OK, you’re a disciple of Jesus; what on earth is going
through your mind as he says all this!
Are you still on the emotional, intellectual and spiritual
rollercoaster that has been associated with a whirlwind of ministry, the
perceived disaster of the Passover and the joy of the Resurrection? Are you
still coming to terms with the truly risen Christ? Is there still doubt?
Or are you like a petulant youth: kicked and screamed
against Truth and Knowledge, fought to have an independent view on the matter,
rejected that which is before your very eyes, been wrapped in an exhaustion of
emotion, but finally succumbed and become docile to the message that Jesus
imparts?
And it is that acceptance of what Jesus is saying, not
without intrigue but without excessive doubtful scrutiny, that brings you to
spiritual maturity. It is that moment where you can be moulded and shaped into
what you were always going to be: an evangelist for the Lord, one who will know
within one’s heart the Truth of the love of Christ, the power of the
resurrection and the means to salvation. One who is open to the coming of the
Spirit who will transform into the friend of Jesus, the brother or sister of
Christ, the son or daughter of the Father.
It is like our own faith journey. I am sure we can all
associate with some, if not all, of the rollercoaster journey that the
disciples have been on, and we may at this moment be going at one hundred miles
an hour upside down and back to front, but we can take great joy in the
knowledge that the disciples experienced all of this in the presence of Jesus,
but without the coming of the Holy Spirit.
We have the Spirit, the Advocate, the one through whom we
can say with faith, “Abba, Father”. So let us rejoice in the presence of the
Spirit, let us be open to its power and let’s embrace the message of Christ,
because we need to show the world how wrong it still remains about sin, about
the divinity of Jesus as the Christ and about him as the means of salvation.
Come Holy Spirit.
Gospel John 16:5-11 ©
Jesus said to his disciples:
‘Now I am going to the one who sent me.
Not one of you has asked, “Where are you going?”
Yet you are sad at heart because I have told you this.
Still, I must tell you the truth:
it is for your own good that I am going
because unless I go,
the Advocate will not come to you;
but if I do go,
I will send him to you.
And when he comes,
he will show the world how wrong it was,
about sin,
and about who was in the right,
and about judgement:
about sin: proved by their refusal to believe in me;
about who was in the right: proved by my going to the Father
and your seeing me no more;
about judgement: proved by the prince of this world being
already condemned.’