"If you love me, you will keep my commandments. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate, to be with you forever." From the Gospel according to John, the fourteenth chapter, verses 15 and 16.
In nomine Patris, et Filii, et Spiritus Sancti.
Here we have, in two sentences, a summary of the Christian life. Jesus connects love with the keeping of his commandments, and he promises that the Father will send us an Advocate, who will support us in this life of love. That is, we will not need to rely entirely on our own natural powers to live the life which Jesus commands. Jesus says, "You know him, because he abides with you, and he will be in you." The Spirit of God is in us, and we are in him. What we may call a double indwelling of ourselves in the Spirit, and the Spirit in us, makes the life of love possible.
It may seem odd to pair a life of love to a life of obedience to commands. But let us remember that the commands of Our Lord are really only two: to love God and neighbor, and to remember Jesus in the breaking of the bread. And that remembrance is not mere recollection, but is, as we believe, a celebration of the Lord's presence in the here and how. So we are surrounded by presence and infused with it, both by the indwelling of God's Spirit, and the living presence of the Son. It is the reality of this presence, both spiritual and Eucharistic, which makes the life of love possible. The life of love then is not merely one of submission to external commands, but a living out of the presence in us of the Spirit.
Jesus in today's Gospel gives the Spirit a name: the Spirit of Truth. And he distinguishes it from the world. As he says, "This is the Spirit of Truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him." In other words, rejection of the Spirit is always possible. There is no compulsion in Jesus's commandments. The presence of the Spirit in us and around us does not force himself on anyone. We need to want to see him and know him, before we can receive him. But, "You know him, and he will be in you." The disciples have the reassurance that comes from Jesus's physical presence, and he is saying that his presence will continue, even when he is physically absent.
"I will not leave you orphaned," Jesus says. We've all had the experience, one way or another, of the loss of a loved one, or some event which leaves us feeling abandoned. Jesus is saying that he will not abandon us as we live out the life which he has made possible. We will always have his presence, and the presence of the Spirit, to help us maintain the confidence that the disciples had when he was physically present.
"In a little while the world will no longer see me, but you will see me; because I live, you also will live." We realize that Jesus is foretelling his death and resurrection. But not only that, he is promising that his followers will share in his life; the idea of life as participation in the life of Jesus, and his participation in our lives, pervades John's Gospel. Life in this Gospel is not one of isolated, merely individual experience, but one of shared awareness of the Spirit-filled, resurrected life, in which we all have a part. Jesus says, "On that day, you will know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you." We are the Body of Christ, his presence in the world, and we are present in him. The Spirit of Truth makes this possible, makes it possible to keep Jesus's commandments, makes it possible to love God and neighbor, and to know the presence of Christ in us.
In nomine Patris, et Filii, et Spiritus Sancti. Amen.
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