns, and cities.  To be put out of the synagogue meant that you would no longer have customers for your trade.  In many cases, people’s homes were confiscated.  Not long afterwards, the Jewish authorities were arresting and killing those who had converted.  “They will do this because they have not known either the Father or me.”  The Lord reassures the Apostles that they will be persecuted by the authorities they revered from their youth, but that these authorities in fact did not serve God.  They did not “know” God, which is to say that they merely acted out of their own motives.  “I have told you this so that when their hour comes you may remember that I told you.”  Throughout the Gospels, the Lord advised his disciples that they would be persecuted by those committed to evil, and he counseled them that they were not to think that they were not in the wrong, but rather suffering as he, the Lord, had suffered.  “Their hour”, the brief time in which the wicked shall persecute the faithful, thereby strengthening their faith.  “But this is your hour and the power of darkness”, as the Lord said to the chief priests.  But their hour was indeed brief for the Lord rose three days later.