May 22, 2017

Gospel: Jn 15:26—16:4a
Jesus said to his disciples: ”From the Father, I will send you the Spirit of truth. When this Helper has come from the Father, he will be my witness, and you, too, will be my witnesses, for you have been with me from the beginning.
”I tell you all this to keep you from stumbling and falling away. They will put you out of the synagogue. Still more, the hour is coming, when anyone who kills you will claim to be serving God; they will do this, because they have not known the Father or me. I tell you all these things now so that, when the time comes, you may remember that I told you about them. I did not tell you about this in the beginning, because I was with you.”

REFLECTION:
He will not leave them behind with nothing. Thus Jesus promises the Holy Spirit to those whom He considers friends. They will not feel orphaned. This Spirit will be His and the Father‘s abiding presence in their hearts. This tells us a lot about the Holy Spirit, the one least known among the Persons in the Trinity. We get to know that the Spirit is a helper and a witness of the Godhead. The Spirit will not teach anything new but will deepen our understanding of the teachings of Jesus.
It is therefore funny how some sects used the Spirit as justification to their unusual teaching and appeals to the Holy Spirit to legitimize their presently made up beliefs. The Spirit is not a spirit of division. It does not seek to demolish what Jesus had already taught or even bring new teachings coming from its own. If we have the Spirit, following Jesus is easy. Because the Spirit is a witness of Jesus. It automatically recognizes Jesus‘ own.