This homily was given at the convent of the Holy Child Sisters, Oxford, United Kingdom
Readings of the day: Acts 16:22-34; Psalm 138:1-2ab, 2cde-3, 7c-8; John 16:5-11
Who is “the Advocate” whom Jesus promises us repeatedly in John’s Gospel, who has been the focus of our Gospel readings for the last few days, and who is again the focus of today’s reading from John?
Readings of the day: Acts 16:22-34; Psalm 138:1-2ab, 2cde-3, 7c-8; John 16:5-11
Who is “the Advocate” whom Jesus promises us repeatedly in John’s Gospel, who has been the focus of our Gospel readings for the last few days, and who is again the focus of today’s reading from John?
The easy answer is that
“the Advocate” is the Holy Spirit whom Jesus sent into our world when he
ascended to the Father. But then the Holy Spirit is a mysterious presence. We,
like Jesus’ disciples, often do not know what to make of the Holy Spirit. It is
unsurprising to me that, the more Jesus says to his disciples not to be saddened
at his death and at their own eventual suffering and death in Jesus’ name,
because he will send them “the Advocate,” the more saddened they become.
Jesus’ disciples do not
understand just who “the Advocate,” the Holy Spirit, is. And yet is our
understanding of who the Holy Spirit is any better than these first disciples?
Unlike their lives, ours are not threatened because of our faith, although many
Christians do face this threat of death even today. Nevertheless, the work of
Satan, “the ruler of this world” in the words of John’s Gospel, is still very
much felt in our world. Just this week, we have heard the news of four dead in
a shooting at the Jewish Museum in Brussels and seven more in Santa Barbara,
California. Violence and war continue in Ukraine, in Syria, and elsewhere. Who
then is this “Advocate” promised us by Jesus, and where is the Holy Spirit amid
this continued evil?
In answering this question, it
may help us to consider how Jesus depicts “the Advocate” in today’s Gospel
reading. Let us imagine a great trial in a courtroom. “The Advocate” or the
Paraclete (closer to the word used here in John’s Greek for the Holy Spirit) is
literally “the one who calls from beside” us. We are on trial for our sin; the
sin of the world, yet the Holy Spirit is our marquee defence lawyer!
Opposite
the Holy Spirit is the devil, whom John presents as a diabolical[1]
(again in the literal sense of this word; no offense to lawyers in general) prosecuting
attorney, or the one who “throws across” accusations against the defendant. But
an amazing event happens at this trial: We are not put on trial; the devil is.
With the Holy Spirit, our Advocate, defending; encouraging; consoling us, Satan
is condemned before the trial even begins.
On the one hand, Satan will continue
to make his presence felt for a time, since this great trial is still going on
in order to “convict the world,” as John says, of “sin and righteousness and
condemnation.”
On the other hand, let us take
heart that we know from Jesus Christ the outcome of this trial before it ends: We
are sinners but will be acquitted because we are defended by the best; “the
Advocate”; the Holy Spirit. The devil will be condemned in only a matter of
time. God is our righteousness and ultimately the salvation of the world.
[1] The devil here is the “diabolos” in Greek,
from dia-, across, and -bollein, to throw, so to throw across an argument as in
a court of law; to accuse. Elsewhere in the New Testament (as in Rev 12:10),
the devil is sometimes called “the accuser” in English whereas the Greek word
is the same, “diabolos.” The Holy Spirit is the "Paraclete," from the verb "parakalein," to call (-kalein) from beside (para-), so to console, defend, or encourage. While I would not normally engage in such academic
word parsing in a homily, I do here only because this homily in part derives
from a scholarly conversation I had with one of the Holy Child Sisters with
whom I am staying during my current visit to Oxford.
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