HOLY SPIRIT: ADVOCATE OF OBEDIENCE, TRUTH, AND FREEDOM.
May 14, 2023.
Sixth Sunday of Easter – A.
“I will ask the Father, and he will give you another
Advocate to be with you always, the Spirit of truth…” John 14:16
A Danish proverb says: “Woe be to him whose advocate becomes
his accuser.” And an Albanian proverb adds: “A proof of faith is obedience.”
During these days preparing us for the Ascension of the Lord
and the feast of the Pentecost, the Liturgy put a special accent on the Holy
Spirit. Each word of God we will hear, says something about him and helps us to
discover him and to know him better.
Who is the Holy Spirit? Someone said that the Holy Spirit is
the less known and the less prayed person of the Divine Godhead, however, the
most active and most present of the three. From the Creation to the Redemption,
the Holy Spirit is at work, never absent, but always silent. The Father's voice
has often been heard. He spoke, and things came into being. The voice of the Son
is most known. He proclaimed the word and healed people through his words. But
the Holy Spirit is voiceless. He says nothing. Who then is he?
While we are in the times of the Lord's farewells to his
disciples, we hear many great instructions and promises. Among these promises,
is the Holy Spirit, the Advocate of obedience, truth, and freedom.
The Catechism says, "Because the Holy Spirit is the
anointing of Christ, it is Christ who, as the head of the Body, pours out the
Spirit among his members to nourish, heal, and organize them in their mutual
functions, to give them life, send them to bear witness and associate them to
his self-offering to the Father and to his intercession for the whole world.
Through the Church's sacraments, Christ communicates his Holy and sanctifying
Spirit to the members of his Body.” CCC 739
Three topics, obedience, truth, and freedom, constitute the
main theme of today's Eucharistic celebration, and the link between these three
topics is found in the promise of the Holy Spirit. He is the one who will open
us to total obedience to God's will, and by obeying, we will know and live in
the truth, and consequently, the truth will set us free.
The Lord Jesus, before departing from the sight of his
disciples, promised to send them the Holy Spirit, the Paraclete. As we are
preparing for the coming of this Paraclete, the readings, mostly the Gospel
tells us how we should make our preparation. The first step of that preparation
is to prove our love for the Lord through obedience, that is, by keeping his
commandments. The Holy Spirit is a gift from God through the Son. We cannot
receive that gift without firm and loving obedience. And that obedience becomes
an act of faith.
The second step for our preparation is to realize and
believe that we are not left alone, we are not orphans. The Christian life or
Christianity is not a religion of orphans. Faith in Jesus Christ does not
imprison the believers in an orphanage of incertitude and insecurity. Not only
has the Lord promised to be always with us, but moreover, he has promised to
send an Advocate, one whose mission is to be always by our side, never away,
never opposing us, but advising and leading us. The mission of the Holy Spirit,
the Lord says, is to lead us in the truth. For, he is the Spirit of truth. The
Spirit of truth: this term is also used at Qumran, where it is a moral force
put into a person by God, as opposed to the spirit of perversity.
In a world overflowing with perversion, fake news, and
falsehood, the coming of the Holy Spirit is decisive. He will set us free from
all the chains of sin, falsehood, fake news, hypocrisy, idolatry of the self
and material, and all kinds of worldliness that enslaves us. In the end, he
will lead us to perfect love of the Son and the Father, for he himself is the
perfection of love. Through the Holy Spirit, we will get to know who really is
the Son and who is the Father. The Lord says, "On that day you will
understand that I am in my Father..." and that will also reveal our own
identity as adoptive children of God. Through the work of the Holy Spirit, we
discover our divine filiation.
For that revelation to be effective, and for perfect
preparation for the coming of the Holy Spirit, we have some practical things to
do. That is what Paul invites us to, in the second reading. In one sentence, it
is about putting to death all worldliness and standing firm in our faith, hope,
and love. Dead with Christ, the Apostle says, we are raised with him to a new
life in the Spirit. We must, therefore, live keeping our conscience clear, free
from defamation, live in good conduct, and avoid all kinds of evil...
As Christians, we have already received the Holy Spirit at our Baptism. We should then live, bearing witness to his presence in us. Our actions, words, and thoughts should be those of spiritual people, for the Spirit lives and dwells in us. We witness the continual and perpetual presence of the Spirit of God in us through our actions and words. Therefore, all that we do should be marked with goodness, love, justice, truth. We cannot pretend have the Holy Spirit in us in live in falsehood. We cannot claim to be under the guidance of the Holy Spirit and promote death, injustice, or be instruments of corruption, gossip, fake news. The Holy Spirit is advocate of obedience, truth, justice, freedom, and love. Our lives should depict these values if he really dwells in us and is the one leading our lives. The Christians who are very given in gossiping, corruption, and any other form of injustice are possessed by an evil spirit, not the Holy Spirit. It is therefore time for them to think about being exorcised.
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